A tribute to healthcare workers during the Coronavirus pandemic

Dr. Ray Lorenzoni is in his second year fellowship of pediatric cardiology at the Children’s Hospital in Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, NY. As a young physician, he was confronted with the surge of COVID-19 cases that hit his location in the Bronx and the surrounding boroughs of New York City. Dr. Lorenzoni witnessed what was happening as COVID-19 cases grew in Italy and was surprised at how early he was recruited to help assist in treating COVID-19 cases at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

Montefiore Medical Center transformed part of its children’s hospital into a 40-bed adult COVID-19 unit and enlisted pediatric physicians such as Dr. Lorenzoni to help treat adults with COVID-19. Even medical students graduated early.

Dr. Lorenzoni says, “Coming into the hospital, it was a little bit unreal. The whole floor was filled with adult patients. A pediatric physician needing to take care of critical adult patients is unheard of. Pediatrics is a career where most of your patients get better. But these were very with-it adults who were scared. They knew what the risk was.”

“One of my main mantras is to sit down with somebody. And that was very tough in this environment because our protective equipment didn’t surround us,” says Dr. Lorenzoni. “So we were discouraged from sitting down on the bed next to a patient to have a deep discussion or sitting down in a chair and being at eye level with the patient.”

Instead, Dr. Lorenzoni would try leaning against a wall to offer a patient a sense of calm and comfort rather than leaning over them.

Dr. Lorenzoni shared one story of a man in his mid-40s who was a COVID-19 patient and through his long stay in the hospital would ask, “Doc, I know I’m not getting better, what else can we do?” Unfortunately, this man was placed on a ventilator and after some time received his final rest. Dr. Lorenzoni and this young man had many conversations together, and Dr. Lorenzoni shares, “ ... he broke down. And I broke down a little bit in tears.”

On another occasion, Dr. Lorenzoni would stop in on a young woman in her 30s who was not doing well. He would stop after finishing his rounds just to visit with her because she would ask the medical team members to stop in whenever they could to visit with her. She would be the first one of Dr. Lorenzoni’s patients to die. She was near his age, and he said that was a tough day. However, he said she was not alone because the medical team made the extra effort to visit with her, even when her family could not, and they were at her side when she passed.

Dr. Lorenzoni’s story is just one of many of our great healthcare heroes who have modeled the healing love of Christ and have courageously, even at the risk of their own health, committed themselves to the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Dr. Victoria Koster, a local radiologist, says, “We must call upon our faith in the Lord to persevere and remain grounded in order to best serve our patients and co-workers during this great time of uncertainty and need.”
 
Our faith is transcendent and can lift us up in times of great need and help us extend charity even at personal costs. One of the greatest images of God’s healing concern is found in the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37). After a priest and a Levite walk past a man who was dying on the side of the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, a Samaritan man passing by “felt compassion” and “bandaged his wounds” and “brought him to an inn and took care of him.”

The Samaritan man says to the innkeeper, “Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.” The Samaritan man, who was considered a foreigner, had compassion when no one else would and interrupted his travels to stop and help this sick man. He offered healing with the love of Christ without counting the cost.

The lives of many of our healthcare workers in hotspots of the Coronavirus pandemic such as New York City and New Orleans have been interrupted. They have worked long hours and have sacrificed their time to place themselves in the gift of service to the most needy and vulnerable. They have worn extra protective care equipment, taken on new roles and responsibilities, and placed others before themselves.
Perhaps, our lives have also been interrupted. How have we responded? So many in our medical field have responded by honoring their duty to offer care without counting the costs. From rising to the occasion or from placing their trust in the Lord, they have grown closer to God. How have I grown closer to God during the Coronavirus pandemic?

Healthcare workers model the image of Christ the Healer who is compassionate and loving with all who are in need of healing. Catholic healthcare workers and religious institutions were critical in bringing the healing love of Christ to the victims of the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 and in today’s Coronavirus crisis.

As we pray for our healthcare workers on the front lines, let us remember the example and the intercession of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos. Blessed Seelos vigilantly and courageously ministered to the victims of the yellow fever pandemic that overtook New Orleans in 1867. After contracting the yellow fever just one year after arriving in New Orleans, he passed away. He was an image of Christ crucified who took on our illness and bore it before the Lord. Blessed Seelos was beatified by Saint John Paul II in the Great Jubilee Year 2000.

The interview of Dr. Ray Lorenzoni is taken from NPR – www.npr.org. Questions on medical ethics during the Coronavirus pandemic can be forwarded to Father Tregre at [email protected].

(Father Joseph Tregre is the medical ethicist for the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux and pastor of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Church parish in Houma.)