Orlando, Fla. – It was March 5, 2020 when AdventHealth saw its first COVID patient.
Chief Nursing Officer, Linnette Johnson, remembers it very clearly.
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“He was here with us and it was early in the pandemic and we didn’t know a lot about the disease we didn’t know a lot about treating it,” Johnson said.
At the time, the virus was quickly spreading around the world causing shutdowns in some parts of the country.
Randy Haffner, CEO of AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division, was in Utah at a conference when the shutdowns began.
“I remember watching as the NBA cleared the arena, Rudy Gobert was announced as being positive and they went from city to city as they were clearing the arenas,” Haffner explained.
AdventHealth officials said this was the challenge healthcare workers didn’t see coming from working long hours daily, to shortage of medical supplies, to seeing patients pass from the virus.
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Now a year later, the community has access to covid testing and some are eligible for the vaccine though officials said the work isn’t done just yet.
“We quite honestly are contributing to the new science, contributing to the research,” Haffner said.
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