ER nurse at Wyckoff Heights honored by Hugh Jackman

March 10, 2021 Raanan Geberer

Alina Jackson, emergency room nurse at Wyckoff Heights medical center. Photo courtesy of Rogoff PR

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An emergency-room nurse at a Brooklyn hospital was honored both by award-winning Australian actor Hugh Jackman, best known for playing Wolverine in TV’s “X-Men” series; and celebrity pediatrician Dr. Harvey Karp, author of “The Happiest Baby on the Block.”

The nurse, Alina Jackson, works at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick, and there are many examples of her dedication through the pandemic. When the pandemic began, she was in the final semester of her nurse practitioner program, working overtime and studying for finals.

She is now six months pregnant, but during the recent snowstorm, she worked all day Monday, then volunteered to work overnight, according to her husband, Aaron.

Aaron Jackson found out that Hugh Jackman, who is also known for starting roles in films such as “Kate & Leopold,” the film version of “Les Miserables” and the musical “The Greatest Showman,” is telling followers on Instagram that he’s giving out loaves of his own home-baked sourdough bread to front-line workers who have distinguished themselves by helping others during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s a hobby — he started bakes it for himself (and doesn’t make the bread commercially available) during the pandemic,” said Alina Jackson.

Answering Jackman’s call for COVID heroes on his Jackman’s Instagram account, Aaron Jackson, nominating his wife, said, “She’s the hardest working nurse in New York City. She’s also eating for two (due to her pregnancy) absolutely love your bread. I’m sure of it.”

Nurse Jackson said that Jackman and his wife, Deborra Lee-Furness, came to the couple’s home in Tribeca, Manhattan, on Feb. 5. “The bread was still warm when he brought it,” she said. “It was a humbling experience, that an A-list celebrity was so down to earth.

“He’s still doing it [awarding loaves of sourdough bread] for other healthcare workers,” she added.

That wasn’t all, however, Dr. Karp, whose celebrity patients have included Michelle Pfeiffer, Serena Williams, Pierce Brosnan and Madonna, heard about the gift, and decided to honor Nurse Jackson himself. He made arrangements to give her of his SNOO Smart Sleeper Bassinets, which normally retail upward of $1,400, and to give several others to her hospital. “I wanted one before he even decided to give me one,” she said.

Describing Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, she said it serves, in part, an impoverished community that includes many immigrants, some of them undocumented.