West Newsmagazine 12-16-20

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10 I December 16, 2020 WEST NEWSMAGAZINE @WESTNEWSMAG WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITIES THAT HIGH TECH DENTISTRY HAS TO OFFER Will you help to make the season bright for area families? Your gift of $50 or more will help us to purchase gift cards for each family we serve. Your support helps single mothers with children, veterans, seniors and those living with disabilities. DIGITAL IMPRESSIONS ARE MORE COMFORTABLE SEE YOUR NEW SMILE HERE! SmileView TM Scan this code to see a preview of your teeth straightened by Invisalign Voted one of St. Louis' "Top Dentists" 2020 - St. Louis Magazine $50 OFF Treatment FREE Implant Consultation FREE Invisalign Consultation Please donate by November 7 at circleofconcern.org to donate online or call 636.861.2623. IMPLANTS ARE INCREDIBLY VERSATILE! STABILIZE LOOSE DENTURES OR REPLACE ALL TEETH IN ONE DAY! OUR INVISALIGN CAN STRAIGHTEN TEETH IN 4 MONTHS INSTEAD OF 2 YEARS 14560 Manchester Rd. Suite 25 (Conveniently located in Winchester Plaza by St. Louis Bread Co.) Please visit our website: www.ClineDentalGroup.com or call us at 636-230-8081 The hawThorne Inn Catering for West County for over 25 years! Carryout Special (Feeds 25) Pasta, House Salad, Appetizer and Dessert Starting at $185.00 Specializing in Large Pan Pasta, Lasagna, Penne Chicken, Salads, Appetizers and Desserts! See our full catering menu online at www.thehawthorneinn.net • Open for Lunch and Dinner every day at 11AM! 636-451-0004 • 123 Front Street • Labadie, MO 63055
FACEBOOK.COM/WESTNEWSMAGAZINE WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM By KATE UPTERGROVE There’s no denying that 2020 was a more than difficult year, and yet, in the midst of all its challenges, heroes emerged. Each of us have heard stories of students who volunteered to make personal protective equipment (PPE), teachers who pivoted more than once to ensure that virtual learning was all that it could be, and healthcare workers who geared up in layers of PPE and worked exhausting shifts to care for COVID-19 patients. We wish we could share every one of those stories, but space is limited. What’s not limited is our gratitude. So, as we look back across 2020, we wanted to share just a few of those stories – and say thanks to all the heroes making a difference every day. • • • “As everyone can attest to, it’s been kind of a crazy year, kind of a learn-as-you-go year,” said Joe Woodrome, an SSM Health emergency services technician. Through all the changes, he said one of the most important gifts he can give his patients is reassurance; but with the unexpected nature of the COVID-19 virus, reassurance hasn’t always been easy. “There’s some happy stories. There’s some sad stories,” Woodrome said. He reflected on one elderly gentleman who was coming close to the end of his life. “He lives by himself at home and was concerned for his family and very aware that it was coming closer to his time. So he came to the emergency department. It was really touching because we haven’t been allowing visitors into the ER, except in extreme cases, of course, so in a way we were like his family.” Woodrome said the gentleman shared stories of his life which proved to be a good lesson. “It’s good to remember that patients aren’t just a name, or a face, or a room number. People have stories and lives,” Woodrome said. Jenna Manoli, RN, works on the fourth floor at SSM St. Joseph Hospital in St. Charles, which formerly housed the hospital’s cardiac telemetry unit. “Since March, we’ve been turned into the COVID unit so we have been solely taking care of COVID patients,” Manoli said. “It has been kind of a rollercoaster. “It’s been hard, honestly. You see these patients come in and you hear their stories, you talk to their family members, you hear their concerns and then, when they have a status change, you see them gasping for air. There’s been more times, being on the COVID unit, when we’re putting our patients into body bags, which is quite different than what we were doing whenever we were the cardiac telemetry floor. Nine times out of 10, you could manage the care of (cardiac patients) but with COVID, there are times when it almost seems like it’s out of your hands. The virus just takes over.” • • • Katie Johns, RN, has worked in St. Luke’s ICU for five years. Like Manoli, she has been on the front line of the COVID-19 response. And like her colleagues in hospitals across the country she has gone to extreme measures to bring her patients and their families compassion alongside critical care. This past October, Johns was caring for a patient with COVID-19 who had to have expressed sorrow for my ordeal. She stayed with me as I watched his life ebb away.” • • • Like her colleagues across country, Rachel Bruning, RN, a charge nurse on the COVID-19 floor at Missouri Baptist Medical Center, said the unknowns of the virus have made coming into work very difficult. Even now, with healthcare workers knowing more about the virus and the precautions that need to be taken to care safely for patients, the anxiety is still very real. “Some of our hardest days are now,” Bruning said. “We are looking at this pandemic in a whole new light. It’s still very scary, we know what we are walking into, and these don’t make for easy days.” Like Manoli and Johns, Bruning and her team are more than just nurses these days. They are also serving as family support systems and safety advocates, striving to protect each other from COVID-19 and hoping that the general public will hear their message about necessary precautions. “What we’d love for our community to understand is so very simple,” Bruning explained. “They can help us and help life support removed. Afterward, the patient’s wife notified St. Luke’s that Johns had “moved mountains” to help the patient’s wife be able to say her last goodbyes. It was not an easy task since the wife had also tested positive for COVID-19. “Her kindness and compassion during this was above and beyond any I have known,” the wife wrote of Johns. “She explained everything that was going on and Rachel Bruning, RN December 16, 2020 WEST NEWSMAGAZINE I NEWS I 11 HEROES IN HINDSIGHT Looking back at some of the people who made a difference in 2020 Woodrome Dr. Jeremy Leidenfrost and St. Luke’s ECMO team themselves by simply wearing a mask, being socially distant from people outside of their family, and washing their hands.” Bruning and her team understand “pandemic faigue.” They’re tired, too. But they’re not about to give up. “All nurses have been called to care for our patients during this pandemic,” Bruning said. “We are tired, but we are reaching deep down to get our community through. It’s something we were called to do, and we are not turning our back on anyone in need of care.” • • • BJC St. Peters ICU nurse LeeAnn embodies that commitment. In a recent letter to the hospital, the wife of one patient wrote about how LeeAnn’s kindness made the unthinkable bearable. “I would call every day and all of the nurses were very nice but LeeAnn just stood out,” the patient’s wife wrote in a note to the hospital. She noted that her husband entered the hospital’s hospice program on Oct. 8. At that time, she and one other family member could visit him, suited up in full PPE. “My grandson and I went in and my daughter and granddaughter stood outside the glass wall/door of his room. LeeAnn was there since she works days. I can’t tell you what a blessing to us she was,” the wife wrote. “She helped my grandson and me suit up; she comforted and answered questions for my daughter and granddaughter. Once they took him off the ventilator, she never left his room, always talking to me for the 20 minutes that he lived. “She treated us like family.” • • • Not all heroes are involved in direct patient care. Diane Ray, Heather Thompson, Kristin Garrett, Beth Clamp and Sue Scego are part of St. Luke’s Incident Command Center. Ray is St. Luke’s senior vice president, network chief nursing officer and St. Luke’s Hospital chief operating officer. Thompson is a senior director of nursing. Garrett is a director of nursing. Clamp is a director of nursing. Scego is a senior director of nursing. Together, they assist with protocol and procedure decisions on everything from care management to visitor policies. They run daily meetings and communicate with employees in the entire St. Luke’s network on the latest COVID-19 information. This year has flipped everything upside down, but the Incident Command Center has been the hospital’s “guiding light.” • • • See HEROES IN HINDSIGHT, page 39
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West Newsmagazine 12-16-20

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