From left, Private First Class Alex Vroman of the New York Army National Guard and Josh Miller, MD, MPH, Assistant Dean for Clinical Integration and Medical Director of Diabetes Care for Stony Brook Medicine, at the coronavirus testing site on Stony Brook University’s campus, where more 48,000 people were tested from March through July. Photo from SBU
The Thanksgiving COVID-19 numbers are here and they are skyrocketing.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) was joined by health and emergency response officials in a media call Dec. 3 to brief the public on the increase in positive coronavirus tests since the holiday last week.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. Photo by Julianne Mosher
“We are expecting to see more than 1,100 positive cases in Suffolk County, with a positivity rate of about 6%,” he said. “We have not seen a number of 1,000 cases a day since last April.”
To put it in perspective, Bellone said, Suffolk County was averaging below 200 new cases per day last month. The number has now jumped to nearly 500 positive cases on average per day.
The spike in hospitalizations is also drastic, jumping to 57%. Bellone said that 287 people have been hospitalized — an increase of 21 people. He said 50 of those people are in ICUs.
“That is the highest number since the end of May,” he said. “If we continue with this current pace by Christmas, we’ll have over 1,000 people in the hospitals with COVID-19.”
Bellone noted that at Suffolk County’s peak in the spring, when the region was the epicenter of the virus, there were 1,658 hospitalizations.
Kenneth Kaushansky, Dean of the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, said the number of COVID patients or suspected COVID patients was up to 85.
“Every day for the last week or so, we’ve seen 10 more patients in our hospital,” Kaushansky said on a conference call about vaccinations on Thursday. “It’s coming back at us.”
Kaushansky urged residents to stay away from parties, wash their hands, and to continue wearing masks.
Marilin Dilone, an Emergency Department Nurse at Stony Brook, said the second wave is “slowly happening. We’re seeing it again.”
She anticipates a smooth transition if the numbers continue to rise.
“We know what to expect,” Dilone said.
Dr. Eric Morley, Associate Professor and Clinical Director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Stony Brook, described the staff as “battle tested.”
The hospital planned to open the forward triage unit, which the hospital used to separate suspected COVID patients during the first wave of the virus, next week.
On Monday, Mather Hospital President Kenneth Roberts said the hospital was at 64 percent occupancy, so it is “nowhere near capacity.” The hospital also has surge plans in place so that it can accommodate many more than 248 patients.
Robert Collins, a nurse at Mather for the last seven years, said the staff has learned from the difficult experiences through the spring.
“The benefit this go-round is that we’ve done it once,” Collins said. “We’re more familiar with treating it.”
St. Catherine Hospital has 30 COVID positive patients, which is 15% of their inpatient volume, while St. Charles has 11 COVID patients, which is 6.5% of the inpatient volume. Mather is still at 64% occupancy, which is the figure from earlier this week.
“The second wave and the post-Thanksgiving surge we talked about, we warned about, is here,” he said. “Luckily, we’ve taken a proactive approach.”
But Bellone said that although maintaining social distancing and wearing a mask outside is essential to staying safe, small gatherings are becoming the new super spreader.
“Now we know that small gatherings among families and friends have the highest transmission rate of all the events that we’ve seen,” he said. “So I cannot stress enough the concern about small indoor gatherings, where individuals and almost naturally let their guard down a little bit.”
Bellone said that Long Islanders must remain vigilant throughout the upcoming holiday season, while a vaccine is on the horizon.
“It is our actions over the next 30-plus days, that will be critical to our continued recovery,” he said. “That will be key to making sure that we keep our kids in school, keep our schools open, and keep our businesses open.”
He added that two new community-testing sites were launched in Huntington and Patchogue. So far, 349 people have been tested at the Huntington site.
The head of pediatrics at Stony Brook Children's Hospital said current restrictions on daily life has not meant young people have not been exposed to normal childhood diseases. Stock photo
The school and day care mixing bowl of bacterial and viral illnesses has changed. As schools, day-care centers, clubs, sports teams and other organizations change the way they manage group gatherings amid the pandemic, the game of illness tag children seem to play has slowed.
“We are seeing potentially less viral illnesses thus far in the sense that we have not seen an increase yet in respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV,” said Christy Beneri, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Program Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. “We are still waiting to see what happens with the flu.”
The chance of children contracting some of those illnesses would likely be less this year amid the infection control measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the disease responsible for the pandemic.
Beneri said children are getting somewhat fewer infections, although doctors are still seeing strep throat, ear infections and pneumonia.
Viral-induced asthma visits have declined at Stony Brook. Children who have asthma are still seeking medical attention, particularly if their condition doesn’t have a viral trigger.
At the same time, the effects of social isolation, uncertainty about the future, and household anxiety has triggered an additional mental health burden, particularly for adolescents.
Pediatricians are “asking patients more about those issues,” she said. “We maybe didn’t ask as much as we should have in the past.”
Even though children generally have less contact with their contemporaries this year, they are still developing illnesses, as their immune system receives challenges from microbes through dirt, pet saliva and other sources.
The dynamic is “slightly different in terms of getting some of these viruses from other people, [but] there are still pathogens in their environment,” she said.
In the current environment, with positive tests for COVID-19 setting new national daily records, Beneri said it is important to practice infection control measures in certain settings, which will impact what children are exposed to over time.
The cultural shift from sending children who might have mild symptoms to school to keeping children home for the good of their fellow students and staff has helped reduce the spread of COVID and other potential infections.
“We’ve taken a step back from what makes sense not just for my child, but for others my child might be exposing,” Beneri said. The decision about whether to send a child who might be battling an illness, cold or minor discomfort to school “is not just about us. It’s about those in our communities and, hopefully, there’s a better recognition” about the impact an infected child can have.
Some of the infection control measures, such as hand hygiene and staying home when children are sick should continue even after companies start providing a COVID-19 vaccine.
At this point, with the virus still prevalent in the community and country, she said acute care visits are declining, as parents are managing at home and are watching and waiting to see how their children recover from any infection.
As a parent, Beneri is dealing with the disappointment and disruption of life in the pandemic for her seven-year-old daughter. Twice, the family has had to cancel a trip to Disney World and has scheduled it for a third time.
Once the worst of the pandemic passes and children get back together again, the pediatric program director said there might be an increase in certain infections, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the county will see horrific outbreaks.
With the approach of Thanksgiving and the December holidays, Beneri urges families to be creative about gatherings. She suggested that smaller groups might want to get together over two weekends, rather than all gathering at the same time.
As for advice to schools, Beneri urges people to remain mindful of their activities outside of school.
“It’d be a shame to have to close schools,” Beneri said.
Beneri added people can celebrate milestones like turning 16, but they should not have a 40-person event in the current environment.
Wading River resident Bill McGrath donates blood at the NYBC location in Terryville. Photo by Julianne Mosher
Local hospitals are in need of blood, and they are joining forces with New York Blood Center to get the word out that a donation could save a life.
Dr. James Cassin, dental resident at St. Charles Hospital’s Dental Clinic, donating blood Nov. 10 at St. Charles Hospital’s Blood Drive. Photo from St. Charles
According to Andrea Cefarelli, senior executive director at New York Blood Center, because of the current pandemic, there is a huge shortage across the country with no sign of any more supplies incoming.
“This is a chronic deficit in blood donations so we’re trying to raise awareness,” she said.
Cefarelli explained that before the pandemic, 75% of blood donations came from the community.
“We came to you in your place of work, place of worship and schools,” she said. “It was super easy to donate blood.”
According to its Facebook page, NYBC provides lifesaving blood products and services to nearly 200 hospitals in New York, New Jersey, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and parts of Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
But because of COVID-19, people aren’t going out to donate, especially since blood drives at schools, colleges, offices and other community groups have been canceled.
“Post-pandemic we’re running far fewer community blood drives and so it’s not quite as convenient,” Cefarelli said. “We have a deficit of 8,000 donations per month.”
According to NYBC, New York’s health care system requires 1,500 donations each day to treat patients ranging from trauma victims to newborns to cancer patients. The lack of blood donations is “particularly dangerous given the looming uncertainty surrounding the pandemic’s trajectory over the course of this winter,” she said.
Pre-pandemic, NYBC would host 550 community blood drives every month, but it is currently hosting just 280 blood drives per month.
To make up for lost blood, NYBC has teamed up with local and regional hospitals including Northwell Health and Catholic Health Services of Long Island to spread the word and ask people to donate.
“The lack of blood donations has caused shortages of blood types to be available in our blood bank which provides lifesaving blood to all the patients we serve within the community,” said Jon Zenker, the administrative director of Huntington Hospital’s laboratory. “We urge all members of the community who are able to donate blood to help us overcome this critical shortage so that we can continue to serve our patients and provide them with the highest quality of care.”
Greg Slater, a spokesperson with Catholic Health Services, said they have taken extra safety precautions to make people feel comfortable during COVID times.
“It takes a little bit of time to do, but it can be a lifesaving thing for someone else,” he said.
Cefarelli said the lack of first-time donors is also down because of the lack of blood drives in school. She is encouraging young people to lend a helping hand.
“If you bring a son or daughter who’s a first-time donor, who doesn’t have that school experience, we’re welcoming that,” she said. “Making it a fun and safe experience is super important to us.”
She’s also reminding people that blood drives are safe and can be hosted in a socially distanced fashion.
“We have churches, businesses and even some schools realizing that we can host a blood drive that is safe and socially distant,” she said. “We want other organizations to consider hosting a drive.”
Right now, donors can make an appointment online at any NYBC blood collection center. Upon arrival, their temperatures are checked, and masks are required.
Stony Brook University Hospital is also accepting blood donations at their own personal blood bank. According to Linda Pugliese, blood bank donor recruiter at the hospital, every day (except for Sunday) is a blood drive there.
“All of the whole blood and platelets that are donated in the hospital blood bank, stay at the hospital, and help provide patients with the blood products they need,” she said. “Donating at the Stony Brook University Hospital Blood Bank is truly an example of community service.”
Since they are not affiliated with NYBC, SBUH’s blood supply is currently stable, but their demand has reached pre-COVID-19 levels. “There is a critical need to meet the challenges for blood donations created by the pandemic,” she said.
Stony Brook University Hospital (SBUH) continues to earn national accolades for the quality of care we provide to our patients.
The latest distinction comes from U.S. News & World Report, which has recognized us as a Best Hospital for 2020-21 for Neurology and Neurosurgery, and for Orthopaedics.
SBUH ranked No. 41 nationally in Neurology and Neurosurgery, and No. 49 in Orthopaedics. In the regional rankings, SBUH ranked No. 10 in New York State out of more than 200 hospitals statewide.
This is a true testament to the quality of care we provide to our patients. These types of recognitions do not happen overnight and they do not happen by accident. They involve a lot of hard work and dedication by teams that are committed to improving quality of care.
The rankings are based on a combination of factors, including staffing levels, whether a hospital has a Trauma Center, patient survival rates, physician ratings and patient satisfaction.
In addition to Neurology and Neurosurgery, and Orthopaedics, SBUH earned “high performing” ratings for six other adult specialties including Diabetes and Endocrinology; Gastroenterology and GI surgery; Geriatrics; Nephrology; Pulmonology and Lung surgery; and Urology.
To determine the national rankings, U.S. News evaluated more than 4,500 medical centers in 16 specialties, 10 procedures and conditions. In the 16 specialty areas, only 134 hospitals in the United States performed well enough to be nationally ranked in at least one specialty.
These accolades follow on the heels of SBUH being named one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals™ for the past two years by Healthgrades — the only hospital on Long Island to receive this distinction for two consecutive years. Stony Brook was also named one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals™ for 2020 by Healthgrades for stroke care, cardiac care and coronary interventions. The hospital has earned those honors for stroke care and coronary interventions for five consecutive years. It received the cardiac care award for the sixth consecutive year.
Our expert faculty and staff deserve credit for these impressive national recognitions, which demonstrate our commitment to providing world-class, compassionate care for our patients.
Carol A. Gomes, MS, FACHE, CPHQ, IS THE Chief Executive Officer AT Stony Brook University Hospital.
From left, Private First Class Alex Vroman of the New York Army National Guard and Josh Miller, MD, MPH, Assistant Dean for Clinical Integration and Medical Director of Diabetes Care for Stony Brook Medicine, at the coronavirus testing site on Stony Brook University’s campus, where more 48,000 people were tested from March through July. Photo from SBU
By Carol Gomes
Carol Gomes
The pandemic crisis has revealed who we are at Stony Brook Medicine, and we are truly “Stony Brook Strong.”
On Monday, March 2, Stony Brook University Hospital (SBUH) instituted our Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) to manage our response to the pandemic. Today, more than five months later, the system remains in place, operating seven days a week.
It is truly amazing how far we have come. At the height of the pandemic, on April 14, Stony Brook had 359 COVID-positive patients in the hospital. As of last Friday, we had only seven.
Now all our care sites are back in operation, using new safety and cleaning protocols. Our Emergency Departments remain open 24/7 for medical emergencies across Long Island, and we resumed elective procedures at SBUH effective June 1, after meeting state requirements.
From March through Aug. 2, SBUH treated 1,653 COVID-positive inpatients. The four hospitals in the Stony Brook Medicine hospital system formed the backbone of the response across Suffolk County, which had the lowest patient mortality rate across Downstate New York.
To manage the surge in patients, the hospital opened 300 additional inpatient beds, including 180 additional ICU beds. Stony Brook also collaborated with the New York State Department of Health to establish a drive-through coronavirus testing site on Stony Brook University’s campus, testing more than 48,000 people from March through July.
Adjacent to the testing site, Stony Brook set up a Field ER to care for patients referred from the hospital’s main Emergency Department. From March 24 to May 4, the site treated more than 1,885 patients.
Since the pandemic began, our Hospital Purchasing Department has been on top of the issue, scouring the nation and world for supplies. Over a three-month period, we received nearly 10 million gloves, more than 700,000 gowns, more than 750,000 surgical masks, more than 75,000 N95 respirators and nearly 30,000 face shields. We were one of the first hospitals in the nation to reprocess N95 respirators with Battelle Laboratories, with more than 8,000 masks reprocessed for future use if needed.
We know we must remain vigilant, as this pandemic is not yet over, and we face an uncertain future, with a possible second wave, for which we are well prepared. But we also know this much with certainty: we have successfully bent downward the curve of COVID-19 cases across Suffolk County.
Thank you for your continuing efforts to keep the coronavirus in check by following fundamental public health protocols: social distancing, masks and hand hygiene. Together, we will emerge from this pandemic even stronger than before, because together we are “Stony Brook Strong.”
Carol A. Gomes, MS, FACHE, CPHQ, is Chief Executive Officer at Stony Brook University Hospital.
Colby Rowe and Roseanna Ryan making a delivery of over 100 iPads for patient-family communication. Photo by Scott Lamarsh
While Stony Brook University Hospital staff were taking care of the sickest residents in the midst of the pandemic in Suffolk County, residents did what they could to return the favor.
Colby Rowe’s truck is filled with 3M N95 masks. Photo by Colby Rowe
In addition to cheering for health care workers, first responders and essential employees each night at 7 p.m., numerous residents and businesses made donations of everything from lifesaving N95 masks to food to comfort care.
After 10 weeks of accepting donations from March through early June, Stony Brook had collected nearly one million pieces of personal protective equipment, including masks, gloves and head and food coverings, 33,500 comfort care items such as snacks, hand lotion, puzzles and coloring books, 18,000 meal donations, 575 video messages of support and 435 iPads for telemedicine.
These donations bolstered the spirits of the staff and provided vital comfort during everything from the process of conducting COVID-19 tests in the South P Lot to the recharging breaks doctors, nurses and hospital staff took after caring for patients.
“The comfort piece was a bit more striking for the patients and the staff,” said Roseanna Ryan, director of Patient Advocacy & Language Assistance Services at SBU Hospital. “The need for the staff to have a respite area to recharge during this extremely challenging time was something that we might not have initially anticipated. The donations we were able to use went such a long way.”
Indeed, even some of the smaller items helped the masked men and women health care heroes throughout the hospital system.
During testing, some of the medical professionals worked 12-hour shifts, administering test after test for reeling residents. Items such as breath mints, ChapStick and even eye coverings that would help health care workers take a nap in their car before returning for the next shift proved incredibly helpful, said Colby Rowe, Trauma Center Education & Prehospital outreach coordinator. Rowe worked with the emergency management team at the university, primarily coordinating the donation center.
“I received lots of text messages from people on the receiving end saying, ‘Thank you so much.’ They felt appreciated by the community, Rowe said.
Rowe added that the hospital performed ably in ensuring that the staff had sufficient PPE equipment to help them with their dangerous but important work.
The university took a wide range of assistance. Some donations, like snack food, found a home in the break room. Others, however, wound up helping people in different locations.
Stony Brook received more than 400 Easter baskets. Rowe was on the phone with a civilian friend from the U.S. Department of Defense, who told him that Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn had to postpone an Easter event.
Rowe loaded up his truck and drove the Easter baskets to Brooklyn. That’s not where the community spirit stopped. On the way, several baskets blew out of his truck on Route 347.
Snacks from the hospital break room at SBUH. Photo from Stony Brook University.
“I had about four cars pull over to help me” retrieve the boxes, Rowe said. “That’s a sign of the times.”
None of the boxes, which were donated to the children of soldiers, sustained any damage.
Rowe also said the university worked to make sure support staff, including housekeeping and the people moving the carts to usher patients around the hospital, benefited from these gifts.
The most consistent donated items were the three-dimensional printed face shields and hand sanitizer, which faculty who stayed to help frontline workers made on campus. In total, the university received more than 14,000 face shields and 509 gallons of hand sanitizer.
Ryan and Rowe said the hospital was grateful and humbled by each donation they received.
Several groups offered consistent gifts. The Three Village Coronavirus Forum Facebook group, which Three Village resident Michael Ehrlich led, raised hundreds each week through membership donations. They shopped at Target and Walmart to buy comfort care items.
Frito-Lay donated a couple of truckloads of chips to stock the respite room, while the Three Village Dads Foundation raised money to feed frontline workers.
The donations helped fill in some gaps during the year as well. National Nurses Week and National EMS week both occurred in May. While the hospital typically honors these professionals with gifts to show their appreciation, the response to COVID-19 was the priority during those times. The donations, however, provided material for care packages.
The pandemic triggered needs the hospital never had before, Ryan said.
“We had to identify different ways to allow our patients to communicate with their loved ones, while there was no visitation or limited visitation,” Ryan said. The hospital redeployed nursing staff into family liaison roles to provide friends and family with updates.
Rowe delivers Easter baskets to the families of soldiers at Fort Hamilton. Photo by Colby Rowe.
For the patients, the hospital put together comfort bags, which included activities like word searches, crossword puzzles, stress balls, aroma therapy, eye masks, and dry erase boards to allow patients who were able to write to communicate with nurses outside a door, which helped preserve PPE.
At this point, the university has some supplies left over, which it will likely use during the current, planned reopening of the university side of Stony Brook.
In addition to receiving donations from the community, Stony Brook also benefited from donations from people in other countries, including China, Korea and Germany.
“People sent really moving and emotional notes,” Rowe said. “We saw a lot of good in people” during a difficult time.
Ryan was also grateful for all the support from the university.
“The planning and preparation from senior leadership put us in a position where we were able to be successful in getting to the other side of this,” Ryan said. “Leadership at the state level also helped tremendously with that.”
Stony Brook University Hospital. Photo by Rita J. Egan
By Odeya Rosenband
Stony Brook University’s newest class of medical residents began their careers head first, graduating early to take on the fight with COVID-19.Renaissance School of Medicine at SBU led a virtual graduation ceremony that took place two months ahead of schedule, in early April.
SBU Vice Dean for Graduate Medical Education Dr. William Wertheim. Photo from SBUH
In line with other medical schools such as Hofstra University in Hempstead and New York University, SBU resolved to graduate their medical students in early spring in order to readily transition them into the workforce. This decision was “definitely a natural step,” said Dr. William Wertheim, vice dean for Graduate Medical Education at Renaissance School of Medicine at SBU. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) “took away a lot of roadblocks in helping us utilize the staff that were capable of doing this, so that was really helpful.”
Starting in April, 52 residents began volunteering at SBU Hospital and predominantly focused on emergency COVID-19 cases, rather than their specialties. While resident education typically consists of 80-hour work weeks, the Renaissance School adopted a shift schedule that included five days off following every five days working, given the heightened emotional difficulty residents were facing.
Beginning July, Stony Brook Medicine welcomed over 300 medical residents across SBU, Stony Brook Southampton and Stony Brook Eastern Long Island hospitals. This number included the residents who had been volunteering with COVID-19 patients.
“Residents are interesting in that they both are doctors taking care of patients, and they are learners in an educational program,” Wertheim said. Aside from in-person training in personal protective equipment, the residents learned other essential information such as employee benefits and payroll over virtual modules.
“Top to bottom it’s a different place than we were in one year ago,” the vice dean said.
The continued focus on education was also felt by the new residents. Dr. Kelly Ieong, a urology resident and 2020 graduate of the medical school, said, “Going into my residency, I had the expectation that I’m just going to work, not learn much, and just help out as much as possible. But all of the teams did carve out time for our education and we had virtual meetings over Zoom, even during lunch. I felt very safe during my entire shift, unlike my friends who worked in other hospitals.” Additionally, she said residents were each assigned a specific mentor who provided the residents with an extra layer of support.
After feeling helpless when some of her family were diagnosed with the virus earlier this year,Ieong knew she wanted to be a volunteer when given the opportunity.
“I definitely think volunteering was a helpful experience because a lot of the difficult conversations that I was having with my patients and their family members are something that you can’t learn in the books,” she said. “You don’t learn it in medical school, it’s something you have to learn through experience.”
Although Wertheim said “everything is a bit slower when you can only put two people in an elevator,” he added that SBU was quick to adapt and optimize their eager students. Online platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams helped meet the demands for educational conferences, especially as residents may be on rotation at other hospitals. It’s clear that these platforms are here to stay, according to him.
“Medicine in general tends to adopt things slowly unless we have to… and we really had to,” he said.
In thinking about the possibility of a second surge in coronavirus cases, Wertheim noted, “now that we’ve been through this experience once, as hard as it was, it is going to be easier to swiftly redeploy all of those residents as well as all of the other doctors.” Regardless of the future of the coronavirus, there have been benefits for the medical residents, according to the vice dean.
“I think the fact that all of these residents from different specialties had to work together to the same end, even though it was an arduous task, gives them a sense of mission that you don’t always get when everyone’s doing their own thing,” Wertheim said. “And I think that that’s definitely a positive that comes out of all of this.”
Residents prepare July Fourth at-home firework shows in Port Jefferson Station in 2018. Photo by Kyle Barr
For the past month or so, the sounds of fireworks have rang throughout the night in many parts of Long Island. Despite fireworks being banned in New York State for decades, Suffolk and Nassau officials have acknowledged seeing an increase in the number of complaints to police departments about illegal fireworks.
The increase could be attributed to the lack of official Fourth of July firework display due to the coronavirus pandemic, or simply boredom.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone held a media briefing with Suffolk Police Chief Stuart Cameron prior to July 4 to warn residents about the dangers of using illegal fireworks. During the event, they showcased the dangers and destruction of fireworks by igniting a collection of pyrotechnics in a camper.
This past holiday weekend there have been several firework injury incidents in Suffolk County. A man in Port Jefferson Station was injured when he attempted to light a firework that explored and injured one of his eyes. Additionally, a 29-year old man in Central Islip was severely wounded in the hand from an exploding firework. The man was at home on Tamarack Street when the injury occurred around 9:10 p.m. He was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital.
Facebook community groups have also taken notice of the increase in illegal fireworks, People on community Facebook pages have made a number of posts throughout the past couple of months with complaints over fireworks. People not only recognized the negative effect it had on animals, but others mentioned a child with special needs constantly being woken by the loud bangs outside.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, about 230 people a year are treated in emergency rooms because of injuries caused by fireworks. In 2017, sparklers caused 1,200 injuries.
“Every year, we do these reminders and talk about the dangers of fireworks,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said during a call with media after the holiday weekend.
Suffolk County Police Department Chief Stuart Cameron said the county did have a higher incidence of fireworks-related calls, due to the limitations on large crowds at the usual fireworks shows.
The Suffolk County Volunteer Firefighters Burn Center at Stony Brook University Hospital has ten safety tips this July 4th Weekend as families continue to practice social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.
Many will spend the holiday in their backyards for barbecues, cookouts or build fire pits where there’s a greater risk to sustain a burn injury. To avoid injury, Dr. Steven Sandoval of SBU Hospital says “The best way to do this is to prevent the burn in the first place with safety tips and precautions to eliminate potential dangers.”
1. Fireworks are safe for viewing only when being used by professionals.
2. Sparklers are one of the most common ways children become burned this holiday, even with a parent’s supervision.
3. Do not have children around any fireworks, fire pits, barbecues or hot coals. Teach them not to grab objects or play with items that can be hot. Go through a lesson where they learn to ask permission.
4. Limit the use of flammable liquids to start your fire pits and barbecues. Use only approved lighter fluids that are meant for cooking purposes. No gasoline or kerosene.
5. Don’t leave hot coals from fire pits and barbecues laying on the ground for people to step in.
6. When cleaning grills, the use of wire bristle brushes can result in ingestion of sharp bristle pieces requiring surgery.
7. If you are overly tired, and consumed alcohol, do not use the stovetop, fire pit or a fireplace.
8. Stay protected from the sun. Use hats and sunblock, and realize that sunblock needs to be reapplied after swimming or after sweating.
9. Use the back burners of the stove to prevent children from reaching up and touching hot pots and pans.
10. Always use oven mitts or potholders to remove hot items from the stove or microwave. Assume pots, pans and dishware are hot.
Yolanda Reed-Anthony took this selfie 15 minutes before her transplant.
By Daniel Dunaief
Yolanda Reed-Anthony’s grandparents, Dr. Frank Darras, and an anonymous donor likely saved the life of this devoted wife, mother, and daughter.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) to shut down most of New York’s economy and limit hospital activities to emergency procedures, Reed-Anthony had an unusual dream. In the dream her late grandparents, William and Rose Evans, brought her a white box. When she opened it, multicolored butterflies fluttered around her.
Intrigued by the dream, Reed-Anthony read that it suggested a new transition in life.
Sure enough, later that day, the Holbrook resident received the kind of call her brother Richard Reed, Jr. and her father, Richard Reed had gotten for themselves: a kidney was available, thanks to an anonymous donor who was a match for her.
The family has struggled with a kidney condition known as focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), which necessitates the use of dialysis at least twice a week.
The timing for Reed-Anthony made the decision about whether to accept the incredibly rare gift of a new organ problematic. “The thought” of passing up the kidney on March 12, in the midst of the pandemic “crossed my mind, but I quickly dismissed it because of the dream,” she said in a recent interview.
Yolanda Reed-Anthony with her brother Richard Jr. after his kidney transplant in January.
Reed-Anthony entered Stony Brook University Hospital, where Dr. Frank Darras, the Clinical Professor of Urology and Clinical/ Medical Director of the Renal Transplantation Program at Stony Brook Renaissance School of Medicine, awaited, along with a transplant team.
As Suffolk County became an epicenter for infections, with the number of sick in hospital and Intensive Care Unit beds increasing, people in need of organs faced increasingly difficult odds of finding a life-saving organ.
For starters, every person who became sick or died from COVID-19 was immediately ineligible to be a donor. Without effective treatment or a cure for the virus, the transplantation of an organ from an infected person into someone who needed the organ but likely couldn’t survive the infection raised the risk of such an operation above the benefits of the procedure.
The immunosuppressant drugs each organ recipient takes after the operation reduces the likelihood that the person will reject the organ. These drugs also, however, raise the chance that an infection of any kind, much less a lethal virus, would threaten the health and life of the recipient.
Reed-Anthony said the Stony Brook staff let her know that the hospital process would be different even than for her brother, who received his kidney in January.
The doctors and nurses made sure no one who wasn’t supposed to be in her room entered. “They were like secret service for me,” Reed-Anthony said. “They took precautions for me that were different than for my brother and father,” adding that she was well aware of the viral struggle that so many others in the hospital were enduring at the same time. She was in the hospital for five days by herself, with no visitors other than the medical staff.
Reed-Anthony said the staff was ad-libbing in the precautions they took with her, minimizing the risks during her period of extreme vulnerability. Several days after surgery she needed to walk, which is something her brother and father did up and down the hospital hallway. She never left her room, circling from the bed to the window to the bathroom at least six times.
Yolanda Reed-Anthony with her father Richard after his kidney transplant.
The social workers, meanwhile, stood by the door to ask questions, while the dietician wasn’t allowed in the room, with the nurses bringing the food tray in and out of the room.
Dr. Darras, who performed the surgeries for Yolanda, her father and brother, explained that the transplant team understood and appreciated the extreme demands COVID-19 placed on Stony Brook University Hospital and on the health care system throughout Long Island.
“We knew we had to work within the framework of the administration and the hospital to try to do what we needed to do for our patients without infringing on the big picture,” Darras said. “We knew we had to be good team players because every department had to have a redeployment of staff into other areas of the hospital.” Still, within the unprecedented needs of the rest of the hospital, the transplant team still felt like they could do what they needed safely for patients working against the unkind ticking of a clock.
While it took significant effort to find safe areas for the transplant group to use, Darras and other surgeons performed life-enhancing and saving surgeries in the midst of the COVID-19 firestorm.
Indeed, Darras led one of the transplants at 3:30 am on a Saturday night, when so many of the staff might otherwise have been sleeping, relaxing or stepping away from the intense health care drama that surrounds them. The mood in the room, however, was positive.
“Everybody that was involved felt that it was a really happy moment,” Darras said. “You couldn’t have found a happier group of people.”
The health care workers appreciated the opportunity to use their training towards a positive outcome. “Out of being in the fire, something good was happening,” said Darras. “It was a happy surgery. It gave people a reprieve and they wanted to do this again.”
Darras appreciates the heroic efforts of so many of his colleagues, who have done yeoman’s work in the face of the pandemic. He also believes the efforts of the transplant teams were heroic in taking care of patients who had life-altering surgeries in a unique environment.
At the same time that doctors and support staffs found safe places for these procedures, LiveOnNY, which is the nonprofit organ procurement organization for New York City, Long Island, Westchester and the lower Hudson Valley, has struggled to find donors during the pandemic.
For starters, everyone who contracted the virus became ineligible to donate an organ. Even those people who had filled out organ donor cards couldn’t save or extend the lives of others if they had the disease. “With so many deaths related to COVID, the potential for organ donation has been drastically reduced,” Helen Irving, the CEO of LiveOnNY said. In January and February, LiveOnNY was involved with 51 organs donations each month. In March, that number surged to 67. In April, as New York reached its viral peak, the number of organ donations fell to 10.
While Stony Brook University Hospital performed organ transplants during the pandemic, other donation programs slowed or stopped due to the virus. That is starting to normalize now, according to LiveOnNY.
Irving said the reduction in the ability to perform these operations is “quite devastating.” She has been acutely aware of the hospital deaths during the pandemic. New York State law requires hospitals to call any death into the organ procurement organization. At one point, LiveOnNY was receiving over 600 calls each day, when the normal number is closer to 150.
Additionally, with people avoiding the hospitals, even when they might have life-threatening conditions, the potential for organ donation also declines.
In normal times, LiveOnNY receives about 12 referrals per day from cardiac arrests or strokes. During the peak of the pandemic in early April, they averaged four. “If someone dies at home, there is no potential there to be an organ donor,” Irving said, although they can become a tissue donor.
Through the pandemic, Irving suggested that LiveOnNY will continue to search for the needle in a haystack that saves or extends someone’s life. The nonprofit is a part of a network that extends across a wider geographic area beyond New York. The group is part of 58 organ procurement organizations nationwide.
Irving encouraged New Yorkers to sign up to become donors, particularly in a post-COVID world. Typically, she would be making the case for signing up to become organ donors through community events. At this point, however, most of those events are no longer being held because of limitations on large gatherings.
“We have to educate the community that needs to know that organ donation is still possible,” Irving said. “Patients can’t wait on a transplant list. That message is far more important today than ever before. You can save someone’s life by signing up on the registry.”
People who would like to sign up can do so through the LiveonNY.org web site, by calling (866) NY-DONOR (693-6667) or through [email protected].
Organ donations were “always a miracle to begin with,” Irving said. “Now we’re asking for a bigger miracle.”
Reed-Anthony has signed up to be an organ donor herself. She is prepared to donate any organ a recipient might need. After all she and her kidneys have been through, she suggested those organs might not be the best choice.
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