Thankful for vaccine
Couple welcomes healthy baby boy despite mom contracting COVID late in pregnancy
Staring at his healthy newborn son Wyatt and resting wife Stephanie early in the morning of Oct. 13, Brandon Sholl picked up his phone and sent a text of gratitude.
He sent it to Dr. Joe Gastaldo, the medical director of infectious diseases at Ohiohealth, the system in which both Brandon and Stephanie work as nurses.
Several months earlier, Gastaldo had talked to both of them about the importance of getting vaccinated from COVID-19.
Now, with Stephanie having navigated a mild breakthrough case of the disease late in her pregnancy to safely deliver Wyatt, Brandon was thankful.
He reminded Gastaldo of their past conversations and said, “Luckily for us we took your advice and both were vaccinated shortly after our conversation. Today she delivered a healthy baby and I cannot thank you enough . ... I just want you to
know that my family and baby Wyatt are forever grateful for you!”
The text brought the Sholls’ story full circle, capping a largely anxious experience as mom and dad had debated whether to get vaccinated.
The Sholls, who are both 27 and live in Sunbury, had both contracted a mild case of COVID-19 in November 2020.
In February, they found out Stephanie was pregnant with the couple’s first child.
Because they had had COVID, they both felt they might have some natural immunity. Also, the vaccines were very new in early 2021.
“We were hesitant (to get vaccinated),” Brandon said. “There wasn’t a lot of data out there that would tell you objectively how much better off you would be, since we had already had it (COVID). The actual amount of research about contracting it a second time at that point was non-existent.”
By the summer, Brandon was leaning toward getting the shot, but Stephanie remained hesitant. And that’s when Brandon, who works in neurology at Riverside Methodist Hospital, happened to see Gastaldo walking in the hallway.
Brandon asked if he could talk to Gastaldo about their vaccination questions.
“It was just dumb luck,” Brandon said. “If there’s one person I could talk to about vaccinations I truly respected, it was him, so I jumped at the chance.”
Gastaldo addressed Brandon’s questions about he and Stephanie having natural immunity because of their prior COVID bouts. Gastaldo told him there is no way to measure that, because of the vagaries of how antibodies work.
He said the key was to have one’s immune system stimulated twice, to create the most defenses. The Sholls had one stimulation with the COVID, so he recommended the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine and they should be all set.
Minutes later, by chance, Stephanie appeared in Brandon’s unit. She works in the trauma intensive-care unit at Grant Hospital, but happened to be at Riverside that day to take a class. Gastaldo talked to her, as well. “There really is an art about talking to people about these issues,” Gastaldo said. “You don’t want to talk at somebody, you want to talk with them and listen to them. There really is a respectful way to do it.
“I don’t want people to feel like, `You’re not vaccinated, you’re one of those people, so I’m not going to talk to you.’ That’s not who we are at Ohiohealth.”
Stephanie said Gastaldo assured her that statistics showed that other thirdtrimester expectant mothers had gotten vaccinated with no side effects to mom or baby.
But Stephanie needed one more layer of reassurance, so she consulted with her obstetrician, Dr. Alyson Leeman.
“(Leeman) was not pushy at all, she told me that the national guidelines and statistics showed that he (Wyatt) would be OK,” Stephanie said.
An important part of the discussions between Stephanie, Brandon and the doctors was what could happen if Stephanie contracted COVID-19 while pregnant.
According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, pregnancy increases the chances that a woman will get more severely sick with COVID, and that women with COVID are more likely to experience premature births (prior to 37 weeks).
“There definitely have been women — not my personal patients — but women who have had to have early Csections because their breathing has been so compromised by COVID,” Leeman said. “They ended up having to deliver premature before they were going to get intubated.”
That was enough for Stephanie. She and Brandon both got the J&J vaccine in late August. By that time, Ohiohealth had announced that all associates would be required to be vaccinated by Dec. 1.
“When I had two people that I respect tell me the same thing, I couldn’t really talk myself out of this (vaccination) anymore,” Stephanie said.
In late September, with Stephanie at 34 weeks, she started feeling some congestion and had flu-like symptoms. When she lost her sense of taste and smell, she got a COVID test, which came back positive.
She spent the next few weeks at home and worried how her illness, however mild, might be affecting the baby. At the 39-week mark, Leeman and the family decided to induce labor.
Wyatt was born perfectly healthy, measuring 7 pounds, 7 ounces and 19 inches long.
And that’s when Brandon sent his thankful text to Gastaldo.
“That’s the type of communication that comes to me that really adds fuel and gratification to my spirit,” Gastaldo said. “That is so gratifying professionally. It gives me more desire and drive to do what I do.”
The Sholls are telling this story in the hope it helps others who may be hesitant about getting vaccinated. They understand that hesitancy, but they also believe that vaccination might have prevented Stephanie from getting seriously ill and affecting Wyatt.
“I agree it’s everybody’s personal choice and their body,” said Stephanie, glancing over at Wyatt, who was wideeyed and content in Brandon’s arms. “But my experience is that I don’t regret getting it. It could have gone south and it didn’t.” kgordon@dispatch.com @kgdispatch