Faces of Long Island celebrates the uniqueness of everyday Long Islanders. In their own words, they tell us about their life experiences, challenges and triumphs. Newsday launched this social media journey into the human experience to shine a light on the diverse people of this wonderful place we call home.

‘I come from a family of nurses, so I guess it’s kind of in the blood.’

Massapequa Park

“I come from a family of nurses, so I guess it’s kind of in the blood. It probably goes back to my grandmother. She had nine children, lived in a small county called Mayo in Ireland and helped deliver babies and care for the sick. You know, back then there was no degree to do that. I guess it just came from something innate in herself.

“As the director of patient care services for women and children’s health at Huntington Hospital, I oversee labor and delivery, maternity, nursery, the special care nursery and pediatrics. I think, for all of healthcare, being hit with the pandemic was challenging at every level. Once we knew that there were more patients being admitted with COVID and more space was needed to be able to care for them, there were discussions about possibly having to utilize our postpartum unit as a medical unit for COVID patients. We had to then look at what we could do safely for our families after they delivered: where could they go to recover for a few days, as well as now assisting the staff that are normally on the postpartum unit to be able to care for medical patients with COVID.

We recently just had a family who delivered during the height of COVID and experienced the offsite location and were blessed again to come back and have another baby the following year. They were so happy with their standard of care at the offsite location that they chose us again for their next delivery.

“Our obstetrical patients would come in and deliver here. And then after they were stabilized and assessed, they were then transferred to an offsite location to continue their postpartum stay. Thank goodness that was a very short-lived moment in time; about a week. Once they saw the numbers trending where they needed to go, we were able to pull back very quickly and transition right back into our regular business, caring for mothers and babies and their families here at the hospital.

“We recently just had a family who delivered during the height of COVID and experienced the offsite location and were blessed again to come back and have another baby the following year. They were so happy with their standard of care at the offsite location that they chose us again for their next delivery. They were of course very ecstatic to not have to be transferred anywhere now, and they were able to go out to their private room in the postpartum unit to enjoy their stay. And it was amazing to be able to be with them again and experience the joy with them.”

Interviewed by Hannah Fusaro

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