More Indiana health care workers receive COVID-19 vaccinations
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Another round of health care workers were vaccinated in Indianapolis on Thursday.
Ascension St. Vincent hospital chose six staff members, all from different departments, to receive its first shipment of doses. The employees’ smiles were obvious even through their masks as history was made at the hospital. Several of them said they were willing to get vaccinated so they could continue working to fight the pandemic.
At Eskenazi Health, officials said its shipments of vaccine arrived. Employees opened the boxes and unpacked the vials. Officials plan to start vaccinations on Friday morning.
Franciscan St. Francis Health and Carmel’s IU Health North also plan to begin vaccinations Friday.
Community Health Network says 14 caregivers got the vaccine Thursday as part of a trial run. Community Health’s initial vaccination clinics will start Friday at Community North hospital on the city’s northeast and the Community Health hospital in Anderson.
One of the first Ascension St. Vincent employees to receive the vaccine was Rebecca Davidhizar. The intensive care unit nurse also treated Ascension St. Vincent’s first COVID-19 patient on March 9.
“The patient was very scared, and it was just the weight of what we do as nurses just felt a whole lot heavier,” Davidhizar said.
She said after getting vaccinated, some of that weight has been lifted.
The hospital will vaccinate 792 people on Friday, which is roughly half of all the doses it has received so far. Dr. Christopher Belcher, the director of infection prevention, said they will continue vaccinating people from different areas in the hospital.
“This isn’t just doctors and nurses, which I hear all the time on the news. It’s respiratory therapists and pharmacists and environmental services. Everybody has a role in keeping these hospitals going,” Belcher said.
Angie Porter, a respiratory therapist, said with the country in a second major surge, the vaccine could not have come at a better time. “This virus is so scary, we can have patients that will be talking to us, totally doing fine and within an hour, we’re putting a breathing tube in them.”
That’s why she is asking everyone to do what she believes is right, as soon as they can. “I would be more scared of what COVID is doing to people than what this vaccine.”
Everyone vaccinated on Thursday is already scheduled to get their second dose.
Indiana State Department of Health on Thursday reported 79 more deaths from COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 6,860. The department also said 6,458 more Hoosiers tested positive for the virus. A total of 447,190 Hoosiers have tested positive for COVID-19.