Saleema Stanislaus, Medical Clinical Associate, is a mom of two young children—ages 15 months and 7 years —and has been an employee of Mount Sinai for a year. She volunteered to give out PPE at 7 Linsky for the evening shift, from 3 pm to 11 pm, for four weeks. She is currently fasting during for Ramadan and still finds a way to help during this COVID-19 pandemic. I would like to say thank you!
Ashley Boswell
Lead medical clinical associate
Mount Sinai Doctors – West 23rd Street
A patient’s daughter was extremely grateful for the care and empathy displayed by Mercedes Estevez, RN, Clinical Nurse on GP9, especially in the patient’s last moments. Although the family did not arrive until the patient had passed, Mercedes stayed by the patient’s bedside and held hand until she peacefully drifted away, providing that comforting presence to the patient in her final moments.
Stephen Lin
Patient Representative
The Mount Sinai Hospital
I would like to recognize my co-worker Omar Singh, a pharmacy technician, for the effortless work during the most busy days of COVID-19. He is delivering all the medications needed in all the units, loading them in our Pyxis machines. He is a calm person and doesn’t hesitate to go and deliver all the drugs needed during his shift. He has stayed strong and dedicated to our Pharmacy during all the difficult times.
Victoria Rabanal
Pharmacy Technician
Mount Sinai Brooklyn
Talia Stark, MD, and Aaron Lesser celebrating on their big day.
One of my friends who works for Mount Sinai thought that you might be happy to get a feel-good story: My girlfriend Talia Stark, MD, was reassigned about five weeks ago from her surgical residency over to the COVID ICU at Mount Sinai Beth Israel and has been an absolute champ, working incredibly hard in an unfamiliar environment–moving from surgery to medicine–with a very challenging schedule. She was working six-day work weeks with 15-hour days at the peak of things. On Thursday, April 23, I surprised Talia with a proposal on her fire escape at 7 pm, just at the city was saluting health care workers and all they do. A neighbor shot a video for us, and our happy moment was reported on CBSN New York. By the way, she said yes!
Aaron Lesser
Carla Alves-Miraldo, RN, Senior Clinical Nurse, has been a resource for patients requiring palliative care throughout the hospital. She is providing coaching to nurses who are not as familiar with a palliative plan of care to ensure patient goals and wishes are honored. Rehab has called her on multiple occasions to review cases and she is always available with clinical expertise and professionalism. She is even helping transport patients to ensure a safe transition to the PCU. Thank you Carla!
Amy Newman
Assistant Nurse Manager
The Mount Sinai Hospital
Today marked the welcome returns of Jay Dubowsky, MD, and Michael Mannino, MD, from their deployment to Mount Sinai South Nassau. In talking to both over the past weeks, it was obvious that, while the hours were long and the work demanding both physically and emotionally, there was a true sense of dedication and purpose in their work. I received accolades about their skills and teamwork from their colleagues at South Nassau. But this didn’t surprise me, having worked with them for the past twenty years. Knowing them, I’m certain they viewed this experience as a privilege to serve. We at Mount Sinai Doctors – Manhasset give them our greatest thanks and appreciation.
Steve Tranchina, MD
Medical Director
Department of Medicine
Mount Sinai Doctors – Manhasset
Social worker Elhassane Aghazzaf, LSCW, went out of his way to obtain a replacement CPAP machine for a patient whose machine had malfunctioned. He spoke with the patient, researched the CPAP company, called the representative, obtained the patient’s insurance information, and even coordinated transportation for the patient back to his shelter. Hassan went above and beyond his duty and deserves recognition for his efforts.
Ahmed Chaudhry, MD
Emergency Medicine
Mount Sinai Queens
Food and Nutrition staff Lewis Garnett (known to all as “Mr. Lou”) and Maldorn “Trini” Marajeen.
It would fill a whole library to write about all the heroic moments of Mount Sinai West Strong Teamwork. It brings tears of admiration and awe. Our physicians, nurses, EMTs, and paramedics are the front-line health care workers. I like to think of other workers as the “front-runners.” Among those our Patient Support Services teams, led by Jocelyn Fuller, who are always on the run, meeting the urgent needs of the front-line team members who take care of our patients. Together, we can “harmonize and humanize” a precarious pandemic situation with our strong teamwork as a Mount Sinai Health System community; a place deep in our hearts tells us so.
Priscilla Loanzon
Director, Center for Advanced Medical Simulation
Mount Sinai West
Abigail Belasen, MD, has seamlessly integrated into our 10 Center COVID unit family. She is incredibly helpful and always willing to come and evaluate a patient or listen to concerns. She is creative and extremely empathetic. She truly acknowledges the human experience of both the patients and staff during this difficult time and does whatever she can to support us all. She is a valued member of the team, and we feel so lucky to have her!
Elizabeth Tortu, RN
Clinical Nurse
The Mount Sinai Hospital
Vanessa Andara at Mount Sinai Doctors – Astoria, has shown great teamwork and empathy in the clinic, but also while working in the café—where she was deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic. She runs that café as smoothly as possible! Thanks, Vanessa, for giving us the lunch updates!
Caterina D’Alessandro
Medical Assistant
Mount Sinai Doctors – Astoria
Desktop Support Specialist Leon Villa continues to commute to work to the heart of midtown at the Corporate Services Center on 42nd Street to provide computer support for Mount Sinai. With the sudden thrust of everyone into having VPN access, Mr. Villa and the Information Technology Department are managing the immense load of tickets submitted daily. Many times they are going from floor to floor rebooting computers, loading software, or remoting into our home desktop to resolve issues so that we may continue our work from home without missing a beat. Thank you to Leon Villa, Joseph Santella, and the IT Department at Mount Sinai.
Kelly Ware
Data Analyst II
Finance Department
Corporate Services Center
James Salonia, MD
Kudos to our Chef Tim Dugan and his amazing team Nastassia Boyce, Trushia Sylvain, and Michelle Gibbs-Charles! They sent me off with a boxful of Girls Scout Cookies for our Critical Care Attending Physician Hero James Salonia, MD, who has been tirelessly taking care of our very sick patients. I told the team that Dr. Salonia loves Girls Scout cookies. Dr. Salonia had just had a hard day, but was all smiles and very happy to receive those cookies, which he immediately shared with his team. He thanks everyone for such an act of kindness.
Priscilla Loanzon
Director, Center for Advanced Medical Simulation
Mount Sinai West