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pandemic is over. “I have only been able to do this because of the re- sources we have at the school,” Dr. Siddiqui says. “The collaborations have been epic.”
Similar collaborations took place in the Department of Neurology, where Neurocritical Care Unit faculty under the direction of Suhayl Dhib-Jalbut, MD, professor and chair, became part of the COVID-19 surge team and managed patients with acute respira- tory distress syndrome. Because some COVID-positive patients presented with neurological symptoms, neurol- ogy residents provided care and con- sultations for these patients.
Caring for the Youngest Patients
Community hospitals throughout New Jersey transferred pediatric patients to The Bristol-Myers Squibb
Children’s Hospital, which has the only pediatric ICU in the region staffed 24/7 by in-house pediatric critical care physicians. Once at the hospital, children were treated by expert specialists in the medical school’s Department of Pediatrics.
Children with symptoms of COVID-19 were directed to the ED for screening. Other children, including those sick but with symptoms unrelated to the virus, were assessed via telemedicine or seen in person at clinics, according to Sally Radovick, MD, professor and chair, Department of Pediatrics, and senior associate dean for clinical and translational research.
Continuum of Care for Women
The need for obstetric and gynecol- ogical care doesn’t go away during a pandemic; it becomes increasingly complicated. Deciding which proce-
dures were elective and which were necessary was an important decision for serving the needs of the patients while simultaneously protecting the community, says Mark V. Sauer, MD, MS, professor and chair, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, and senior associate dean for women’s health.
Because there were a lot of unan- swered questions about how the virus could affect newborns, the team took precautions to keep pregnant women, new mothers, fetuses, and recently born babies safe. Some emergencies were more challenging than others.
“When we typically have a patient with fetal distress, everyone rushes into the OR to deliver the baby as soon as possible,” explains Dr. Sauer. “Now we must go to a negative-pressure room, don PPE, and designate who’s going to be involved clinically to lessen the risk of infection. We can’t have people going in and out of the OR. It’s a much more methodical process now.”
In one case, a pregnant patient who had been transferred to RWJUH arrived intubated and near death when fetal distress was discovered. Dr. Sauer recalls, “Our team sprang into action, saving the lives of the baby and the mother by performing an emergency
cesarean section in an ICU bed with only a scalpel for an instrument. Both mother and baby recovered, and will be forever blessed by the truly heroic action of these physicians.”
Protecting the Providers
As seen in other facilities in New Jersey, procuring PPE was a chal- lenge. Rutgers University helped secure and allocate equipment, while the Honors College and School of Engineering worked with clinicians to build plexiglass boxes to decrease clinicians’ risk of exposure while performing intubations. Enterprising staff in the medical school’s labora- tory made an ethanol solution to decontaminate face shields, while Joseph S. Hanna, MD, PhD, assistant professor of surgery, used his 3D printer to create face and eye shields. Medical students collected donations of PPE to help hospitals throughout the state experiencing shortages, and a student-organized GoFundMe page helped purchase equipment.
Continual Communication
Key to Medical School’s Efforts
Daily video calls with the executive leadership team during the crux of the crisis enabled the medical
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