From left: Nassau County Executive Laura Curran (D), Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) and former Congressman Steve Israel. Photo from Bellone’s office
For the first time, Suffolk County has fallen below the three-day rolling average for new hospitalizations mandated for economic reopening yesterday, starting a clock that, if the pattern holds, could allow the county reach another metric by May 25.
The three-day average for new hospitalizations for Suffolk County, which is based on the total population, is 30.
“It’s a good thing to say we have met that decline in new hospitalizations for a three-day rolling average,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily call with reporters.
At the same time, the number of people in the Intensive Care Unit dropped by two, to 214, which is “another piece of good news,” Bellone said.
Still, the overall numbers aren’t all positive.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 increased by 10 for the 24-hour period ending yesterday, bringing the total hospitalizations to 585.
Additionally, the number of new positive tests over the last day rose by 243, bringing the total, excluding antibody testing, to 37,305.
Hospital capacity remains close to the 70 percent level mandated for economic reopening. The number of available beds is 894 out of a total of 2,965 beds. The number of ICU beds, meanwhile, was 199 out of a total of 602, which exceeds the 30 percent availability necessary.
Four upstate regions have been cleared to begin the reopening process starting May 15, after Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s New York Pause order is set to end. At the same time, all of Long Island, including both Nassau and Suffolk counties, will be considered one for understanding when it will reopen.
At the same time, the county is aiming to have additional bed capacity, as hospitals hope to start offering elective surgeries again for residents who have put off procedures for weeks or even months.
The number of people who died in the last day was 26, bringing the total to 1,680.
“We are with you as you grieve this terrible loss,” Bellone said.
Amid hotspot testing, 1,595 people have tested positive for COVID-19 out of 4,386 results, bringing the infection rate to 36.4 percent of the total tests.
Bellone’s office distributed another 220,000 pieces of personal protective equipment yesterday, mostly to nursing home and adult care facilities.
Separately, Bellone invited veterans to a town hall scheduled for this evening at 5:30 p.m. Those interested in attending virtually can access the town hall at facebook.com/SteveBellone.
Finally, on Friday, the 106th Rescue Wing of the Air National Guard will salute health care workers with a flyover that starts in Riverhead at 12:15 pm, travels over several hospitals, and ends at 1 p.m. at Jones Beach.
The exterior of Stony Brook Children's Hospital. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine
COVID-19, which was considered especially threatening to the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions, may also have triggered an inflammatory illness that is sickening children in several places throughout the world, including in Suffolk County.
An inflammatory illness in children with symptoms that mimic Kawasaki disease has sickened seven in Suffolk County and officials are expecting more cases of the rare condition here and throughout the country.
Stony Brook Pediatric Hospital has admitted two cases of the multi-inflammatory pediatric condition, for residents who are 10 and 19 years old.
With other hospitals showing rare but similar unusual pediatric cases, including in the United Kingdom and New York City, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing to release an alert about the inflammatory condition, a CDC spokesman told CNN.
Symptoms of the new illness include an extended fever, a rash, red eyes, red lips, a strawberry tongue, lower blood pressure and abdominal symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea.
Stony Brook, Pediatric Hospital has been “treating patients like we would treat and approach Kawasaki Disease,” said Christy Beneri, the Fellowship Program Director in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. The hospital has provided intravenous immunoglobulin, a high dose of aspirin and steroids to decrease inflammation and other medications to help suppress the inflammatory syndrome.
This rare inflammatory process in children has developed weeks after a likely mild or asymptomatic case of COVID-19 in mostly healthy younger patients.
Patients can develop symptoms from “days to weeks” after an infection with the virus that has caused the pandemic, Beneri said. The majority of people with this inflammatory reaction are either testing positive for COVID-19 when they come to the hospital or have a positive antibody test, which indicates their immune systems mounted a defense against the virus, Beneri added.
It is unclear to doctors what is causing the progression from a manageable response to the virus to an inflammation that may require a trip to the hospital and to the Intensive Care Unit.
“We are trying to understand how the coronavirus is causing vasculitis,” Beneri said. “It has something to do with how the virus is affecting blood vessels and organs.”
To be sure, Beneri reassured children and their parents that most of the children who are infected with Covid-19 will not develop these inflammatory symptoms later.
“The majority will do well,” Beneri said.
Nonetheless, Beneri anticipated that more pediatric residents in Suffolk County would likely show signs of this inflammatory response.
“If their child is having fever for a number of days, significant vomiting or diarrhea, belly pain, red eyes or a rash, it is important that they speak with their doctor,” Beneri said.
One of the reasons Suffolk County is seeing some cases of this Kawasaki-like response in children now, weeks after the pandemic infected thousands in the area, likely relates to the timing of the peak infections, which occurred in the middle of April.
Based on conversations Beneri has had with other pediatricians who are treating patients with similar symptoms, she said the patients tend to be “healthy kids” who have often had a contact with someone in their house who was recently diagnosed with COVID-19.
The child may have brought the virus into the home and passed it along to a parent, who became sick. The child, however, later develops these multiple-symptom inflammatory issues.
While some children have died from this condition, Beneri said the majority of them are recovering.
The duration of hospital stays has varied, with some patients requiring 10 days in the hospital, while others have recovered within a few days. Beneri said Stony Brook has already sent one patient home.
Beneri added Nassau County has also had several teenage patients come in with the same symptoms. She expects more Suffolk pediatric patients with similar symptoms to come to county hospitals.
Parents should be on the lookout, primarily, for persistent fevers over the course of several days with significant abdominal pain, Beneri said. “If they start developing other symptoms, such as red eyes and a rash and they are not getting better” then parents should contact their doctor or a hospital, Beneri advised.
While public health officials initially expressed concerns for the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Suffolk County has started to see an increasing number of cases of what’s known as Kawasaki disease.
In the county, seven children are currently hospitalized with a disease that doctors believe is linked to COVID-19. One child has died from this disease, which causes inflammation that can require medical attention. Children in Europe and the U.S. including in San Francisco, have exhibited symptoms of this disease.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said today the condition has impacted 100 people and has killed three. Kawasaki disease, also known as pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome, affects children mostly between ages 5 to 14, though it has affected some children younger than that.
The pandemic “does impact kids directly,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters. Although the county, like New York City which has several cases and deaths as well, “doesn’t completely understand it at this point.” Bellone urged children to wear face masks and practice social distancing in the same way as their parents and grandparents.
“We’ve known from the beginning that kids transmit the virus,” Bellone said. “This is all about protecting everyone as we try to restart our economy.”
In the last day, the number of new positive tests for COVID-19 increased by 150 to 37,062. Those numbers are about 10 percent of the new daily total just a few weeks ago.
Through yesterday, the number of residents hospitalized decreased by 15 to 575, which is “another real indication of the progress we are making.”
The number of people in Intensive Care Units fell by six to 216.
Of the 2,973 hospital beds in the county, 918 are available, while 209 ICU beds are available among the 619 in the county.
Amid a death toll that has risen by another 15 in the last day, bringing the total on Long Island to 1,654, the Association of Mental Health and Wellness is offering bereavement support groups online, starting next Tuesday.
“For those who have lost loved ones, friends, family members, this is there for you,” Bellone said. There are different categories of support groups for grieving adults, peer bereavement, veterans groups and a creative arts bereavement group.
Those interested in these support groups can sign up or register through bereavement.mhaw.org.
At locations in Shirley and Selden, Rite Aid will provide free COVID-19 testing to anyone who is over 18. Interested residents need to pre-register and have identification through the web site riteaid.com.
A month ago yesterday, the number of people hospitalized in Suffolk County with COVID-19 was at a staggering 1,658, prompting the rapid-fire build up of a hospital extension at Stony Brook.
Yesterday, after further declines in hospitalizations throughout the county, the number of people hospitalized with a virus that has disrupted life across the county and the planet, was 590, which represents a 64 percent decline from the peak a month earlier.
Over the weekend, the total number of residents hospitalized fell by 113, while the number of people in the Intensive Care Units declined by 36, bringing the total number in the ICU to 222.
The number of people discharged from the hospital continued to fall, with 70 leaving discharged on Saturday and 83 leaving the hospitals on Sunday.
Capacity for hospital beds and ICU beds both were around the targeted 70 percent, which means that Suffolk County has met four out of the seven criteria for a phased economic reopening. This is better than a week ago, when the county only met two.
The three criteria the county still hasn’t met include hiring an additional 400 to 450 contact tracers, a reduction in hospital deaths and a reduction to 30 or below in the number of new hospitalizations.
County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters that the last of those, the number of new hospitalizations, is the one he’s most concerned about meeting to reopen the economy.
Over the last 24 hours, the number of people who have tested positive for the virus, excluding the antibody testing, was 209, bringing the number who have tested positive through non-antibody screening to 36,911.
Excluding the antibody test, which screens for the presence of immune cells residents presumably formed to fight off a virus they may not know they had, positive tests in the last day represent just over 10 percent of the total testing.
“That is significantly lower than we’ve seen in the past,” Bellone said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today several upstate regions will be able to begin opening their economies after May 15, when the New York Pause executive order is set to end. Each county is in charge of establishing its own phases for reopening when the time comes.
The virus continues to take the lives of Suffolk County residents, with an additional 22 people losing their battle over the last day, bringing the total to 1,639.
A new dashboard is available to check what criteria Suffolk has made toward its reopening initiatives.
On Wednesday, Bellone will conduct a second Facebook live town hall for veterans. This time, he join Suffolk County Legislator Susan Berland (D-Dix Hills) and former National Football League player and current Jets analyst Marty Lyons.
Through the Marty Lyons Foundation, the group has delivered over 7,900 wishes to sick children since its founding.
Centre ValBio staff members distribute face masks to the Malagasy people.
By Daniel Dunaief
Long Islanders are pitching in to protect the people of Madagascar, called the Malagasy, from COVID-19. They are also trying to ensure the survival of the endangered lemurs that have become an important local attraction and a central driver of the economy around Ranomofana National Park.
Patricia Wright, a Distinguished Service Professor at Stony Brook University and founder and executive director of the research station Centre ValBio (CVB), is working with BeLocal to coordinate the creation and distribution of masks. They have also donated soap, created hand washing stations at the local market, and encouraged social distancing.
BeLocal, an organization founded by Laurel Hollow residents Mickie and Jeff Nagel, along with Jeff’s Carnegie Mellon roommate Eric Bergerson, is working with CVB to fund and support the creation of 200 to 250 masks per day. BeLocal also purchased over 1,800 bars of soap that they are distributing at hand washing stations.
Wildlife artist Jessie Jordan is volunteering her time to help the Malagasy people.
All administrators for regional government in the national park area near CVB, which is in the southeastern part of the island nation, have received masks. The groups have also given them to restaurant owners and anybody that handles food, including vendors in the market.
At the same time, CVB has received permission to become a testing site for people who might have contracted COVID-19. At this point, Wright is still hoping to raise enough money to buy a polymerase chain reaction machine, which would enable CVB to perform as many as 96 tests each day.
The non-governmental organization PIVOT, which was founded by Jim and Robin Hernstein, has also helped create screening stations to test residents for fever and other symptoms of the virus. As for the masks, BeLocal and CVB are supporting the efforts of seamstresses, who are working 7 days a week.
Jessie Jordan, a wildlife artist based in Madagascar who has been living at CVB for several weeks amid limited opportunities to return to the United States, has been “busy collaborating with local authorities and contributing masks, soap and hand washing stations to the community.”
At this point, Jordan said people were concerned about the economy, but not as afraid of the virus. “The local health centers are less busy right now because of confinement measures and people are scared of testing positive,” she explained in an email.
The Malagasy who benefit from the national park economically through tours and the sale of local artwork have suffered financially. Social distancing in the cities is “nearly impossible,” while Jordan said she has heard that some people in the countryside don’t have access to TV or radio and are not aware of the situation.
As of last week, Madagascar had 132 confirmed positive cases of the virus. Through contact tracing, the government determined that three people brought COVID-19 to the nation when they arrived on different planes. The country had 10 ventilators earlier this month for a population that is well over 23 million.
BeLocal researched the best material to create masks that would protect people who worked in the villages around Ranomafana. “We researched templates and materials and worked together with CVB to choose the best material that would be available,” Leila Esmailzada, the Executive Director of BeLocal, explained in an email.
BeLocal organized a team that reached out to Chris Coulter, who had started making soap several years ago. Coulter has worked with local officials to make soap.
“We knew Coulter from a few years ago” from an effort called the Madagascar Soap Initiative to get soap into every home and make it accessible, explained Mickie Nagel, the Executive Director of BeLocal. “We hope the people making it right now will consider turning this into a business.” Before Madagascar instituted restrictions on travel, BeLocal and CVB had purchased several sewing machines.
Representatives from BeLocal and CVB have been conducting hand washing and social distance education efforts to encourage practices that will limit the spread of COVID-19.Government officials have also shared instructions on the radio and TV, Wright said. When the mayor of Ranomofana Victor Ramiandrisoa has meetings, everybody stands at least six feet apart.
CVB has produced picture drawings in Malagasy that are plastered on the sides of cars that describe hand washing procedures and social distancing. “We also have educational signs in the post offices, restaurants and in the mayor’s offices that we paid for,” Wright explained. She said the government, CVB and BeLocal are all educating people about practices that can limit the spread of the deadly virus.
“Organizations in Ranofamana are collaborating with the local government on efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” Esmailzada wrote. “The local government recently began conducting PSA’s along the road and in main markets about hand washing, mask wearing and social distancing and CVB staff are leading by example.”
As for the lemurs Wright, whose work was the subject of the Imax film “Island of Lemurs: Madagascar,” said the country has taken critical steps to protect these primates.
“The government of Madagascar is assuming the worst and is not allowing anybody into the park,” Wright said. The president of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina, has closed national parks to protect the lemurs, Wright said.
The lemurs have the support of conservation leader Jonah Ratsimbazafy, who earned his PhD while working with Wright at Stony Brook University. Ratsimbazafy is one of the founding members of the Groupe d’Etude et de Research sur les Primates, which is a community based conservation organization that protects lemurs.
Wright and others are concerned the virus may spread to lemurs. Several lemurs species have the angiotensin converting enzyme, or ACE2, that forms the primary point of attachment for the virus in humans.
Indeed, scientists around the world are working to find those species which might be vulnerable to the virus. According to recent research preprinted in bioRxiv from a multi-national effort led by scientists at the University of California in Davis, several species of lemur have high overlap in their ACE2 inhibitors. This includes the endangered aye-aye lemur, which is the world’s largest nocturnal primate, and the critically endangered indri and sifaka.
“We are worried that lemurs might get the virus,” Wright said.
Memorial Day Celebrated in Northport in 2018. County Executive Bellone said he is requesting flags be able to be placed on graves to celebrate fallen servicemembers. File photo by Karen Forman
In a year when a world by a pandemic still attempts to acknowledge historical landmarks like the 75th anniversary of the Allied victory over Europe in World War II, County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said he strongly believes that Suffolk County’s volunteers can and should be able to place flags on the graves of those who served the country in the military.
“We are asking that there not be a blanket policy, that [the Under Secretary for Veterans Affairs] allow the national cemeteries to make the determination at the local level,” Bellone said on his daily conference call with reporters.
Bellone said he firmly believes the county can figure out how to place those flags safely. Further, he suggested that “we will put in the effort to make this work. This matters to us here.”
As for the update figures on the virus, the county executive reported that an additional 870 people tested positive for COVID-19, which brings the total to 41,353.
As of yesterday, the number of hospitalizations decreased by 16 to 703, which is “good news,” Bellone said, with the number of people in Intensive Care Unit beds declining by 43 to 258.
“That is a great number,” Bellone added. “That’s a number we’re happy to see go down significantly.”
At the same time, however, the virus continues to claim the lives of more residents of Suffolk County. In the last day, an additional 29 people died from complications related to coronavirus, which brings the total to 1,597.
“To all of those who have lost loved ones to this virus, we are thinking of you and we are with you in Suffolk County,” Bellone said.
Bellone’s office distributed 51,000 pieces of personal protective equipment yesterday.
Small primates on an island nation off the southeastern coast of the African continent need about a million dollars.
That’s how much it might take to keep Ranofamana National Park, where Centre ValBio is located, afloat financially until people develop a vaccine.
Patricia Wright, who founded CVB, has spent the last 36 years studying a wide range of lemurs, even as she has integrated her efforts into the life of the Malagasy.
While she won conservation awards in the United States, including the 2014 Indianapolis Prize for Conservation from the Indianapolis Zoo, Wright has also won three medals of honor from the government of Madagascar as she has taken steps to improve the economic and physical health of the people who live around Ranomofana.
Now, with tourists who might be carriers of COVID-19 excluded from the national parks, lemur conservation, the tour guides who provide colorful commentary about the world-renowned primates, and the artists who provide local flavor and collectibles for visitors are all under duress.
The tour guides are “local residents and are incredible,” Wright said. “They are locally trained.” Indeed, many of those who share the natural riches of the region used to be loggers when they were younger.
“We’re talking about people and about critically endangered lemurs,” she added.
Wright often highlights the positive feedback loop between conservation and the local economy, which has created job opportunities even as it has enabled the country to attract tourists from around the world who celebrate the land of the lemur.
Building on her experience with delivering medicine to people around the national park, Wright plans to bring a polymerase chain reaction machine to Centre ValBio to test people for COVID-19.
Wright is seeking financial support from those who would like to ensure that the sifaka lemur, named after the “shi-fa” alarm call it makes when it feels threatened; the aye-aye lemur, which is the largest nocturnal primate in the world; and the indri lemur outlast the devastating effects of a virus that threatens the lives of people throughout the world.
Someday, when the smoke has cleared and people can look at what’s left in the world, Wright hopes Ranomafana Park and its lemurs are not only one of the survivors, but are also a rare, ecological site that calls to visitors from all over the world eager to celebrate the cultural richness of the Malagasy as well as the lemurs and other rare creates calling to each other from the rainforest.
Those interested in donating to this effort may visit the CVB web site at Welcome to Centre ValBio at Stony Brook University.
Stony Brook University's COVID-19 testing site. Photo by Matthew Niegocki
With 694 more people testing positive for the coronavirus, the number of confirmed cases in Suffolk County is now 40,483.
In the Suffolk County hotspot testing sites, the number of positive tests was 1,320 out of 3,412 total tests.
The percentage of positive tests at these hotspots is 38.7, compared with 33 percent for the county as a whole.
Antibody testing for law enforcement continues, with 1,581 law enforcement officers tested by Northwell Health and New York State so far.
The number of people who have died from complications related to coronavirus increased by 21 in the last day, bringing the total to 1,568 for Suffolk County. As of yesterday, the deaths from the virus exceed the number of people killed over 100 years ago aboard the Titanic. The staggering number represents what will likely be a turning point for the county, let alone the entire country which topped 77,000 deaths.
County Executive Steve Bellone’s (D) office distributed another 163,000 pieces of personal protective equipment yesterday, bringing the total number of such life-saving items to over four million since the crisis began in March.
Bellone didn’t have the closely watched hospitalization information today because the reporting system was down.
Separately, Bellone said the county was able to honor the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
“Today, we would normally be bringing together our veterans and particularly our World War II veterans to honor them and thank them for what they did for our nation,” said Bellone during his daily call with reporters.
A group including Suffolk County Chief of Police Stuart Cameron and Suffolk County Veterans Services Agency Director Thomas Ronayne raised an American flag above Armed Forces Plaza today. The group saluted the flag and then brought it to the state veteran’s home.
That home has been hit especially hard by the pandemic. As of May 5, the home reported 65 residents have passed away due to the coronavirus. Additionally, 68 residents have tested positive, where out of those four are receiving treatment at neighboring Stony Brook University Hospital. 30 of those veterans are in the post-COVID recovery phase.
Bellone said the county also celebrated the graduation of 70 members of the police academy. While the ceremony was different than it otherwise would have been prior to the pandemic, the event, which was broadcast on Facebook, was watched by more than 25,000 people.
“Their willingness to step forward at any given moment to risk their lives for strangers is an extraordinary thing,” Bellone said. “We thanked them and their family members.”
Separately, as for the national and local elections coming this November, Bellone said he hopes the bipartisan cooperation that has characterized the response in Suffolk County and New York will continue.
“I don’t know if we’re going to see that on a national level [but] at the local level, we are working together in ways we haven’t in many years, maybe not since 9/11,” Bellone said. “That’s what we should do.”
Bellone suggested the county didn’t have “time to spare to worry about partisan nonsense.”
He pointed out how he and Comptroller John M. Kennedy Jr. (R), who ran against Bellone to become county executive, have been “working closely together to address issues here. I’m hopeful that will continue.”
Stony Brook Closes Satellite ER
Stony Brook University is closing the emergency room field satellite in the South P Lot amid a decline in the number of patients.
The hospital will keep equipment inside the tents in case of future need. The health care workers who had been staffing the field site will return to the hospital.
Stony Brook had seen approximately 2,600 patients at the coronavirus triage sites.
The drive-through testing site in the South P Lot will remain open. That site has tested 27,515 patients.
Residents who would like a test need to make appointments in advance, by calling 888-364-3065. The site is open seven days a week, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Stony Brook University Hospital’s Team Lavender, and a Staff Support Team, delivered care packages to the employees at the Long Island State Veterans Home. The team put together 170 containers filled with donated items from the community including gum, chapsticks, drinks and snacks. They also included trays of home-baked goods, crocheted ear savers, and masks made by a veteran.
Team Lavender volunteers include doctors, nurses, social workers, patient advocates, chaplains, a faculty and staff care team, employee assistance program and employee health program. The team provides emotional, spiritual and psychological support for faculty and staff after an adverse or unexpected event.
Team Lavender completed a successful pilot during the last year in the NICU and maternity units. Team Lavender has worked together with the Staff Support Team to provide hospital wide support. Their efforts, previously performed in-person, are now available virtually for faculty and staff.
Derek has eaten more pizza in the past six weeks than he has in the previous three years. Heather feels like an insect, trapped late in the night in the electric glow of her screen. Steve drinks too much Coke Zero and Eliene stays up way too late and wears the same pants too often.
In response to email questions, several Long Islanders shared their healthiest and least healthy habits during the lockdown.
Derek Poppe, who is a spokesman for County Executive Steve Bellone (D), has been able to work off some of the pizza he’s eating at lunch by running outside, which he started doing after the gym he has attended for seven years closed seven weeks ago.
“I have also tried my hand at meditation which has been incredible since, really, from the time we wake up to when we go to bed, we are surrounded by all things COVID-19,” Poppe wrote in an email.
Bellone, meanwhile, rides his Peloton stationary bike early in the morning or late at night. The county executive also sometimes runs at 10:30 p.m. before beginning to prepare for the next morning’s meetings and radio calls.
Bellone’s least healthy habits include ramping up his consumption of Coke Zero.
Sara Roncero-Menendez from Stony Brook, meanwhile, walks around her neighborhood on sunny days. When the weather gets rough, she does YouTube yoga. She’s also been crocheting and cross-stitching, getting a head start on holiday gifts.
“It’s been a good way to keep busy and actually have something to show for it at the end,” Roncero-Menendez wrote.
Like many others in New York and around the world, Roncero-Menendez has spent too much time glued to her screens and also hasn’t been sleeping well.
Karen McNulty-Walsh from Islip does 30 minutes of yoga, takes her dog for walks, and gets out of bed regularly between 6 and 7 a.m. each morning.
Pete Genzer from Port Jefferson Station has been cooking dinner every night, which is “good in terms of eating healthy food, and I also really enjoy cooking so it’s mentally stimulating and relaxing.”
Genzer’s least healthy habit is “sitting in the same, non-ergonomic chair all day long doing work and attending virtual meeting after virtual meeting.”
Larry Swanson and his wife Dana, who live in Head of the Harbor, enjoy their daily walks with their aging Chesapeake Bay retriever Lily. Dana is growing food in the yard and has found it a “new, interesting and nice experience being with her grumpy old husband for so much for the time,” Larry Swanson wrote.
Indeed, in the 56 years of their marriage, the Swansons have never spent as much time as they have together during lockdown.
Dana’s unhealthiest habit is watching the news.
Heather Lynch from Port Jefferson said she feels like the insect trapped in the glowing screen. On the positive side, she continues to work out every day, which she describe as more of an addiction than a habit.
Eliene Augenbaum, who lives in the Bronx and works on Long Island, has eaten home-cooked food and had deep conversations with friends. On the unhealthy side, she stays up too late, wears the same pants, and shops for vacations and shoes that are of little use during lockdown.
A friend from New York City, who makes her own meals and walks her dogs, takes her temperature several times a day, has eaten her emergency, huge bag of Chex mix in one sitting and obsesses over why everyone else has medical-style masks on the street while she’s seeking viral protection behind a pillowcase wrapped around her head.
Amanda Groveman, a Stony Brook Medicine Quality Management Practitioner, holding a "My Story" poster for Kevin, who enjoys bowling among his hobbies. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine
Patients battling COVID-19 at Stony Brook University Hospital have allies who can see them and their lives outside the context of the current pandemic.
Thanks to a team of nurses at Stony Brook who are calling family members to gather information and putting together pictures the family members are sending, over 89 patients have received the kind of personalized support they might have gotten if their family and friend network were allowed in the hospital during the pandemic.
“You get everything,” said Amanda Groveman, a Stony Brook Medicine Quality Management Practitioner, who has worked at the hospital since 2006 and created a Power Point template for the information. Family members are sending pictures at of them during Christmas, of people playing various sports, of pets, of other family members, and even a wedding picture from the 1930’s.
Once the nurses gather this information, they print out two copies and laminate them. One copy goes in the room, where the patient can also see it, and the other is in the hallway, where the doctor or nurse who is about to walk in can get a broader look at the life of the patient in the bed on the other side of the door.
The effort, called “My Story,” is an extension of a similar initiative at the hospital for patients who have Alzheimer’s Disease and might also have trouble sharing their lives with the health care workers.
The nurses involved in the program include: Chief of Regulatory Affairs Carolyn Santora, Assistant Director of Nursing Susan Robbins, Director of Quality Management Grace Propper, Lisa Reagan, the patient coordinator and Nurse Practitioner April Plank.
“It’s not just a bullet point checklist,” Groveman said. “It’s creating a history of this patient.”
Some patients like to hear a particular type of music. Indeed, one patient routinely listened to so much “Willie Nelson, that was all he wanted to listen to.”
Grovemen said the contact with the family also connects the nurses to that family’s support network, which they now aren’t able to see in eerily empty waiting rooms.
“You speak to these families and then you feel like you do know this person well,” Groveman said. “At a certain point, it’s not just about the patient. It’s about the whole support system. You’re pulling not just for them, but for their whole family.”
The pictures serve as an inspiration for the nurses as well, who get to share their passion for pets or for sports teams.
These connections are especially important, as some patients have been in the ICU for weeks.
Each time a person leaves the hospital, the staff plays the Beatles song, “Here Comes the Sun,” which has also been encouraging to the hospital staff who has been treating them.
When Groveman returns to her family, which includes her husband Matt and their two children, each night, she puts her clothing in the washing machine and takes a shower before she enjoys her own family time.
“As soon as I walk in, they say, ‘No hug yet,’” Groveman said. Her kids have been “really good” about the new nightly pattern.
A by product of her new routine is that Groveman has also been washing her hands and wrists so often that she has developed what her daughter calls “lizard skin.”
She insists on disinfecting everything that comes in the house, which means that she has a collection of cardboard boxes on her porch that wait there until recycling day.
Amid all the public health struggles she and her fellow nurses see every day, she appreciates how Stony Brook has set up a room where nurses can meditate and relax.
Groveman said she’s surprised by the number of people who are coming in who are in their 30’s and 40’s. One of the more challenging elements of caring for patients is, for her, that she sees people who come in who are not in bad shape, but “unfortunately, with this, it can just be all of a sudden someone takes a downturn.”
Groveman had previously worked in pediatrics, where she said she recognized that any treatment for children also benefited the broader family.
“You are treating the family as well,” she said. “You really want to make that connection. Being a nurse is about making that connection.”
Prev
