Rachel Pappalardo, RN, is one of our heroes at Mount Sinai, and has been for years. She is the heart of our lung cancer program and has supported our program and most important, our patients, for years now.
Through the COVID-19 crisis, Rachel has worked tirelessly, always with a smile on her face and an attitude that keeps us all going. Her young son has been quarantined away with her parents in Pennsylvania while she continues to work tirelessly.
We often connect with him on FaceTime during clinic, which brings a smile to all of us. Rachel, however, has stayed in the city and continues to give something special to us and to our patients, who are grappling with the uncertainty of this time, dealing with life-threatening diagnoses as well as COVID-19—hope.
I have been working on the COVID-19 floors, opening clinical trials, and have donated convalescent plasma, but whenever someone calls me a hero, I like to tell them that our nurses are the true front-line heroes. Rachel is a hero.
Thomas Marron, MD, PhD, Assistant Director of Early Phase and Immunotherapy Trials, The Tisch Cancer Institute