HISTORIC MOMENT
Samaritas first senior facility in county to receive vaccine
Eugenie Beall said she made an informed decision to receive the COVID-19 vaccination as a resident of Samaritas Senior Living of Bloomfield Hills.
She was one of 95 people, both residents and staff, who were the first at a long-term care facility in Oakland County to be vaccinated. It was a historicmoment onWednesday for all involved.
“When you’ve lived as many years as I have you never can be sure of anything, but I think this is a positive response to this situation. I also think it’smy contribution,’’ said Beall, who is 85.
“I’m an English teacher and so I keep thinking of John Milton who said, ‘ They also serve who only stand and wait.’ That’s what we did while we were here,’’ Beall said. “We
couldn’t be out and about facing this dilemma in the way you people do every day, but I am in a very small way contributing to data that is being gathered about how people respond, how people of my age respond, how women respond. In some small way, I hope that will be helpful.’’
Ashley Coley, the administrator at Samaritas, does not know how they were selected to be first but could not have beenmore thankful to the Oakland County Health Division which administered the Pfizer vaccine and has provided guidance all through the pandemic.
“Our average age is 92 and, as we all know, older adults are negatively impacted by COVID more so than younger populations,’’ Coley said. “We thought it was really important to take this first step, so we can lead the way and hopefully the community will follow and we can get one step closer to connecting our residents with their families.’’
Samaritas is a nonprofit, faith-based health and human services agency that serves more than 14,000 in Michigan. At this facility they have 53 independent residents, 15 residents in assisted living and 27 staff members. They all were set to receive the vaccine on Wednesday.
Since March, one resident and two staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. In Michigan, there have been 4,650 resident deaths and 61 staff deaths at senior living facilities.
“We’re in the business of people and connecting people. One of the hardest things throughout this pandemic is we’ve been doing a lot of hard things that were also the right things and some of those things were socially distancing our community from the rest of the community,’’ Coley said. “This is a step forward to go back to getting families together and having people engage in relationships in ways that are meaningful to them.’’
On Wednesday, the staff members were the first to be vaccinated.
Sandy Gordon, a certified nursing assistant, was the very first one to have the needle pushed into her arm. Her dad, Sam Orlando, and her daughter Hannah Gordon, who both also work at Samaritas were vaccinated too.
“Three how cool said.
She said it’s been tough since March, trying to help the residents get through the pandemic, making sure they don’t forget to wear their masks and keep social distance.
“Just recently, we had our first case and had to go on quarantine for 14 days. Some residents didn’t understand and they thought we all had the virus because we were on quarantine,’’ Gordon said. “But when we sit with them and spend the time with them and explain things to them and comfort them— that’s the big thing — it eases their mind a little.’’
Gordon said in the early days of the pandemic she was terrified while driving to work, fearful that if she got it she would spread it to her parents who she lives with.
Linda Jozwiak, another staff member, said it was such a relief to get vaccinated.
“I haven’t been able to see my family or anything, it’s been hard. I have family down South, my grandkids and everything I haven’t been able to see since March,’’ said Jozwiak who was fighting back tears.
Marco Ruggeri, creative director of the organization, gave credit to the residents for handling this situation so well.
“It’s an incredible, bittersweet feeling (to be vaccinated),’’ Ruggeri said. “It’s been a long road, it’s been a long year and I think everyone is ready to get back to some sort of normalcy and this is how we get there.’’ generations - is that?’’ Gordon