WARMC Celebrates Doctor's Day After Tough Year
4/1/2021
This article was written by John C. Pynakker and originally appeared in the Mohave Valley Daily News on March 30, 2021. Read the original story here.
BULLHEAD CITY — Michael Stenger, chief executive officer at Western Arizona Regional Medical Center, spoke to a group of doctors and their guests at the Doctor's Day Celebration at Anderson Auto Group Fieldhouse on Tuesday.
The celebration was canceled last year due to COVID, and the trauma, trials and tribulations the entire staff of WARMC faced this past year were forefront in Stenger's remarks.
"We went through two really tough periods," said Stenger. "For the most part, everybody — physicians, nurses, therapists, technologists, support staff — everybody who helps take care of our community, really has done a yeoman's job in holding it all together. Then after working 8, 10 hours of gut-wrenching work, you have to go home to your families who are afraid. I know that troubled a lot of our staff. Going home, knowing you could potentially infect family members."
Stenger, obviously emotional, said that the hospital hadn't had a COVID-related death in three weeks after having a 14-day period in January where it lost 11 patients to COVID.
He spoke about the psychological impact on staff of seeing two sets of married patients die within days of each other, with one set being the parents of a clinic staff member. He also spoke of a WARMC staffer who died from the disease.
"We did lose a very amazing emergency services nurse during the summertime," Stenger said. "We had several others who were hospitalized. Having said that, thank you, thank you, thank you! This is the one day of the year that I can officially and formally thank you.
“On behalf of our board of trustees, our employees, our leadership team at the hospital, our volunteers and obviously all of our patients who rely so much on our physicians and support staff for their care, thank you."
Dr. Waheed Zehri, WARMC chief of staff, followed to present the official proclamation from Mayor Tom Brady making March 30, 2021, Doctor's Day in Bullhead City. During his speech, he added his own thoughts on COVID including a dedication.
"In the past year we have lost almost 548,000 lives to COVID in the United States," said Zehri, "including about 600 physicians. Their lives are a constant reminder of what dedication and service to the patient looks like. So today, I dedicate Doctor's Day 2021 to all the physicians who gave their lives to save the lives of patients during the COVID pandemic."
Zehri provided biographical stories about many of the physicians around the county who had died from COVID while still working.
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