6 minute read
A doctor returns to the ER after battling the virus
QUEENS STRONG
ER doctor returns to the COVID-19 fight
Dr. Shi-Wen Lee of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center is back in the fight against COVID-19 after two weeks as a patient. COURTESY PHOTO
by Michael Gannon Editor
continued from page 14
“At a place where some days you have one or two people there when you show up, you can have 50 or 60 when you’ve got plantains,” he said.
Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens has had its own army of 20 staffers and more than 130 volunteers in the field.
Since March the group has provided more than half a million meals at pop-up food pantries around the Diocese of Brooklyn; and thousands more at its 20 parishbased pantries.
He followed every protocol, taken every reasonable precaution and then some.
Yet Dr. Shi-Wen Lee, vice chairman of the Emergency Medicine Department at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center was not greatly surprised in March when he began feeling some of the first symptoms of the coronavirus.
“I work in the emergency room,” he said. “I’m exposed to everything in New York City. And we are the [emergency] hospital for Kennedy Airport, where people come from all over the world.”
The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene confirmed JHMC’s first COVID-19 death on March 11, with the hospital issuing a press release the next day.
The hospital pointed out that the very circumstances that at first might cause residents concern also allowed people to be sure that JHMC was there and ready.
“As a hospital with close proximity to JFK Airport and one that treats an ethnically diverse population, Jamaica Hospital has a great deal of experience treating a variety of contagious diseases and we will continue to be here for out community throughout this global outbreak.”
and early April, Lee had a patient’s eye view and “I was alone,” he said. “If something hapreflections om the illness and its treatment for pened, my wife couldn’t make any decisions nearly two weeks. — I would have to make them myself.”
Lee, like many in the medical profession The crisis, luckily, passed in just under two already had been self-quarantining from his weeks family at home by staying in their basement. He Lee was back in the fight at JHMC in did not have the complete isolation to which April. The terms “easy” and “busy” day are some people had to adjust. relative ones when one holds Lee’s position.
“A lot of doctors, nurses were sleeping in “Can you call back in two minutes?” he their basements, on the floor, in garages,” he asked last Thursday, having just finished a said. “I could still see my family, see their faces task that required his personal attention. at the top of the steps,” he said. “I’m feeling pretty good,” he said. “Initial
It was family members and his professional ly I was very weak. I’d lost a of muscle mass. I brethren who first noticed a change. lost 14 pounds.”
“My family, colleagues on calls said I soundHe still hasn’t recovered his sense of smell. ed out of breath, that I was getting winded Lee also said COVID-19 seems to have between sentences,” he said. changed seem patient’s
It manifested itself the families upon learning of a first five to six days like a tough of the f lu with a “ S ometimes there is a loved one’s death. “I think the medical cough. “I thought I had a mild need for family. community as a whole feels bad for the suffercase.” Then came he headache These circumstances i n g of t h e f a m i l ie s . Someti mes there is a and fever. “Then my son came don’t allow that.” need to have fa m ily. T h e s e c i r c u m s t a n c e s home one day. He said — Dr. Shi-Wen Lee don’t allow that.” ‘You don’t look good ...’” Lee said one surprise has
As circumstances would been the reaction of the have it, he was not treated at JHMC. families of COVID-19 victims upon learning
“I would have loved to be at Jamaica and get that their loved one has died. that extra TLC,” he said. “Unfortunately, when There are the reactions he has come to they take you out of the house in an ambulance, expect, such as anger and denial. they don’t give you a choice.” “With others, it’s more a sense of resigna
After admission, Lee was able to read the tion,” he said. screen of a portable X-ray they took of his chest, He believes it also has taken a toll not just specifically the lungs. on the doctors and nurses who re charged with
“It [coronavirus] was everywhere,” he said. frontline care.
Having treated COVID-19 patients in various Lee said people such as admission clerks, stages of the illness, he knew, intellectually, technicians and other hospital personnel also some of the difficulties and decisions patients have been seeing more and sicker patients and their families are forced to confront. than even veterans at their jobs are accus
Lee then had time to reflect on them, in a settomed to seeing. ting far more isolated than his basement, with “Doctors and nurses are used to dealing with only his caretakers coming to see him. death,” Lee said, “They aren’t.” Q
Staffers and volunteers with Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens has been running targeted neighborhood-level food pantries to keep residents supplied with meals, fresh produce and grocery staples. FILE PHOTO
Heroes for Queens’ hungry
Beginning ten days later, between March 21
All the organizations are accepting donations from those who are able to assist them financially.
Information on the agencies, their efforts and how to contribute can be obtained online.
City Harvest’s website is cityharvest.org. Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens can be reached at ccbq.org. Information on Citymeals on Wheels is available at citymeals.org.
The Food Bank of New York City can be reached at foodbanknyc.org. Q
Ozanam Hall of Queens Nursing Home
CALVARY HOSPITAL HOSPICE CENTER AT OZANAM HALL
42-41 201 Street Bayside, NY 11361-2550 718.423.2000 Admissions 718.971.2620 www.ozanamhall.org
5-Star Rating from CMS 24-Hour Skilled Nursing Care Facility
SHORT-TERM REHABILITATION LONG-TERM GERIATRIC CARE • Post-Surgical Care • In-house Medical Clinics • Cardiac Care • Stroke Care • Orthopedic Care • Physical and Occupational Therapy • Speech Language Therapy, Dysphagia Specialists • Enteral Services • Wound Care • IV, PICC, Midline • Private Rooms Available • Enteral Services • Wound Care • IV, PICC, Midline • Creative Activities • Beauty Parlor/Barber Shop • Pet Therapy • Waited Dining Service • Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Chapel Other Religious Services available • Pastoral Care • Individualized Meal Plans • Palliative Care • Wi-Fi Accessible • Convenient to All Public Transportation “We can never be too kind to an old person“
Mother Angeline Teresa, O.Carm., Foundress of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infi rm
©2019 M1P • OZAH-076133
