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“When I was working the Covid Assessment Team (CAT) I saw one of our prenatal patients who had tested positive, said Courtney Allen, CNM She came in because she was not feeling well. Her pulse was high and she was breathing the fastest that I have ever seen an adult breathe. I told her she needed to go to the hospital and we could call for an ambulance. She started crying. I thought she was afraid of what would happen. She told me she had been to a hospital the night before and was treated very poorly. She felt like she was an inconvenience and was sent home rather abruptly after being told she probably infected a bunch of people. She did not want to go back and feel like that again. Her husband who was in the car with her started crying because he felt so bad about the way she was treated. I talked them into going to another hospital and I called ahead to let the staff know what she had experienced. They met her at the entrance and took great care of her. She was admitted and stayed for a few weeks because she was so sick. Had she not gone I do not know what would have happened to her and her baby. I called the hospital she first visited and the Obstetrics Department was quick to respond. We met to discuss that prenatal patient numbers are different. What is a safe range for an average adult is not necessarily the same during pregnancy. This led to further guidelines being established for pregnant women with Covid symptoms.” Pandemic or not, babies do not stop coming. We delivered all of our OneWorld babies and helped cover shortages in other clinics as needed. The social work and volunteer teams delivered countless baby bags, gift cards to help with basic needs and boxes of food to help our patients. “At the beginning of the pandemic one of the hardest things was assigning staff to the Covid Assessment Team (CAT). We did not have much data at that point and it felt like I could be putting them in harm’s way. That gets to your soul fast,” said Sarah Miller, APRN and Associate Medical Services Director. “Every employee that I assigned to a role, said ‘Put me in. I’m here to help.’ I put myself in as well and we worked alongside each other. I realize now that I’ve been in firefighting mode and I haven’t processed much of what has happened.”
I have looked into the eyes of so many, doing everything they can for the community and see that they are on empty – they would never admit it and they would point to someone else that was giving their all.
Joel Dougherty, OneWorld Chief Operating Officer
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