Vaccinations at Providence Little Company of Mary ‘a major moment for humanity’

Christie Baker receives the COVID-19 vaccine from fellow Registered Nurse Eunice Natividad.

Registered Nurses Arlene Kidakarn and Eunice Natividad memorialize their vaccinations against COVID-19 Thursday morning at Providence Little Company of Mary. Photos

Nurse Lailani Divina stood up from a plastic chair next to a folding table in a meeting room at Providence Little Company Hospital and said to fellow nurse Shaddae Johnson-Ball, “This is a major moment for humanity.”

Divina’s comparison Thursday morning to Neil Armstrong’s observation upon stepping on the moon in 1969, was conscious. 

Johnson-Ball had just injected Divina’s right shoulder with the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. 

The vaccine’s availability this week for Tier 1 (front line) medical workers coincided with the “COVID crush,” the term Little Company Emergency Department nurse Christie Baker used to describe what she would be returning to after she was vaccinated Thursday morning. Baker’s emergency room has been overflowing with COVID-19 patients. Her  hospital’s ICU beds were full. Overall, 126 of Little Company’s 400 beds were occupied by COVID patients. Up from eight on Oct. 18, exactly two months ago,  according to Andrew Werts, the hospital’s communications director.

Christie Baker receives the COVID-19 vaccine from fellow Registered Nurse Eunice Natividad.

The COVID Crush is attributed to Thanksgiving gatherings and is expected to worsen with the upcoming holiday gatherings.

Providence Little Company of Mary received 1,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday, according to Little Company Pharmacy Manager Mark Umekubo. On Thursday, the hospital was scheduled to receive another 2,000 doses. 

Umekubo anticipated 120 of the hospital’s “Tier 1” medical staff would be vaccinated by the end of the day, Thursday. By the end of the year, all of Little Company’s Tier 1 medical employees will be vaccinated, he said. 

Administering the vaccine to hospital employees isn’t constrained by vaccine supplies, but logistics, Umekubo said.

Because of COVID’s demands on the nursing staff, just five Little Company nurses were available to administer the vaccine Thursday. And most of them were volunteering on their days off.

Another logistical problem is the “cold chain.”

Providence Little Company is getting its vaccine from Harbor UCLA Medical Center, one of four Los Angeles County hospitals Pfizer is shipping to. The four hospitals were scheduled to receive  83,000 doses of the vaccine this week. Little Company was using a hub and spoke model to deliver the 2,000 doses it was allotted to pick up on Thursday. The vaccines would be taken from Harbor UCLA  to Providence St. John’s in Santa Monica, because Saint John’s  has freezers for storing the vaccine at the required minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit). From there, a five day supply of the vaccine would be driven to Providence Little Company medical centers in Torrance and San Pedro. Once removed from the deep freeze, the vaccine has a five day shelf life.

Recipients of the vaccine on Thursday saw it as protection not just for themselves, but for all whom they come in contact with. 

Tony Vieyra is responsible for disinfecting  equipment in Little Company of Mary’s emergency, operating, labor and delivery rooms.

“I’m just doing my part to stop the spread,” he said as he left the vaccination room.

Photos

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