Plattsburgh Athletics Alumni Battle COVID-19 on the Front Lines
Mark Vasey, Plattsburgh Assistant Director of Athletic Communications
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — The No. 1-ranked Plattsburgh State women's ice hockey team was set to host an NCAA Tournament quarterfinal game, spring sports were underway or about to commence, and in one day — it was all over. On March 12, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic reached Plattsburgh State Athletics as the NCAA canceled its winter and spring championships, and all of Plattsburgh State's spring sports teams had their seasons cut short. However, as student-athletes were sent home and faculty and staff began to work remotely, Plattsburgh State Athletics alumni across the United States were already combatting COVID-19 on the front lines.
Near the Epicenter
Tom Monahan, who graduated from the SUNY Plattsburgh nursing program in 2016 and was a member of the men's lacrosse team, works as an operating room nurse at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., in Long Island's Nassau County — one of the hardest hit areas with over 33,000 reported cases of COVID-19. Toward the end of March, Monahan's role at the hospital first changed as elective surgeries were canceled and more space was opened up to handle an influx of COVID-19 patients.
After the main surgical room closed, Monahan became a member of a "flip team," which goes around and safely flips COVID-19 patients, who are struggling to breathe, onto their stomachs into what is called a prone position to improve breathing and oxygen saturation. As the amount of COVID-19 patients in the hospital continued to swell in the beginning of April, Monahan's role again evolved.
"We were changed to a floor/Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where all of my nursing skills came into play as I took care of patients," Monahan says. Providing full assessments to patients and giving out medications, "I went back to my nursing school roots. We are now taking care of patients full-time."
Monahan, who has been working 13.5-hour shifts — day or night — during the pandemic, emphasized how much community support has helped him during this time.
At certain times of day at his home on Long Beach, N.Y., Monahan says he can walk outside and hear his neighbors clapping for medical personnel on the front lines. On how his neighbors know that there are first responders who will hear them, Monahan says: "They don't. They go on their porches, clap and hope that someone in the medical field is hearing it and appreciates it."
In the ICU
Stephanie Linder, who was a member of the Plattsburgh State women's basketball team and majored in nursing, has served as an ICU nurse since graduating in 2017. After working at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany, N.Y., and Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, N.Y., Linder took her first travel nurse position at North Suburban Hospital in Thornton, Colo., as the pandemic was beginning.
Linder, who will be in her current position for about three months, moved to Colorado in February and started her job as an ICU nurse at North Suburban Hospital in March. She was acclimated to being in an intense and busy work environment as an ICU nurse, but things have gotten even busier with the pandemic. When Linder arrived at North Suburban Hospital, Linder says there were about 25 ICU beds, but the ICU has since been expanded to 35 beds and the COVID-19 patients require a high level of care. The pandemic has changed what a day is like for Linder and other nurses.
Every day, Linder has her temperature checked to make sure she doesn't have a fever before entering the hospital. She also receives personal protective equipment to wear throughout her shift: a surgical mask, an N95 mask, a face mask, a gown and gloves. She says it is like wearing a "full-body suit all the time" during the shift. The number of patients assigned to Linder at a time has risen from two patients to as many as four. These patients are often on ventilators or have to be monitored closely because they may need to go on a ventilator. Linder and other ICU nurses assist the doctors and respiratory therapists with intubations.
"This whole issue is about aerosolized things," Linder says. "When you are intubating someone, you are going right down into their lungs. It is right there. You are face-to-face with that virus."
Linder, who was a part of the Plattsburgh State women's basketball team that claimed a State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Tournament title and won an NCAA Tournament game in 2013-14, believes her experience as a student-athlete on a team helped prepare her to be an ICU nurse and handle the increased work demands brought on by the pandemic.
"It is a closer-knit unit in the ICU," Linder says. "We really do call ourselves a team. You can not do it without anyone else. It is not just the doctors and nurses. You have respiratory therapists, physical therapists, everyone working together."
A captain on the Plattsburgh State women's basketball team during her senior season, Linder adds: "I think being able to go with the flow and be adaptable to situations is the same as what you have to do in any season, any basketball game. Every year you have a whole new team. You have returning teammates, but you also have new teammates that you have never met or played with before. Being a good coworker and a good teammate go hand-in-hand. Going into every shift, you never know what you are going to have. It is the same as in a game when someone could sprain an ankle or tear a hamstring. You have to be able to adapt and put people in different positions, and that is exactly what is happening right now."
Shared Moments
In Mount Clemens, Mich., Jess (Reid) Hillman works at McLaren Macomb Hospital. Hillman, a four-year member of the Plattsburgh State women's soccer team who graduated from the nursing program in 2019, works as a nurse on a telemetry floor. Patients on the telemetry floor are not in need of the level of care provided in the ICU, but they are in a condition where they need to have their heart rate constantly monitored.
Around the middle of March, Hillman's unit (3 South) became the first designated COVID-19 unit at McLaren Macomb Hospital. After all patients without COVID-19 were cleared out of the unit, Hillman's floor became an area for COVID-19 patients who needed to be hospitalized, but were not in need of ICU care.
On the transition of the floor to a COVID-19 unit, Hillman says, "This is not what I expected to happen during my first year of nursing." She adds: "We are, as nurses, part of something so big and we have such a big impact on all of these patients — being on the front lines working closely with the doctors and respiratory therapists. It is a big learning curve for all of us because new information comes out every day."
Hillman, who cherished being a member of a Plattsburgh State women's soccer team that made it to the semifinals of the SUNYAC Tournament during all four of her seasons, reflected on how her experience as a student-athlete helped her develop a team mindset that she implements as a nurse.
"Having played a team sport, I am always willing to help other nurses out," Hillman says. "It is always a team effort to me," adding: "It is always 'how can we help each other as a team?' It is not just your patient. It is all of our patients when we are at the hospital."
On what her favorite part of the day is at work, Hillman says, "It is nice when all of the nurses are at the same place in their work and we are able to chill and chat, for even a second, and destress from it all before we go right back into doing our work."
Well Prepared
Just outside of Rochester in Greece, N.Y., Morgan Deming is a nurse on a medical-surgical unit at Unity Hospital. A member of the cross country and track and field teams who graduated from Plattsburgh State with a nursing degree in 2017, Deming picked Plattsburgh State because of the nursing program, the opportunity to run in college, and her love of the Adirondack Mountains.
On a typical day prior to the pandemic, Deming would provide care for four or five patients during each 12-hour shift. She distributes medications and works closely with the physician assistants and doctors to provide "the best patient care we can." Patients are often in the unit for surgeries and gastrointestinal procedures. However, surgeries have been limited to emergency procedures, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These types of emergency surgeries include appendectomies and hip fracture repair for the elderly.
Deming feels that the nursing program at Plattsburgh State prepared her well for her career.
"Every day at work I go back to the basics of how to assess a patient," Deming says. "School taught us to stick to the basics — looking at vital signs and what we hear from the patients."
Deming also emphasized that her nursing school knowledge and being able to quickly adapt to changing situations has been vital during the pandemic. A patient could be in the medical-surgery unit for an appendix or hip surgery, but their lung sounds may begin to change drastically. As a nurse, Deming says that her school training prepared her well to notice such changes and then send those patients to be tested for COVID-19.
The impact of the pandemic also affects Deming and her fellow front lines workers as they practice social distancing at home.
"I live with my boyfriend and dog in Rochester," Deming says. "We decided that until this is over, we won't be seeing my parents, my brother or my grandparents. My family is very close," adding, "with everything going on, we decided it is not worth seeing each other and putting each other in harm's way."
Until the pandemic ends, Deming is using technology such as video calling to stay in contact with her family.
A New Calling
A softball team alumna who graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh with a degree in hotel, restaurant and tourism management in 2003, Carrie Palow went back to school to study nursing after a nurse had a positive impact on her life.
After a planned procedure, Palow says: "I did not do well with the anesthesia, so I had to stay over in the hospital. It was a miserable night for me and I remember her (the nurse) being there the whole night and being really supportive. You just kind of remember those people."
Palow, who also liked the idea of being active and around other people throughout the day, went back to school and obtained her associates degree in nursing. She is now pursuing her bachelor's degree in nursing online, while working as a medical-surgical nurse at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany, N.Y. She started working at St. Peter's in July of 2019.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Palow's floor has been temporarily closed and she has been working as a "floater" — working wherever she is needed at the hospital. Supporting ICU nurses and helping treat COVID-19 patients at times, Palow says she has to go outside of her comfort zone.
Reflecting on the community support at this time, Palow says, "I have heard a lot of support — and I can't speak for anyone else — but I feel the love."
Do it For Your Family
In Chesterfield, Va., Joe Deland is working as a police officer for the Chesterfield Police Department. A 2018 graduate of SUNY Plattsburgh, Deland majored in criminology and sociology and was a member of the baseball team.
As a police officer prior to the pandemic, Deland says that he often helped people out with their everyday struggles. The issues he responds to range from minor issues such as checking on complaints about loud music and barking dogs to more serious matters, including potential drug overdoses and assault. Deland says he "pretty much helps people out in their daily lives wherever they need it even if it is not a crime. People think that every call is for a crime. I would say about 10-15 percent of the calls we go on there is actually a crime being committed. Most people call for civil issues, or they need someone to talk with."
Since the pandemic began, Deland's job has been altered in various ways. When making a traffic stop, Deland says that he has to keep his distance from the driver because he doesn't know where that person has been or whether they might be infected with the virus. He says that a couple of his fellow officers have been quarantined due to exposure to COVID-19.
To combat the risk of being exposed to the virus, Deland says he and his fellow officers are issued gloves, masks and eye protection to wear, as well as hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes for their vehicles and equipment. Despite feeling well prepared by his police department, Deland says "it is tough because going to some of these calls where your heart rate and stress fluctuate, going to a call where someone is not breathing and is unconscious...The last things I am thinking about is that I have to get my face mask, glasses and gloves on. We are trying to get in and provide aid to these people."
Deland believes that his experience as a student-athlete prepared him well to be a police officer.
"All of my experiences in sports have helped me grow into the officer I am becoming," Deland says. "My social skills, being able to talk to and advise people on the right way to go about things and trying to help people out in their everyday life."
Deland also emphasized that "baseball is a game of failure" and playing baseball taught him resiliency that he can use to relate to struggling people that he encounters while doing his job. "I am not going to be able to relate everybody and their issues," Deland says, "but I can listen and give them some advice from my life or from things that I have learned or seen."
On what he would like the Plattsburgh State students to know during this time, Deland says, "Do this, stay inside and stay quarantined — not for yourself, but for your family who is older. I have seen numerous people pass away from this so far. People always say, 'not me, not me, this will not happen to me,' but real life is that it can happen to you, and before you know it, it is going to happen and then either a family member is going to pass away or your whole family is going to start getting it. It is scary — it is something you cannot see, you cannot really do anything about but stay inside, stay isolated. Especially for the people in their senior year right now. I could just imagine how much that stinks for them and is affecting them...For your family and for your friends who do not have the age and the health you do, just stay quarantined for yourself and for them."
Cardinal Country
In Plattsburgh, N.Y., Kelley Driscoll started work as a nurse practitioner in cardiology at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital during the beginning of April. Driscoll, a track and field and cross country alumna who graduated from the SUNY Plattsburgh nursing program in 2014, spent the last three and a half years working as a nurse at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y. Driscoll, who had graduated last year from a family nurse practitioner graduate program, was offered her "dream job" at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital and was asked to start despite the ongoing pandemic.
On her return to the North Country, Driscoll says: "I did not think I would ever find myself back up here, but I love Plattsburgh and I love Vermont." Her love for the North Country first started to form when she ran a cross country meet in Plattsburgh. While in town, she went on a campus tour and fell in love with the location. "It is the best of both worlds," Driscoll says. "You have water and you have mountains. A lot of the dorms overlooked the river, which was really nice."
In addition to the location, Driscoll says that she instantly "vibed" with everyone on the cross country team. She had a decorated cross country and track and field career at Plattsburgh State — competing in the NCAA Division III Women's Cross Country Championships three times, while competing at the NCAA Division III Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships once.
Commenting on her experience in the nursing program at Plattsburgh State, Driscoll says, "I absolutely loved it and I would do it all over again," adding, "I could not have asked for a better, well-rounded experience." She emphasized how the flexibility of both the faculty in the nursing program and her coaches allowed her to be successful in academics and athletics.
On what it means to be able to come back and work in Plattsburgh, Driscoll says, "I really enjoy working with patients up in the North Country. I find that they are unbelievably appreciative of everything that you do," adding, "It is good to feel like you are giving back to a community that has given you so much. I feel like Plattsburgh gave me so much opportunity and it feels really great to give back to the same community that I was lucky enough to get my nursing degree from."
Driscoll thinks that the North Country is doing a good job practicing social distancing and other strategies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. She says, "I hope everyone up here stays safe and healthy. We will get through this."
