Suzanne Hanen, NP, spent the entire last hour of a patient’s life with him last week, as he had no one in his family to sing his name. She stayed with him in a COVID room until he died—bringing him the care, the tenderness, the compassion, and the humanity he deserved. This patient was known for being feisty and rebellious; instead of squashing or marginalizing him, she came to him in fellowship to fly that flag. Thank you, Suzanne, for the empathy, caring, authentic generosity of spirit, and integrity that you bring every day, and especially to this patient. May you both be blessed.
Rachelle Zazzu, Chaplain
Spiritual Care
Mount Sinai Queens
Our team in the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit would like to recognize Koichi Nomoto, MD, PhD. You can always find Dr. Koichi at the bedside helping nurses and patients. He truly always goes above and beyond for our team and patients. All of the nurses from the CSICU would like to personally thank him for his amazing support during these challenging times.
Mackenzy Scott, RN, BSN
Nurse Manager
Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit
The Mount Sinai Hospital
Proning team at The Mount Sinai Hospital.
I want to thank all my colleagues in the proning team for doing an amazing job in the past month I’ve been working with them. We are from different departments and joined together as one, to form this team. Our job is to go around the COVID-19 units and prone patients on vents to help them breathe better. It is a last effort in order to help patients to survive on these vents. There have been patients benefiting from this, and it is rewarding to hear we are doing something good. It is scary to constantly go in and out of these rooms being exposed, but this team always has each other’s backs. We always check on each other making sure we have the proper PPE on before we go in and assure each other we’ll be OK. I couldn’t have been placed with a better group. I love and appreciate them all.
Jessica Regos, RVS
Vascular Ultrasound
The Mount Sinai Hospital
Stevene Marquez, CNA, takes care of COVID-positive patients with exceptional heart. Even with special PPE requirements and so many patients, he has been making sure every patient is eating and resting, with no needs unmet. Last week, his wife even brought brownies for all of us!
Anna Lee, RN
2 East
Mount Sinai Queens
I’ve had the opportunity to work with Samantha Collins, RN, while I’ve been redeployed to Nursing Education. She was so welcoming during my first week. I learned a lot by watching her on the floor, talking to the staff. It was a great experience working with her to help educate our nursing staff and make Mount Sinai Queens more prepared for whatever comes at us next.
John Quijije, RN
Family Health
Mount Sinai Queens
Nancy Ngok, RN, was a bedside nurse for a COVID-19-positive mom in KP7, and we collaborated to do a Zoom session for the mom to see her baby down in the NICU. Nancy was more than willing to create a Zoom account in order to make this session work for this family. It was very comforting to watch Nancy work with the family and to know that our patients are in good hands with employees like Nancy. I am happy and honored to work with her!
Claire Pettengill
Child Life Specialist
The Mount Sinai Hospital
From left, residents Sarah Yun, PharmD; Carli Beal, PharmD; and Kyle Farina, PharmD.
On Saturday, April 18, the pharmacy was contacted to send 1,000 vials of neuromuscular blocker to our sister site, Mount Sinai Morningside. Three pharmacy residents—Carli Beal, Kyle Farina, and Sarah Yun—who were onsite doing their assigned responsibilities jumped in and helped me count, box up, and load into a van 1,000 vials of this critical medication to transport across town. Without being asked, they helped make an arduous task almost effortless because of their teamwork. We were able to do it together in under an hour! They saved my day, and I am very grateful.
Simone Muller, PharmD
Clinical Manager, Pharmacy
The Mount Sinai Hospital
Nicole Ollivierra, a business associate in Restorative Rehabilitation, has been a rock of support to our team on KCC2S during the COVID-19 response. She is resourceful, positive, smart, steadfast, and hard working. Our unit functions smoothly because Nicole is aware of the needs of her teammates and our patients. Nicole takes ownership of and pride in her work and it is reflected in the strong relationships she has with all of the staff. She is a trusted colleague. Thank you Nicole!!!
Amy Newman, RN
Assistant Nurse Manager
The Mount Sinai Hospital
Christine Murphy, Senior Physician Assistant for Orthopedics, was redeployed as a result of elective surgeries being canceled during the COVID-19 crisis. Christine took the role of lead PPE coach, to train other redeployed staff who were assigned to PPE distribution points outside of COVID-specific units. The unit-based PPE coaches distributed PPE to staff working on the units, assuring they had everything they needed to protect themselves and knew how to properly don the PPE upon entry and doff the PPE upon exit. Christine worked closely with Krystina Woods, MD, our Director of Infection Prevention, on this process, and in creating a training video for proper use of PPE.
Brian Miller
Director, Marketing and Communications
Mount Sinai West
Today on KCC9, I observed business associate Marie Rodriguez handle multiple incoming calls from COVID patients’ family members who desperately wanted to receive a medical update about their loved ones. Marie handled the calls in English and Spanish with great empathy, calm, and professionalism. Thank you so much for keeping our patients and families connected during this crisis!
Silvina de la Iglesia, Associate Director
Language Services
The Mount Sinai Hospital
Lorraine Lifumbe, LPN
I’d like to thank Lorraine Lifumbe, LPN, for an act of kindness. I was struggling carrying a heavy loaded box of cans of flavored bottled water to take to our Critical Care Physician Heroes. While waiting for the elevator, Lorraine saw me and graciously offered to carry the box for me, taking off a heavy load. I was so relieved and grateful. We don’t know each other. I am amazed that this COVID-19 situation provides many opportunities to know more of our co-workers and how amazing each one is.
Priscilla Loanzon
Director, Center for Advanced Medical Simulation
Mount Sinai West