Governor, others mark one year of virus
Emotions ran the gamut Thursday at Jefferson Regional Medical Center as the hospital held a remembrance day, acknowledging the one-year anniversary of the first covid patient in the state with flowers, testimonials and dedications to the medical staff, survivors and those lost to the illness.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson attended the media event, held in a hospital meeting room, praising the Jefferson Regional staff members and saying they had led the way in the state in how to treat covid patients.
“The whole state of Arkansas is grateful,” Hutchinson said, “not just for what you’ve done in healing patients and ministering to people but also how you set the example for the state in terms of resilience, in terms of setting best practices and helping us to learn from Day One to Day 365. And the progress that’s been made, to a large extent, is a result of the work you’ve done here at this hospital.”
The governor also gave a shout-out to James Black, who became Pine Bluff’s and Arkansas’ Patient Zero as the first person in the state to test positive for covid.
“James, is that right?” Hutchinson asked Black, who stood along a side wall with his wife, Shaunika, and several members of the medical staff.
“Yes, sir,” Black said. “Well done. Well done” the governor said. “I know that you’ve been through it.
But thanks for being here and just by your living example sharing a story of this last year. It means a lot to the people of Arkansas that you’re willing to be here and commemorate this day.”
Black stayed in the hospital for almost 50 days and came close to succumbing to the coronavirus. Eventually, though, he improved enough to be released from Jefferson Regional, after which he went on to a rehab facility where he was able to regain his strength. On Thursday, a healthy looking Black stood during the almost-hourlong event and then talked at length with hospital staffers and members of the media.
The governor also thanked medical providers across the state, and noted that the vaccine and better medical practices are getting the upper hand on the pandemic. He said hospitalizations Thursday were below 300, “which is the lowest it’s been in six or seven months,” and that overall covid numbers are down.
“So we are making continuous progress against the virus,” he said.
Brian Thomas, president and CEO of Jefferson Regional, said that a year ago, it was a day that started out like any other.
“We had no idea how significantly our lives would change over the next 24 hours or the next many months,” Thomas said, adding that the plans that had been made for handling covid patients were quickly put into action.
“Our incredible team did what they do best,” Thomas said. “They responded!
“Despite a lot of uncertainty and a lot of media attention, our employees and medical staff engaged and did what they are trained to do. They continued to take care of patients.”
Several nurses also spoke, describing some of the highs and lows of the past year.
Kathleen Bottoms, a registered nurse and the manager of the oncology practice and infusion services, said she had seen covid from both sides.
“I have worked at Jefferson Regional for nine years,” she said. “I am also a covid-19 survivor. This has been an unbelievably tough year for all of us, but after seeing the pandemic as both a caregiver and a patient, I am prouder than ever to represent our hospital. I am equally proud to represent all the others who contracted the virus and recovered.”
Another registered nurse, Linda Richardson, who is the manager of the operating room, said she was happy to have seen patients like Bottoms recover from covid and return to their daily lives. She also acknowledged those who did not return.
“Sadly, not all patients are fortunate enough to achieve that happy ending,” Richardson said, adding that 135 Jefferson Regional patients had died from covid-19 during the past year.
“Some of them were people we knew personally, including Lois Merrill, who worked in outpatient surgery at the Jefferson Professional Center. Lois was a great employee and a wonderful friend, and like so many others, she was with us one day and gone just a few days later.”
Richardson then drew the audience’s attention to the many pots of daisies that had been placed around the room.
“There are actually 135 daisy stems to represent each person we lost to covid-19 over the past year here at Jefferson Regional,” she said.
The last nurse to speak Thursday may have been more closely associated with covid than anyone else in the room. Robin Peddy is the manager of 2 Center East, one of the hospital’s designated covid units, and said she and her staff “lived it intensely all day, every day.”
She said monitoring patients, gearing up in protective equipment that left abrasions on their faces and the possibility of contamination all were part of every breath the staff took.
“These things were front of mind every single moment of every day,” she said. “Our hearts were as heavy as our physical load, as we did our very best to bring our patients through unknown territory.”
After the nurses finished, an emotional video created by the hospital’s marketing department was shown, filled with short videos and photos collected from a year of fighting covid: doctors and nurses giving the thumbs up, an administrator delivering a box of doughnuts or boxes of pizza to the staff, medical staffers dressed in extensive protective equipment that included full head gear and breathing equipment, some people smiling, some looking as if they had been on the job well beyond eight hours and patients, arms outstretched in victory, being wheeled out the door on the day of their release from the hospital.
Mayor Shirley Washington read a resolution from the city designating the day as the covid day of remembrance, noting the city’s “great sympathy” for the lives lost.
Hutchinson said that to commemorate the day, the Forestry Division of the state Department of Agriculture was donating 10,000 oak saplings that would be available to the public for free for those who wanted to plant a tree in memory of a lost loved one. The governor said he and his wife, Susan, were going to plant one on the grounds of the Governor’s Mansion in memory of all Arkansans who had lost their lives in the pandemic.