Caption: Rachelle Zazzu, the chaplain at Mount Sinai Queens
The borough of Queens was hit particularly hard with COVID-19, and at Mount Sinai Queens we felt it from pillar to post. Fundamentally we were 99 percent COVID with almost double our normal census. I am the lone Chaplain at MSQ.
In the middle of the panic, fear, and confusion was a depth of fellowship, compassion, and support that I will remember all my life. And I have been a minister in my church for 35 years and working with spiritual support in hospitals for more than 30 of them.
We often say that at Mount Sinai Queens we are a family. It’s a statement that in many ways the staff uses to distinguish ourselves within the Health System. And never was that more true than during the past few months. It’s true that I was called on for prayer/spiritual/emotional and psychosocial support in more profound and encompassing ways. It’s also true that this was a collaboration more than a bestowal. The staff at MSQ are here for each other, here for the patient, and here for the patients’ families in ways that could bring me to my knees in gratitude.
During this time, our Palliative Care team, our ICU/IMCU teams, our respiratory therapists and our Emergency Department staff rose to the occasion magnificently. One of our nurse practitioners held the head of one of our patients as he expired. Our Palliative Care team members went into COVID-19 rooms with iPads for family members. I held bedside memorials for both parents of one of our staff members who died within a week of each other. The staff member’s entire team was also suited up in the room.
I’m glad the first wave is behind us. In addition to being the only Chaplain here, I am the caregiver for a parent with a progressive lung disease. It has been a hard road to hoe but my faith is strong, our staff is strong, the sense of family is strong, and our spirit is indomitable.
Submitted by Rachelle Zazzu, Chaplain, Mount Sinai Queens