Stories of Hope from Glendale

Alex: Welcome to sunny Glendale, California, here on the campus of Adventist Health Glendale. I have in my hand from Movses bakery, some wonderful Armenian pastries. Absolutely incredible. If you're ever here, you've got to check them out. We're going to be joined today by Leo Shum, an ICU intensivist, Romic Eskandarian, director of pharmacy and Alice Issai, president of the hospital.

It is so wonderful to be with you in Glendale. Thank you so much for having us. Leo, I'm going to put you on the spot first. Tell us about hope.

Leo: So this last year that we've had has obviously been a very difficult year with COVID, and with the first surge it was manageable, let's say, but with the second surge it was devastating. But then you would see the stories and see the patients that would get better. The one in particular that I can think of, is a patient that came in with COVID. Initially it wasn't so bad, but over a week, worsened to the point where she ended up in the Intensive Care Unit, which is a very common course for the COVID patients that we have, that they look fine one day and the next day they're requiring a ton of oxygen. They're struggling, they're using all their muscles to try and just breathe. She was one of those patients. And within a day, she almost coded. And this patient luckily was able to be placed on ECMO at our hospital and then transferred out for further care.

Kind of in the middle of that second surge, when we were really getting hammered, around that time is actually when I got a phone call from her. She went through everything that had happened after she left us, she recovered, got better and was home. For me that story is amazingly uplifting and it was something that I needed and our staff needed in the middle of COVID.

Alex: I love the way that you described that, because of this beautiful, good outcome, in the middle of ones that aren't so good. Leo, thank you so much. Alice, what reflections do you have on hope?

Alice: Thank you, Alex, for giving us this opportunity. When the pandemic first came, our city of Glendale was one of the hardest hit cities. So very rapidly in the month of March, we started ramping up and numbers were increasing at a very fast rate. We came together very rapidly and started attacking this beast. Every day, seven days a week, we met and put all our brains, wisdom, knowledge together. We worked so intertwined and seamlessly to come up with solutions for the next day, next hour. And again, the solutions were changing because the knowledge we were getting from CDC and others were changing so rapidly. So we're constantly trying to manage this situation fluidly, but we did. And the teamwork, I have to say was the cornerstone of my hope. That type of teamwork, that seamless teamwork that we created permeated down to our organization, our directors, our managers, our staff, the walls of departmental walls went away. And I have to say, we saw the results. At the end of the day, we have discharged 85% of the people that came to our doors, home safely with their families. That's hope for me.

Alex: Powerful. A community of hope that puts skill behind that hope. Beautiful. I wonder if a decade from now we'll look back, of course, with sadness about this season, but we may look back and say that was our finest hour. Romic, tell us about your experiences.

Romic: Hope was what propelled me through the pandemic. Particularly when my family was disempowered. My nurse brother and I, we both contracted the virus and infected our parents at home with our disabled brother, living with them. They all got hospitalized here, and we lost dad right here. Mom struggled significantly. My disabled brother found himself in nursing home. It's difficult to talk about obviously, but, I had my family to take care of. I had my work family that was calling me. I had my three boys. How do you keep balance on that? But yet the work is calling you. It was something that was pulling me down, but as much as it was something that was fueling me. I don't think I've used the word God so much throughout 2020 than I've used it in my entire life, because you needed something. That's all you had, that's all that you had left. And I remember that was my New Year’s resolution. I said, “I'm going to resurrect our pre-COVID life.” I'm going to resurrect the Thursday bow tie at Adventist Health Glendale.

And that was my way of mourning, because I wanted to come to work. I want to come to my family at my department in Pharmacy. I wanted to show them that you still could continue to fight along, despite all the challenges that so many people in this world have gone through. I'm going to be the role model to my work family and my children. And to say dad went through a hard time, but he still gets up, and he irons his shirts and he puts a bow tie and he gets dressed and goes to work. And because if I had given up the legacy that my father had instilled in me, I would have failed. And I didn't want to do that.

Alex: Thank you for sharing your father with all of us. And the beauty of your family, both biological and the family that you work with here. It's powerful.

Thank you so much for sharing. This has been beautiful here in sunny Glendale, California.