Newsday Columnist and Editorial Writer Mark Chiusano will hold a fun, in-depth discussion and extensive Q&A with New York Times best-selling author Jennifer Weiner.
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Join us and Long Island LitFest for the first in our free Newsday Live Author Series webinars on insightful new books and talented writers. Newsday Columnist and Editorial Writer Mark Chiusano will hold a fun, in-depth discussion and extensive Q&A with New York Times best-selling author Jennifer Weiner on Big Summer, her writing career and more
Get 10% OFF Big Summer at newsday.com/livebook. 10% of proceeds from book sales will benefit Newsday Charities in support of Long Islanders in need who are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Plus, the first 50 orders will receive an autographed copy!
Battling the coronavirus inside one Long Island hospital.
By Jeffrey Basinger
They are clad in protective gowns, gloves, face masks and shields. Beneath their coverings and professionalism, their emotions in life-and-death situations are impossible to read.
And despite their unending best efforts, death is a constant presence, never more intimately than for nurses called on to wrap bodies every day.
In the darkest moments, hope comes in the form of a Beatles song over the loudspeaker — “Here Comes the Sun” means their tireless work has allowed another patient to go home.
At the heart of the coronavirus pandemic, the staff of Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital in Oceanside share their struggles, fears and hopes with embedded Newsday journalists.
The rapid response call goes out when an ambulance pulls up with a patient who has “coded” on the way to the hospital. His life hangs in the balance while a team coalesces to intubate the man and start oxygen flowing to his lungs. Dr. Kugler observes and explains.
Amid an influx of infectious patients, Chief of the Emergency Department Dr. Joshua Kugler says, “there is no non-COVID area” in the ER or almost the entire 455-bed hospital. He and his staff move efficiently as ambulances deliver desperately
ill people to a treatment area well over capacity.
Many on the medical staff say they most fear bringing the virus home and infecting loved ones. Dr. Eugene Perepada, 37, likely infected both his wife and his 6-week-old baby, sending the infant to the hospital for two days. Both have since
recovered.
With a steady progression of coronavirus symptoms, Dr. Perepada says he was afraid of dying. But, homebound while recovering, he felt guilty for leaving his friends and colleagues to work without him.
He grew up on a farm in Melville and served in the military — now Dr. Kugler is the chief of the emergency department. He recalls how his department saw six deaths on a single day, April 7.
The “velocity,” the acceleration of coronavirus-positive patients arriving at the hospital, was unprecedented. He hopes the curve is flattening.
There is no downtime for emergency staff. Even pictures fall short in conveying their fight against the pandemic, or the battles waged across the hospital.
The number of patients alone — some in medically induced comas, some crying out for air — overwhelms the senses. The beeping of monitors, swirling motion and chatter make it difficult for an outsider to focus in any one direction. But compassion
anchors humanity in the chaos.
Patients often die alone because visitors are barred from entering. Others have difficulty staying in touch with loved ones or cannot because they are unconscious. Doctors and nurses communicate with families through video chats, in dire cases
to show the severity of their loved-one’s condition. Sometimes aggressive intervention would be futile.
While the Emergency Department’s patient load has declined, the Intensive Care Unit is still pushed to the brink. Here, almost every patient is on a ventilator, many in medically induced comas.
Elzbieta Zanio worked in the cardiac catheterization ward, where doctors inserted catheters to diagnose and treat heart conditions. “Your eyes are open your entire shift” she says, as she’s never cared for such intensively ill patients.
There were 18 patients in this ICU. All needed the support of ventilators to breathe and most were sedated into induced comas. One also needed a tracheostomy, where a tube is placed through the neck into the windpipe.
Dr. Scott Roethle, who lives in a Kansas City suburb, says he was inspired by his Christian faith to treat patients at the epicenter of the pandemic.
He says his wife wasn’t afraid that he was heading into a dangerous assignment. Her biggest concern: being left for two weeks to take care of their four children alone.
A patient is connected to life-sustaining devices providing blood pressure medication, antibiotics, sedation, feeding and assistance breathing.
The medical team’s movements appear well choreographed as they work together to move and treat infected patients.
While observing the ICU, we’re reminded of the community support that Mount Sinai South Nassau employees talk about regularly. Restaurants deliver free meals and area residents donate personal protective equipment. Letters, cards and messages
pour in.
Without proven therapies to stem COVID-19, patients’ success is not always in the hands of the hospital staff. The hospital morgue can hold up to 12 bodies. After it hit capacity, the hospital opened three external morgue containers in a parking
lot.
Forty-four bodies awaited a medical examiner at the time we visited the hospital.
Nurse manager Nydia White and nurse educator Katie DeMelis tend to the body of a patient who succumbed to COVID-19.
They clean with a delicate touch, extract lines that had once sustained life and wrap the body in a double-layered white sheet and bag.
After a death, nurses review a patient’s information, including religion. Some faiths have strictures about preparing corpses. Typically, nurses cross and tape a decedent’s arms and legs before wrapping the body in a white sheet. They refrain,
for example, if the person was Orthodox Jewish. In Orthodox practice, after a body is covered in a sheet, volunteers from designated burial societies prepare the body by ritually cleansing and dressing.
The hospital had recorded 238 COVID-positive deaths as of April 17.
Debbie Rifenbury, 61, says she’s glad she quit smoking 39 years ago. She is one of only 28 COVID-positive patients to come off ventilators as of April 17.
Rifenbury, like others who recover from more severe cases of COVID-19, will have a long road to full recovery. The disease can ravage the lungs, causing lasting damage, but Rifenbury is determined. “I will survive and I will get better,” she
says.
When she’s well enough to be discharged, the hospital staff will celebrate her exit with 20 seconds of “Here Comes the Sun.”
Visuals and text: Jeffrey Basinger
Additional reporting: David Olson
Project editors: Don Hudson, Arthur Browne
Associate producers: Robert Cassidy, Seth Mates
Digital design/UX: Matthew Cassella, Anthony Carrozzo and James Stewart
Development: TC McCarthy
Digital Quality Assurance: Pradeep Bhatee
Additional project management: Heather Doyle
Social media: Anahita Pardiwalla
Copy editing: Bob Shields, Doug Dutton and Don Bruce
Print design: Seth Mates
The entrance to Citizens Bank Park, home of the Phillies, on March 24, 2020, in Philadelphia.
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted every facet of life, from the health and safety of the world’s population to countries’ economies and the general psyches of our citizens.
It also has disrupted the sports calendar, a usually rhythmic sequence of games and events sports fans have come to know, understand and adore. As governmental bans on large gatherings took effect, playing in empty arenas became a possibility. As those guidelines tightened and positive cases of the coronavirus began to increase exponentially, games became an afterthought.
Here’s a timeline of how the sports world came to a halt as far greater issues take precedence.
March 10
Ivy League presidents canceled its postseason basketball tournaments and deem the regular-season winners — Yale men, Princeton women — as the automatic qualifiers to the NCAA tournaments. The next day, the conference unanimously votes to suspend all spring sports.
The American soccer league suspended its season for 30 days. In a two-for-one move, NYCFC also saw its debut in the CONCACAF Champions League tournament get put on hold as well.
St. John’s plays a half
The Big East conference tournament started at noon, with St. John’s facing Creighton in the quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden. At halftime, with the Red Storm leading, 38-35, the Big East joined the other major conferences and canceled its tournament.
In all, 13 conferences canceled their tournaments.
MLB delays season
While six spring training games were in progress, including the Yankees vs. Nationals, MLB suspends spring training and delays the start of the season. MLB sets April 9 as the earliest potential Opening Day.
March Madness canceled
The unprecedented move of canceling the men’s and women’s basketball tournament comes a day after the NCAA had announced the games that were scheduled to start next week would go on but be played in mostly empty arenas. A few hours later, after some conferences had canceled or postponed spring sports, the NCAA shut it all down for the school year.
PGA adjusts
After the first round of The Players Championship concluded, the PGA canceled the rest of golf’s “fifth major” as well as the Tour’s next three events.
March 13
Masters moved
Augusta National delivers the next blow to the American sports calendar when it postpones The Masters, golf’s first major tournament scheduled for April 9-12. No timetable for its return is given.
Patriots’ Day change
The Boston Marathon, originally scheduled for April 20, is postponed and moved to Sept. 14.
March 14
With all other sports canceled, postponed or suspended, the UFC moves ahead with its fight card in Brasilia, Brazil, with no fans in attendance. “The fighting was not that much different,” said Bea Malecki, who won a unanimous decision over Veronica Macedo in the opening bout. “It was just walking in that was a bit weird.”
March 15
UEFA postpones all Champions League and Europa League matches indefinitely.
March 16
Opening Day in May or June?
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred informs teams that the league will follow the CDC’s recommendation to avoid large gatherings for at least eight weeks, pushing Opening Day into late May or early June.
NFL Draft goes fan-less
A day after the CDC recommends that no more than 50 people be gathered at one time, the NFL announces that there will be no public events in Las Vegas as part of the April 23-25 draft. Commissioner Roger Goodell says the draft would take place as scheduled and be televised, although it remained uncertain how it would be conducted. (See our NFL mock draft.)
UFC postpones three events
Fight cards set for March 21 in London, March 28 and April 11 in Las Vegas, after being moved from Columbus, Ohio, and Portland, Oregon, respectively, get postponed. No makeup dates are provided at this time.
WrestleMania will go on
The WWE moves its marquee event, WrestleMania, from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa to the company’s performance center in Orlando. WrestleMania 36 becomes a two-day event April 4 and April 5. No fans will be in attendance.
March 17
Major movement
The PGA Tour postpones the PGA Championship, which was scheduled for May 11-14 in San Francisco. A new date is not announced.
First Saturday in September?
Churchill Downs moves the Kentucky Derby from May 2 to Sept. 5, marking just the second time in the race’s 145-year history that it will not take place on the first Saturday in May.
French Open moved
In a decision the French Tennis Federation president called “difficult yet brave,” the French Open is rescheduled from May 24-June 7 to Sept. 20-Oct. 4
.
Euro ’21
UEFA European Championship gets moved back a year to the summer of 2021.
March 18
The ATP and WTA cancel all of their tennis tournaments through June 7.
March 19
England’s Premier League and all other domestic soccer matches are suspended through April 30.
March 20
After suspending games on March 12, the rebooted XFL cancels its inaugural season and frees its players to sign with NFL teams immediately instead of making them wait until the original date of April 27.
March 24
As pressure mounted from all sides, the IOC postpones the Summer Olympics scheduled for later this summer in Tokyo, Japan.
March 26
NFL confirms draft will go on
“The draft itself will be conducted and televised in a way that reflects current conditions,” Goodell wrote in a memo to teams, adding that they should plan to do the draft “in a location outside of your facility, with a limited number of people present, and with sufficient technology resources to allow you to communicate internally, with other clubs, and with draft headquarters.”
WNBA Draft
The WNBA announces it will keep its televised draft on schedule for April 17 and move to a “virtual draft,” using video conferencing. The Liberty have the No. 1 pick. (See our WNBA mock draft.)
For the first time since World War II, the All England Club cancels Wimbledon. The U.S. Open remains on track for late August, early September, although some doubt is cast on that as two parts of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center are being used as a makeshift hospital to handle patient overflow from the coronavirus.
This map and the table below it show vaccination progress among Long Island communities based on data provided by New York State. The darker areas have higher percentages of fully vaccinated residents. Rates are for entire population.
The rates are calculated by matching New York State vaccination statistics against the latest U.S. Census Bureau ZIP code population estimates. Those statistics, which project total populations, are the best available data. Still, they can be higher or lower than actual, particularly in ZIP codes with small or transient populations. Vaccination rates in ZIP codes with small populations can appear to be as high as 100%. This chart excludes the ZIP codes 11042, 11548, 11549 and 11794 because state data does not include significant vaccinated populations on college campuses or other institutions there. Patient address corrections can cause slight vaccination rate declines.
As of June 24, 2022, this dashboard will be updated weekly on Fridays to align with CDC’s data refresh schedule. Sources: New York State; U.S. Census Bureau; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
COVID-19 totals
Chart sources: New York State, New York City, Nassau and Suffolk counties and U.S. Census Bureau
