Community Grieves Nurse Practitioner Lost in Tragic Commute Accident
- Nurse Practitioner Maria Lazo-Hannecart died after a tree fell on her car while driving to work.
- An emergency room NP at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia, Lazo-Hannecart leaves behind three children and a loving husband.
- A volunteer with Doctors Without Borders, Lazo-Hannecart, volunteered in Haiti, Senegal, and Congo during an Ebola outbreak.
- She obtained her New York certification and worked in telemedicine to help the backlog of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: Maria Lazo-Hannecart
Maria Camela Lazo-Hannecart, 44, an emergency medicine nurse practitioner at Penn Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, passed away tragically after a tree fell on her car. On October 30th, Lazo-Hannecart was commuting to work when a large tree fell on her car. She was travelling along School House Lane in East Falls and was killed instantly.
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A Life Dedicated to Helping Others
Source: GoFundMe
Lazo-Hannecart was remembered for her desire and willingness to help patients not only in the Philadelphia region but around the world. A volunteer with Doctors Without Borders, volunteered in Haiti, Senegal, and the Congo. She travelled to help the Congolese people during an Ebola outbreak after accepting a volunteer nurse supervisor position at a sleeping sickness mission. It was there that she met her husband, Pierre.
"She grabbed my hand on the back and she held it ever since -- until last Wednesday," Pierre said.
Maria Lazo-Hannecart's Nursing Career
Born in Manila, Philippines, Lazo-Hannecart emigrated to the United States when she was 10 years old. After graduating from Ursinus College with an MS in Biology, she worked for biopharmaceutical companies such as GSK. She then transitioned into nursing after being awarded a full scholarship from Thomas Jefferson University for the one-year accelerated BSM-MSN Family NP Program.
Dual-board certified, Lazo-Hannecart graduated in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania with a post-master’s certificate in acute care adult gerontology NP. Before becoming an NP, Lazo-Hannecart started as a staff nurse in the step-down surgical ICU in 2007 at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital to gain experience.
Proficient in French and Tagalog, Lazo-Hannecart wore many hats as a healthcare worker. In addition to her full-time job in the ER, she also worked a telemedicine position part-time during the COVID-19 pandemic in NY to help with the backlog of patients needing to be seen, as a volunteer research coordinator for a start-up biotech company in Baltimore, and part-time at an infusion center as a biologic infusion NP.
A Family Devastated
Lazo-Hannecart leaves behind three children, Ethan, Noemie, and Tristan (ages 3, 7, and 9). Pierre told them a few hours after he was notified of her passing. "I put them next to each other. I told them, 'What I'm going to tell you is going to change your life forever," he said. "They all cried at the same time, and we all hugged each other."
The family has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help with the unexpected funeral costs and to support the children.
According to the family, anyone who knew Lazo-Hannecart was changed for the better ,and Pierre hopes others will remember her that way. "Say the truth. Be compassionate and honest," he said. "This is what I would say because this is who she was, and this is how she has to be remembered."
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