The Mount Sinai Health System’s annual Crystal Party fundraiser saluted the outstanding work of its clinicians and scientists, and staff and students, who heroically confronted the COVID-19 pandemic. A tribute video captured many poignant first-person accounts from several different perspectives, including those of grateful patients who received care at Mount Sinai. Here are some of their reflections. See the entire video here.
Jeremy Boal, MD, Executive Vice President, Chief Clinical Officer, Mount Sinai Health System; and President of Mount Sinai Beth Israel and Downtown
“We couldn’t be in denial. We couldn’t say, ‘Ah, it’s not going to be that bad. We’ll just get through it doing what we normally do.’ We actually had to grapple with this idea that in order for us to get through this, to help our city through this, we were going to have to behave in ways we had never behaved before.”
Vicki LoPachin, MD, MBA, Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Mount Sinai Health System
“What is the right equipment that our staff need? What is the right protective equipment? How do you wear it? How long can you wear it? What are the right treatment protocols? We had to pull together the great experts across our Health System and great clinical minds, and then marry that with what we were seeing clinically with the patients in New York.”
Judith A. Aberg, MD, the Dr. George Baehr Professor of Clinical Medicine and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases
“Within a period of even a week, we were opening up clinical trials, looking at potent anti-inflammatories and antivirals, and by the Fall, we had transfused convalescent plasma to more than 1,400 individuals.”
James C. Tsai, MD, President, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai
“New York Eye and Ear played a pivotal role because we were able to be a resource to the other hospitals. Hundreds of our dedicated physicians, nurses, and other staff were redeployed to other hospitals in the Mount Sinai Health System.”
Rohini Bahethi, MD, who was a third-year medical student in 2020 when she served as a leader of a vast COVID-19 volunteer workforce of medical and graduate students
“We had over 530 people. And then, at the end of a three-month period, we had over 30,000 hours logged by students, which is so incredible.”
Rev. Amy Strano, MDiv, Director of Spiritual Care and Education
“The pandemic has been a struggle for all of humanity and for every single human being. And how do we make sense of that? How do we keep going day to day?
Lynne D. Richardson, MD, Co-Director, Institute for Health Equity Research
“COVID has ripped off the band-aid and shown all of us who gets sick and who dies in America when the pandemic hit.”
Carol R. Horowitz, MD, MPH, Dean for Gender Equity, and Director, Institute for Health Equity Research
“People aren’t sick because they didn’t try hard enough, or they didn’t behave well enough. People are sicker because they live in a place or are treated in a way that it’s much harder to stay healthy.”
Nitza Rochez, avid marathon runner who, a month after being diagnosed with COVID-19, started to experience severe headaches, dizziness, and heaviness of her limbs, severely impairing her mobility
“Before COVID, I was actually in one of the best spots of my adult life. I ran marathons. I was at my physically fittest and strongest. “[After COVID], my family had to take care of me because I was so ill. And, initially, the connection was not made that it was post-COVID. I just kept getting told that it was in my head as I was getting sicker and sicker. Getting dismissed, it’s crushing. It really is, because you really do feel hopeless. “Once I started at Mount Sinai [Center for Post-COVID Care], I was given steroids, I felt a difference. Physical therapy. I was advised to go on an anti-inflammatory diet. I was given care and guidance.”
Rodrigo Saval, the Mount Sinai Health System’s first inpatient, who spent 54 days at Mount Sinai West; when he was released he was the hospital’s 500th COVID-19 discharge
“I think that what I would tell people is to never lose hope. No matter how bad it is, it’s going to get better. There’s light after the tunnel. And it was quite a tunnel. “2021 is a new beginning for me. I’m so thankful to be alive, to be able to be home. And so thankful to all the staff, doctors, and nurses at Mount Sinai West.”