CLOSE
Stony Brook University

by -
0 324
LI State Veterans Home has gone through much hardship since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Image from Google Maps

By Rich Acritelli

“Never was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Fred Sganga, right, hands a plaque to Battle of the Bulge veteran Tom Struminski at an event last year. File photo by Kyle Barr

These words of heroic national service by Winston Churchill Aug. 20, 1940, have been surely witnessed by U.S. citizens since the start of the COVID-19 health crisis. Feeling immensely proud of his staff and echoing these powerful sentiments is Executive Director Fred Sganga of the Long Island State Veterans Home at Stony Brook. He stated just how thankful and proud he was of his 675 employees who have done everything possible to treat the veterans of this facility. From the moment that this virus hit the nation, these health care workers and support staff are on the front lines to ensure that this nursing home has taken care of their patients through the terrible rise of COVID-19.   

Currently, there are five New York State Veterans Homes that are facing staggering difficulties since the initial spread of the virus. While this pandemic has impacted all age groups, older generations are the most susceptible from being impacted by the ferocity of this sickness. For over 19 years, Sganga has led the vets home through many difficult moments, but it’s possible this scenario could be the most challenging point of his career. On March 10, Sganga ordered the complete lockdown of operations the nursing home, restricting access from the outside. Looking at the website of this hospital, it has been a transparent effort by Sganga and his staff to speak about the daunting issues that has faced both the workers and residents of the veteran’s home.

Covered in protective gear from head to toe, masks and shields, the staff has been working in hazardous conditions to treat veterans who have greatly sacrificed for this nation. Sganga said he is incredibly proud of his faculty’s ability to not only take care for their patients, but to serve as surrogate family members. For over 40 days, many of these residents have not seen their loved ones and the doctors, nurses, aides, housekeeping and maintenance cadre have engaged these older men and women with a consistent foundation of love and support.  

One of the biggest concerns that Sganga’s staff must handle with the patients who are already battling serious ailments and respiratory problems. The sickness has impacted the COVID units of this nursing home with 57 residents to date that have tested positive. Sganga identifies how this hospital has dealt with the positive cases by not allowing cross contamination between the various health care units. He considers this a deadly “chess game” where he’s made to use every possible strategy to contain the expansion of the virus within the hospital. 

These heavy health strains on the elderly population are apparent as the vets facility, which as of press time has lost 41 people, according to Sganga. While this is a tumultuous time, Sganga has continually stressed the determination of his staff to show up to work every day and to help those men and women residents that have sacrificed for the defense of the nation. Like that of the families, these staff members grieve at the loss of residents that they have grown to known through many special bonds. They have had to adapt to the many unknowns of the virus and decipher through the multitudes of guidance coming from the state and federal government. And through the spirit of cooperation amongst the team, every person plays an important role in carrying out these policies to protect the residents during these harrowing times. 

Much can also be said about the wonderful job that Sganga has done during his tenure at this home for almost two decades. Vietnam vet and Rocky Point VFW Post Commander Joe Cognitore said, “Sganga demonstrates the highest traits that a leader of any major organization can exhibit to lead and care for others. During the height of this crisis, he has the pulse of every staff member and the people that reside in this home. He is a self-starter and a delegator of plans to properly guard against this massive epidemic. Words are not enough to express his strength as a decisive figure to always assist others.  These sentiments are presented through my experiences as a patient that was flawlessly treated by this hospital. His spirit is easily seen through the endearing qualities of all his personnel that are always motivated to do their duty.”

Once this tragic virus began to escalate in widespread positive cases and deaths, the vets home has followed many directives from the U.S. Center for Disease Control, New York Department of Health, the Veterans Administration and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Almost every day, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) speaks at daily press conferences outlining the risks of the elderly in the nursing homes and the devoted care in places like that of Stony Brook that has continually met their growing needs. 

Presently, there are over 45,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S., with New York making up a third of these figures by nearly 15,000. Out of these numbers, experts say nearly a fifth of virus deaths have come from nursing facilities, and the fear is that more could to be taken from the brutality of the virus. Right now, there are health care workers and patients that have deteriorated quickly and passed away without any major signs of this sickness. 

Until recently, there were not enough testing kits for nursing homes like that of the Long Island State Veterans Home to even test their own workers. Cuomo recently stated that the goal of New York was to start testing 40,000 people every day, but there are many workers that were unable to know if they were safe from this virus. Through the entire interview, Sganga could not thank his staff enough for the absolute determination of his colleagues to stay the course in helping the elderly fight this illness. It has been a hard time for this staff, but they never shied away from their ultimate mission of protecting these men and women that sacrificed greatly for this nation. According to Cognitore, “even during the darkest moments of this crisis, Sganga’s employees and volunteers have diligently worked above and beyond the call of duty to protect the veterans against this uphill medical war to defeat the ongoing spread of COVID-19.” 

Rich Acritelli is a social studies teacher at Rocky Point High School and an adjunct professor of American history at Suffolk County Community College.

by -
0 923
From left, John Brittelli, Jon Longtin, and Dimitris Assanis, who are working on an early prototype of the CoreVent 2020. Photo from Stony Brook University.

Working against time and a potential shortage of life-saving ventilators, Stony Brook University scientists designed their own version, which they hoped no one would have to use.

In the course of 10 days, a team led by Jon Longtin, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Associate Dean of Research and Entrepreneurship and professor of mechanical engineering, designed, built and tested a cheaper and easier ventilator, which they called CoreVent2020. They have spoken with a company in Shirley called Biodex Medical Systems, which could make as many as 30 of the originally crafted machines per day.

“It was an all-encompassing task,” Longtin said. “When we started this, COVID-19 cases were growing exponentially in the New York area. By following the curve at that point, we were going to run out of ventilators in a matter of one or two weeks.”

Indeed, just a few weeks ago, Suffolk County and New York State were still climbing the curve, without knowing when the peak would arrive. That meant that each day, the number of people hospitalized increased dramatically, as did the number of people who needed ventilators in the Intensive Care Unit.

The parts for the system Longtin, John Brittelli, a clinical professor in the Respiratory Care Program, and Dmitris Assanis, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stony Brook, created cost about $2,000. This includes the cost for the arduino control panel, which is a computer board people have programmed to run their washing machines and to turn on lamps. The total cost compares with a price tag of about $30,000 for a regular ventilator.

The CoreVent 2020 favors a hospital setting, Longtin said, because it runs on medical compressed oxygen and compressed air.

“Most hospitals have compressed air, which we were able to use to make the design much simpler,” Longtin said.

Chris Paige, an anesthesiologist at Stony Brook University Hospital who worked on the ventilator, coined the term CoreVent, which suggests a “core” set of needed capabilities, but nothing more, Longtin explained in an email.

The researchers wanted to create a machine that didn’t have any proprietary parts, which would make the manufacture and distribution of the system considerably easier. The researchers wanted to make sure they could get the parts they needed and could still move forward even if a particular part from a specific manufacturer wasn’t available.

“Anything we used, we could buy from a number of different suppliers,” Longtin said. “As long as the specifications were the same, the design was simple and reliable.”

Longtin said the limits of time and resources, akin to the engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration who helped bring home the damaged Apollo 13 rocket with its three-member crew, were omnipresent in designing and building the alternative ventilator system.

Longtin was grateful for the help and support of people in the engineering and medical side.

Longtin said he appreciated the opportunity to work together with his colleagues in the medical community and not only to build this alternative ventilator but also to build relationships across the Stony Brook community.

“I look forward to building upon these new relationships for other projects,” Longtin said. “Engineering and medicine will take a serious look at this and ask how we can work together to be more prepared in the future.”

by -
0 2211

Centerport Resident Among First to Donate Convalescent Blood Plasma

Dr. Elliott Bennett-Guerrero is leading the clinical trial at Stony Brook Medicine which is expected to enroll up to 500 patients who are hospitalized with COVID-19. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Stony Brook Medicine has launched a research study in the hopes of developing a treatment for those severely suffering from the coronavirus.

On April 2, SBM began a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved research study to determine if convalescent blood plasma from those who’ve recovered from COVID-19 can help treat currently hospitalized patients. One of the first volunteers was Mark Goidell, a litigation attorney from Centerport.

COVID-19 survivor Mark Goidell donates blood plasma for a research study at SBU. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

The Research Study

Dr. Elliott Bennett-Guerrero, vice chair of Clinical Research and Innovation in the Renaissance School of Medicine Department of Anesthesiology, is heading up the research study. He said the hospital needs approximately 100 volunteers who have recovered from the coronavirus to donate blood plasma, possibly once a week or every other week. Subjects must have contracted COVID-19 and be free of symptoms for 14 days. As of April 22, the doctor said they have received a large number of inquiries leading to 180 people being screened and 90 have been identified as having high levels of antibodies. Currently 25 have either donated blood plasma or are scheduled to do so.

Bennett-Guerrero said researchers are looking for those with high antibody levels of the virus and testing takes about 15 minutes. The donors must also meet regular criteria to be a blood donor, the doctor said, which includes being at least 17 years old, weighing more than 100 pounds, and having no infections Certain travel outside of the U.S. will also be reviewed. 

“We’re very fortunate that we can run this protocol independently, because we have access to a very good test for antibodies, and we also have a licensed blood collection facility already in our hospital,” the doctor said. “So we have those two main ingredients to help us to collect blood plasma and unfortunately have a large number of patients who are in desperate need of help.”

Bennett-Guerrero said the trial will include 500 hospital patients ranging from those who are intubated and those who are not. A higher percentage of patients will receive convalescent serum on a random basis compared to other trials which tend to have 50 percent of patients serve as a control group who receive a placebo.

“Our protocol is unique in that while we want to help as many people as possible, we also want to determine if it’s safe and effective,” the doctor said. “It’s a randomized trial where 80 percent of the patients will receive the convalescent plasma because we hope to benefit as many patients as possible, and there will be a small group of 20 percent of patients that will serve as the control group and get standard plasma. It’s the only way we can rigorously determine if it’s safe and effective to do this.”

Plasma, which is the liquid portion of the blood, helps with clotting and supporting immunity. The hope is the plasma from those who have survived COVID-19 will contain antibodies which in turn can kill the virus in seriously ill patients. According to SBM, convalescent serum therapy is a century-old treatment that has been used in patients during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, the diphtheria epidemic in the U.S. in the 1920s, and more recently, the Ebola outbreak in 2014.

The doctor said it’s too early to determine if giving convalescent blood plasma to a COVID-19 patient will help.

“It’s very early in the stage with this pandemic,” he said. “We’re only beginning to learn what are the patterns of antibody formation in people who had the COVID-19 infection. In general it’s believed that antibodies to COVID-19 will probably persist for a while, perhaps months or years, and likely be protective. However, we don’t know yet if the antibodies that we are measuring actually mean, ‘quote-unquote,’ one is immune and can’t be reinfected. We think that’s probably the case but it’s not proven yet.”

Blood plasma donor Mark Goidell and his wife, Lynn, recently recovered from the coronavirus. Photos from Stony Brook Medicine

The Donor

The doctor said Goidell was a good candidate because he was free of symptoms for a couple of weeks, had high levels of the antibodies in his system and met blood donation criteria.

Both Goidell, 64, and his wife Lynn, 62, came down with the virus. The attorney said he was sick toward the end of February and in early March, and his symptoms included being lethargic and feverish, and at times during the night he would frequently wake up and try to catch his breath, many times going outside to do so.

His wife was admitted to Huntington Hospital March 13 due to having double pneumonia and was discharged a few days later. Goidell said he did have a relapse where he said his symptoms felt like a sinus infection, with a loss of smell and taste. He said he has recovered about 70 percent of those senses.

While his symptoms didn’t initially lead to testing, he said, once his wife was hospitalized he was tested March 17 at an urgent care facility. After reading about the Stony Brook study on the News12 website, Goidell said he was more than willing to participate in the trial.

“It’s heartbreaking to see what’s happening and all the tragedy and anguish that is being brought about by the virus,” Goidell said. “I’m grateful for the fact that I’ve recovered, and I’m able to do something to help.”

He said he feels fortunate to live in close proximity to Stony Brook Medicine. Between his experience with the study so far and his wife’s hospital stay at Huntington Hospital, he has gained an even greater respect and admiration for health care workers. He called those who treated his wife “heroes.”

He added the two of them are now back to working remotely, joking that he has put on some weight due to his wife’s good cooking, and he has been playing a lot of basketball in his driveway to burn off the pounds.

He said he hopes that others who have recovered will donate their plasma, and that others will “stay inside and help each other out.”

“I wish Dr. Bennett-Guerrero and the researchers at Stony Brook the best of luck, and I have the most gratitude for the work they are doing,” he said.

People who have recovered from COVID-19 and want to donate blood plasma can visit www.stonybrookmedicine.edu/COVID_donateplasma where they will be required to fill out an online survey. Potentially eligible people will be asked to participate in a screening visit at a Stony Brook Medicine facility, which will take approximately 30 minutes. You do not need to be a Stony Brook University Hospital patient to participate, but you must meet the required criteria for plasma donation and have high levels of antibodies to the virus that causes COVID-19.

by -
0 267
Nursing homes have become a hotbed of discussion over the large percentage of their residents who have died from COVID-19 while in New York facilities. Stock photo

Slowly, the numbers in the fight against the coronavirus are moving in a favorable direction.

For the fourth time in six days, the number of hospitalizations in Suffolk County dropped. Residents in hospitals in the county declined by 23 to 1,562. The number of people in the Intensive Care Unit also declined by 16 to 521, while the number of people who are on ventilators also fell by 14 to 445.

“We hope those numbers will continue to go down,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters.

In another positive sign, the number of people discharged from hospitals increased by 122, bringing the total number of people discharged from the hospital due to coronavirus infections to 2,134.

The county continued to provide personal protective equipment to first responders and health care workers. Yesterday, the county handed out 81,000 piece of personal protective equipment to fire, EMS, hospital and nursing homes. The county will hand out another round today.

Suffolk is also delivering additional masks to grocery stores and supermarkets to give to essential employees in order to protect themselves and their customers.

The county purchased 27,000 gowns that are expected to arrive tomorrow. Those gowns came from a domestic provider. Next week, the county is expecting a much larger shipment of 500,000 gowns, which the county bought from an overseas provider.

The gowns should “provide more breathing space for us,” Bellone said.

Bellone said he appreciated the ongoing quick and effective action of emergency services personnel. Several fire departments put out a brush fire in Manorville near Brookhaven National Laboratory, which started yesterday around 12:30 pm.

“Our fire departments and emergency agencies responded to the scene and they did an outstanding job in putting that out,” Bellone said. “Even in a global pandemic, [these emergency crews] are responding every day.”

Responding to questions about whether Long Island beaches and summer facilities would be open this summer, Bellone deferred any such decision until a later date.

“The amount that we have seen change in our understanding of what’s happening and the response and what works and what doesn’t is “dramatic” since the start of social distancing and New York Pause, Bellone said. “We need to tay the course. It appears we are plateauing. We are hopeful we will see the trajectory of the numbers going down.”

Separately, the number of Suffolk County Police officers who have tested positive for coronavirus is 81, with 49 returning to work.

As of Wednesday, the number of times the police have checked on people who might not have been following social distancing guidelines was 618, with 55 who were not in compliance. The police have not issued any summonses during these checks.

by -
0 289
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer said there is need to increase the PPP loan funding, but he and Republicans have disagreed how. File photo by Kevin Redding

The federal Small Business Administration announced the government’s Payment Protection Program, which initially put up $349 billion in funds for small businesses across the country, has run out of funding in just eight days since it came online.

Thousands of loans are still being processed, and both government and small business owners are calling for more funds to be added to the bill, which was meant to stimulate small businesses and help keep more from filing for unemployment.

Around 41,000 loans have been approved for New York State out of 1.7 million. However, many businesses were left short of approval or didn’t manage to file in time. Others, who filed early as possible, found their early attempts confused with both misinformation and lack of clarity from banks and federal agencies.

Bernie Ryba, the regional director of the Stony Brook Small Business Development Center , said during a live stream with the Rocky Point Sound Beach Chamber of Commerce April 16 there are growing signs of the economy deteriorating “faster than anticipated,” and the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, passed at the end of March, may not be enough.

He added banks have already been ordered to not accept any more applications.

“It demonstrates the extent of the damage small businesses have experienced over the past three weeks,” he said. 

Ryba said the SBA was not staffed to handle the number of applications. From acceptance of application to approval was going to be 30 days, but he said that number has gone out the window due to the incredible number of applications.

Some have also criticized who have been able to apply for loans, and how quickly they received it. Politico reported that a number of large chain restaurants ate up millions of dollars in loans meant for small businesses. Such chains as the companies behind Potbelly Sandwich Shop and Ruth’s Chris Steak House, each received $20 million and $10 million in loans respectively. While the loans were meant for companies with 500 or less employees, this rule was expanded to allow companies to apply as long as they didn’t have more than 500 employees in a single location.

While both Republicans and Democrats agree more funds need to be added, the parties are bickering back and forth about how much. The GOP has proposed an additional $250 billion to the PPP program, but Dems stymied that, arguing the bill, which U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D) called CARE 3.5, should also include $100 billion for hospitals, $150 billion for state and local governments and a boost to food assistance. Republicans have blocked that effort in return.

Schumer, the senate minority leader, said in a live streamed conference with Long Island Association President and CEO Kevin Law April 17 that there could be two additional COVID-related bills in the near future.

Meanwhile, Ryba said his small business center, which also has offices in SUNY Farmingdale, will be receiving around $1.1 million in federal assistance so they can hire additional staff in order to handle a larger number of business owners looking for advice.

Law said the thing of biggest importance isn’t the long term of the whole U.S. economy, but making sure that these small businesses and average people have money in their pockets to deal with the short term. He also questioned whether the government may allow some different types of nonprofits to apply for aid through PPP, as currently only 501c3’s are applicable. Schumer said they would look into allowing 501c6’s and others to also apply for any further aid in the future.

Schumer agreed, saying the government’s focus should be twofold, adding the government needs to approve the PPP extension “so their money gets out there faster, it is job number one. Testing — if we don’t get it done we’re not going to recover. Those are the two biggest things.”

More from Schumer and Law’s Conversation

People are facing multiple hurdles during the ongoing coronavirus crisis, but Law said those people need help from the federal government.

With people’s $1,200 checks for people making under $75,000 a year finally going out, Schumer said that should not be the end of such funds to everyday Americans. He added he thought the wage limit should be raised to people making around $99,000 a year.

“If you have a wife who is a hospital worker, you’re making more than [the $75K] but you still need help,” he said.

In terms of mortgages, Law said while there was something being done for those with federally backed mortgages, he asked if there was anything being done for those with more locally or commercially backed mortgages.

“We need some kind of commercial forbearance for both commercial and tenants,” Schumer said. “I pushed for this in CARE 3.” (The bill called the CARES Act passed March 30.)

The LIRR is currently asking for an additional bailout, with ridership now down by 97 percent, but services are continuing for essential workers, especially those working in health care. Schumer said he wants to provide more assistance to both the LIRR and to the Suffolk and Nassau bus systems.

For other municipalities, he said bills he called CARE 4 and 5, the first of which he expected to come up in the first few weeks of May, will also include more money for townships who have also experienced revenue shortfalls from the coronavirus.

Law also suggested the federal government look into creating some kind of public works program in the vein of President Franklin Roosevelt’s post-Great Depression programs in the 1930s and 40s, specifically for public and infrastructure works such as roads, bridges and sewers. Schumer agreed with the idea for when things finally start to open up.

“We’re going to have to stimulate the economy, and the best way to do that is through infrastructure,” the senator said.

 

by -
0 408
Stony Brook's Mobile Stroke Unit is continuing operations despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Photo from SBUH

Amid the start of new coronavirus testing at hotspots including Wyandanch and North Amityville today, the number of residents testing positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 increased by 960 in the last 24 hours to 24,483.

At the same time, hospitalizations have declined by 45 patients to 1,585.

“That is the key number we have been watching,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters.

The number of people in the Intensive Care Unit also fell by 25 to 537, while the number of people intubated also declined.

The drop in hospitalizations marks the third time in five days that the closely watched gauge has declined, while the increases in the previous two days were smaller than the weekly average in the prior week.

Bellone suggested that these numbers could suggest a “leveling off,” albeit at a high level.

Suffolk County continues to add hospital beds, increasing capacity by 39 to 3,425, with 744 ICU beds.

The number of beds available is now 655 overall, with 112 ICU beds.

The “good news,” Bellone said, is that 152 people were discharged from the hospital in the last day.

At the same time, the county continues to suffer losses stemming from the virus. In the last 24 hours, 40 people have died, bringing the number of deaths to 693.

Earlier today, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) extended New York Pause to May 15, which means that schools and non-essential businesses will remain shut through at least that period. Starting tomorrow, residents of New York will be required to wear face masks when they are in public places and they can’t maintain social distancing of at least six feet.

Bellone mentioned several initiatives the county has started to manage the economic and employment recovery.

He described the potential need to change the Suffolk County Tax Act, which is a law that’s been on the books for 100 years that blocks the county’s ability to access tax funds until the middle of the year.

“Because of that, the county has to borrow money to get through the first six months of the year,” Bellone said.

Bellone announced that the county has created a COVID-19 Fiscal Impact Panel, which will analyze the ways the virus is causing damage to the county’s finances. Emily Youssouf, who Bellone described as an “expert in private and public sector finance,” will chair that panel. Youssouf had been a board member for the New York City Housing Authority under the Bloomberg Administration.

Stony Brook Announcements

Stony Brook University said it will continue to operate its two Mobile Stroke Units. The specialized ambulances are available every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The units allow patient triage and treatment in the field. Clinicians aboard the ambulances can administer a medication that minimizes brain injury at any location and then, when necessary, can transport the patient to the closest facility.

With a stroke, time is critical to save brain cells, explained Dr. David Fiorella, Director of the Stony Brook Cerebrovascular Center and founder of the mobile stroke centers.

Separately, Stony Brook University Hospital recognizes the anxiety patients feel when each health care professional who comes into their rooms is wearing a mask and, often, a face shield that hides most of their face. In one unit of the hospital, care givers will begin wearing staff ID pictures on their gowns so patients can see the face of the staff member providing care. The idea may extend to other areas of the hospital after a pilot period.

The idea, called the Face Behind the Mask, came from Nurse Practitioner April Plank after she started working in a COVID unit

by -
0 2556
Printers at Stony Brook University were donated by the Comsewogue School District. Photo from Deniz Yildirim

By Deniz Yildirim

The Comsewogue School District is helping Stony Brook University in the fight against the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. Comsewogue found out about the project from David Ecker, a professor and director of iCREATE at Stony Brook University. Ecker was inspired by an article he read about a good samaritan producing face shields for a hospital upstate and thought if he could we do it with a 3D printer? He went out the next day with his wife to gather supplies from Joan Fabrics, Home Depot and Staples. He produced a sample face mask that was so impressive, Stony Brook University asked him to make five thousand more. That Sunday morning, Ecker met with his team at Stony Brook University. 

“I designed stations; a station for inspecting the 3D-printed models, another for putting on the weather stripping, inserting the foam, cutting the elastic to size and finally adding the face shield.” Ecker said. “This process allows multiple people to work at the same time while still practicing social distancing.” 

Comsewogue was excited to lend a helping hand by providing over 1,000 yards of filament, the material used to make the frame of the face shield. Comsewogue also delivered five of its MakerBot Replicators and 3D printers for Stony Brook to borrow for this project. Vincent Verdisco, an art educator for over 20 years who teaches Auto-CAD in several of his courses said, “it’s so rewarding to be able to help out during this crisis.” 

Verdisco has been working with Ecker to help improve the mask designs for this project. 

“Now more than ever we have to support one another and it’s nice to show my students the real-life application of what we study in my courses,” Verdisco said. A list of materials and links to the designs are available for free at https://nyinnovate.com/faceshields. 

“It’s a great community effort and I am so thankful we can do this,” Ecker said. “We are doing what we love, innovating to help the front line medical professionals in any way possible.”

Other school districts or organizations want to lend their 3D Printers should contact [email protected].

Deniz Yildirim is a librarian at the Terryville Road Elementary School.

by -
0 302
Stock photo

While the number of hospitalizations related to COVID-19 increased for the first time in three days, the increase is still smaller than it had been and suggests that Suffolk County may still be approaching a peak.

John Tsunis proposed Investors Bank give a donation to Stony Brook University Hospital. File photo.

An additional 13 people entered hospitals in the last day, bringing the total number of people battling the virus in Suffolk County facilities to 1,608.

“What that starts to look like is that we are flattening and maybe plateauing at this level,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on a conference call with reporters. “If a flattening is occurring, that is a good thing.”

Indeed, the number of people in Intensive Care Units declined by eight, to 531.

The capacity for hospital beds is at 3,379, with 607 beds currently available, including 98 ICU beds.

At the same time, 108 people who had been in the hospital have been discharged in the last day.

Fatalities continue to rise, with 40 people dying from the coronavirus over the past day, bringing the total for the county to 608.

After shutting down three testing sites yesterday because of heavy winds and rain, the county reopened three hotspot testing sites at Huntington Station, Riverhead and Brentwood. This Thursday, the county plans to open additional by-appointment mobile testing facilities at Wyandanch and North Amityville.

The county continues to look for supplies for health care workers. Bellone said his office procured more than 2,000 face shields, about 14,000 N95 masks and 810 gowns, which is “not nearly enough. We need more gowns,” he said.

The county also received 5,000 masks from All Hands and Heart, a group that addresses the immediate and long term needs of communities affected by natural disasters. Bellone thanked their principal, Adam Haber, who helped coordinate the delivery of those masks.

Suffolk County delivered masks to grocery workers today as well.

The county is participating in a campaign to thank transit workers on Thursday at 3 p.m. Bellone encouraged people who hear the sounds of train, bus, or ferry horns to go to social media to share what they hear, through #soundthehorn or #heroesmovingheroes.

Throughout New York State, over 88 percent of the 10,834 fatalities had at least one other underlying medical condition, which includes hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, cancer, and congestive heart failure, among others.

In Suffolk County, the number of fatalities linked to complications from coronavirus in nursing homes was 155, while the number in adult care facilities was 97, brining the total to 252, according to figures from the New York State Department of Health. That means that over 40 percent of the deaths in Suffolk County were in nursing homes or adult care centers.

“The virus attacks this exact population of individuals: the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions,” Bellone said.

The number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Suffolk County stands at 22,691, which is up 744 over the last 24 hours.

Separately, Stony Brook University Hospital announced that over 1,853 people had contributed $669,388 to the hospitals’s Coronavirus Crisis Challenge. The fundraising goal is $750,000.

Investors Bank and its Foundation contributed $100,00 to cover part of the cost of erecting and equipping a field hospital that will have over 1,000 beds and is expected to be completed later this week. The suggestion to make the contribution came from John Tsunis, former Gold Coast Chairman and CEO and current Chairman of investors Bank Long Island Advisory Board. Investors Bank recently purchased Gold Coast Bancorp.

“I am so grateful that Investors Bank is continuing [its] partnership and that its core values echo what the Long Island communities have come to expect from Gold Coast,” Tsunis said in a statement.

by -
0 292
Photo from HCDS

After more than two weeks spent at home as a result of the COVID-19 school closure, students at Harbor Country Day School in St. James continued to remain fully engaged — academically and socially — through the school’s ‘distance learning’ platform. 

Leveraging the online conferencing website Zoom, alongside Google’s ‘Classroom’ app, students have managed not only to continue learning, but also to come together in a unique and special way to recognize those on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.

As part of their ‘distance learning’ co-curricular art instruction, teacher Amarilis Singh tasked students with the challenge of displaying gratitude and inspiring positivity through art. Leaning on Maya Angelou’s famous quote, Try to be the rainbow in someone’s cloud, which the kindergarten class had been studying prior to the school closure, and paired with a musical selection from a recent school concert, “A Million Dreams” from The Greatest Showman, the students’ work was created into a slideshow.

Harbor Country Day School’s music teacher, Donna Siani, initially shared the slideshow with SUNY Stony Brook University’s Director of Community Relations, Joan Dickinson, to thank front line medical workers for their extraordinary efforts during the most unusual and frightening of times.

Still, the students recognize that there exist many others on the front lines and hope their message can be heard by all. To view and share this beautiful gesture from the students at Harbor Country, please visit https://vimeo.com/402577169.

by -
0 679
Led by Dr. Elliott Bennett-Guerrero, the medical director for perioperative quality and patient safety, the clinical trial for plasma donations is expected to enroll up to 500 patients who are hospitalized with COVID-19. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

The next piece of personal protective equipment that Suffolk County needs is gowns, as Long Island remains at the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Today, the county will receive 25,000 gowns, thanks to the work of the procurement team which has been “scouring the planet for supplies,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters.

While those gowns will help the health care workers who have been helping the influx of patients coming into hospitals, they won’t be sufficient amid the ongoing outbreak.

“The burn rate [for gowns] is absolutely incredible,” said Bellone, who urged residents to donate hospital gowns to the Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services site at 102 East Avenue in Yaphank between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Bellone thanked Onandago County Executive Ryan McMahon, who is sending reinforcements in the form of 22 nurses to Stony Brook University.

“Those nurses will come down here to provide assistance and relief to front line workers who have been going at this nonstop, working shift after shift in an incredibly intense environment,” Bellonme said. “We are extraordinarily grateful.”

Bellone also thanked DS Services of America, a company based in Georgia, who brought a tractor trailer load of bottled water, coffee, tea and a collection of beverages to the county. The county will deliver those donations to first responders and health care workers.
Criminals Caught

While some people have taken the crisis in the county as an opportunity to contribute, others have seen it as a chance to commit crimes.

This week, the Suffolk County Police Department arrested Joseph Porter of Mastic Beach and Rebecca Wood of Lake Ronkonkoma in Bay Shore for a string of 11 burglaries committed between March 9, the day after Suffolk County had its first coronavirus patient, and April 7.

One of the alleged burglars told police he thought he would be able to get away with his crimes because the police were distracted with the virus.

“He was wrong,” Bellone said.

Additionally, police apprehended John Cayamanda, a St. James resident, whom they allege committed several acts of arson since the start of the virus.

“This is a reassurance to the public that our police department and all of our law enforcement agencies are on the job and are able to do their work,” Bellone said.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said the number of domestic violence incidents, which have been climbing nationally amid social distancing and work-from-home arrangements, has climbed 8 percent.

“We have a dedicated unit for domestic violence and they are continuing their outreach, identifying individuals and making sure they get the assistance they need,” Hart said on the call.
Cases Climb

As for the coronavirus tests, the number of confirmed cases continues to climb, rising 1,700 to 18,602 people. The total is about a half of the number reported for all of mainland China, Bellone said.

As of yesterday, the number of Suffolk County Police officers who tested positive for COVID-19 was 62, with 18 of those officers returning to work.

The number of people hospitalized in the last 24 hours showed the smallest increase in recent weeks, rising by 10 people.

“That is a good sign,” Bellone said.

The number of people entering the Intensive Care Unit, meanwhile, rose by 14 people, which is still below a recent high from several days ago.

Overall, the number of hospital beds in the county stands at 3,365, with 750 total ICU beds. Currently, there are 585 hospital beds and 102 ICU beds available.

Over the last 24 hours, 39 people have died from the virus, which brings the total for the county up to 362.

“Our hearts break for those families who have been impacted by this,” Bellone said. “We know we are not at the apex. We are still in the thick of this.”

To reach young people who may not be practicing the same social distancing guidelines, Bellone said he was launching a peer-to-peer Covid challenge. This initiative attempts to tap into the creativity of students to share their stories about what they are doing online and with their peers. He said he hopes those people who follow social distancing guidelines will inspire their peers to do the same.
Seeking Plasma Donors, Saving N95 Masks 
Separately, Stony Brook University is looking for donors who have recovered from a coronavirus infection who can contribute plasma that might help others fight the disease.

Led by Elliott Bennet-Guerrero, the Medical Director of Perioperative Quality and Patient Safety, the study plans to treat up to 500 Long Island patients with convalescent plasma, which is rich in the antibodies patients who defeated COVID-19 used to return to health.

Stony Brook University Hospital received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to treat patients through a randomized, controlled study. In a typical study, the groups would be evenly divided between those who receive the treatment and those who get a control. The public health crisis, however, has allowed researchers to change that mix, so that 80 percent of the patients in the trial will receive the convalescent plasma.

Also, Stony Brook announced a novel way to disinfect the coveted N95 masks, which have become the gold standard to protect health care workers and first responders.

Ken Shroyer, the Chair of the Department of Pathology, and Glen Itzkowitz, Associate Dean for Research Facilities & Operations, found that masks passed fit tests after they were treated up to four repeated cycles in a dry heat oven at 212 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.

In an email, Shroyer explained that temperature control is important because the masks need to be sterilized at the highest temperature possible, although they failed if they were heated above 248 degrees Fahrenheit. Since some ovens might not have accurate thermostats, it would be helpful to confirm the temperature inside the oven with a thermometer.

The procedure involves placing each mask in a paper bag labeled with the name of the health care provider and work location. A technician seals the bags with indicator tape and places them in the oven.

“The team has discussed potential fabrication efforts to construct a sterilizer racking system capable of recycling as many as 8,000 masks a day through the heat treatment,” Itzkowitz said in a press release.

Stony Brook researchers hope hospitals, clinics, or nursing homes could use this technique to protect workers on the front lines of the battle against the virus.
Prev1...110111112...135Next Page 111 of 135
TBR News Media is your local news and entertainment website.
We provide you with the latest breaking news and information for your community.
Contact us: [email protected]

Most Viewed

©