By KEVIN CHIRI

Editor and Publisher

LAPLACE – Melba Perez-Berguno believes everyone is given a chance to shine.

No matter your situation, your job or your personal circumstances, the opportunity to help others and do something good will be presented to everyone, Berguno said.

The way Berguno has responded to that challenge as a social worker at River Parishes Hospital was apparently noticed in a big way, as she was named the 2008 Mercy Award winner.

The honor is the highest recognition an employee of a LifePoint hospital can win, and now qualifies her for the LifePoint Hospital’s 2008 company-wide Mercy Award.

As the hospital’s Mercy Award winner, she received a $500 cash prize, and if selected as LifePoint’s Mercy Award winner on the national level, she will be honored in June at the board conference in Chicago.

Berguno has been at River Parishes Hospital for five years, but has worked in health care as a social worker since 1977.

Now a social worker case manager for RPH, she sees the position as her calling from God to provide service to others.

“The work I do is really my service to other people in need,” she explained. “I’ve always been on a positive end of things, and I have always tried to do for others either at work or not.”

Berguno and her family have had their share of family hardships in recent years, including serious health conditions and personal ordeals. Part of that included the Hurricane Katrina impact as one of the people in Southeast Louisiana. But even in the midst of her own challenges, which included she and her husband both surviving cancer, she didn’t back down from an opportunity to help.

Once shortly after the hurricane when someone came knocking on her door seeking help, she opened her home to the person, knowing she needed to help.

“No matter what you do, it must always be your best in responding to help others,” she said.

Not only does she have a positive attitude of helping on her job at the hospital, but she works as a “Reach to Recovery” volunteer with the American Cancer Society, is active with the Cub Scouts, works as a volunteer with the Auxiliary of Gideon’s International to distribute Bibles, works in the student ministry at her church First Baptist of LaPlace, and even tutors others in Spanish.

Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, she came to New Orleans 26 years ago, and has worked at the Veteran’s Administration centers in New Orleans and at East Jefferson before accepting the position at the LaPlace hospital.

As for winning the honor, she said she was shocked upon being informed.

“I was literally speechless,” she said. “This is such a humbling honor. It’s very special. But I think every person can be deserving of this award because we are all given opportunities to give of ourselves. It’s up to how we choose to respond to these opportunities.”

Scott Mercy was the person the award was named for, as he was the founding chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LifePoint, but one year after LifePoint’s spin-off from HCA, Mercy lost his life while learning to fly an airplane. His spirit carries on in the employees who embrace his philosophies of balancing family and career, staying healthy, getting involved in worthy causes and giving back wherever you can.

Kat Trepagnier, HR director and coordinator for the Mercy Award at RPH, said “just by the few things we at RPH know you’ve been through, God has shown us your strength. You are truly the epitome of what Scott Mercy stood for.”