Former soccer alum Diana (Puckett) Alberghini knows what it's like to be amid a pandemic storm. As a radiologic technologist at a Level 1 Trauma Hospital in Detroit, her duties have shifted from the operating room to the inpatient portion of the hospital where COVID-19 patients are admitted. COVID-19 has hit Detroit and the metro area, where Alberghini lives, especially hard in the last month.
"This month has been crazy. We go from everything being normal, to having COVID-19 people in our state, then to our city, and then our hospital," said Alberghini. "We were all very concerned at the beginning of the outbreak on how the hospital would treat us (healthcare workers), and how we would be affected."
She soon found the answer to these questions. Two weeks into the state-mandated "Stay Home, Stay Safe" executive order in Michigan, Alberghini developed COVID-19 symptoms. She contacted the hospital's Employee Health Services and was surprised to find they were not, and still are not, testing employees for COVID-19. Alberghini took matters into her own hands and found a drive-up facility for healthcare workers and first responders. Thankfully the results came back negative. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people who have COVID-19 symptoms should assume they have the illness, even if they test negative, to avoid further spread of the virus. The test has a 20% error rate.
Alberghini self-isolated at home and returned to work 10 days later to find a lot of procedures had changed due to COVID-19. Her day-to-day duties became much more labor intensive in the short time she was gone. On a pre-COVID day, patients would come to the radiology department to get X-rays; post-COVID days include Alberghini traveling to them to do portable exams. Portable exams are one of the procedures put in place to limit transport of patients who are COVID-19 positive through the hallways. Portable exams include pushing the machine to the patient's room, donning PPE, or personal protective equipment (N95, goggles and splash guards), and sliding the X-ray board under the patient, taking the X-ray, making sure the X-ray looks good before removing the board, taking the portable machine out of the room, removing the PPE, performing hand hygiene, and fully disinfecting the portable machine before going to the next room.
"I wear the head portion of the PPE for the entire portable run, which is typically over one hour long. The longest run I was on was just about 3 hours long, and I was completely dehydrated when I got back to the department," said Alberghini. "I feel exhausted after every shift. I feel overworked and underappreciated."
Aside from bloody noses and dehydration from the long hours of wearing PPE, Alberghini says her hospital's efforts to show appreciation to their health care workers has fallen short. The hospital put out a Disaster Relief Recognition Payment for frontline workers and the entire radiology department was overlooked at first. After complaints, a week later, the administration updated the list to include radiology as frontline workers, but Alberghini says the amount they are due to receive is disappointing.
To help with her stress level, she's been trying yoga since her gym is closed, but overall her daily life has not changed much during the pandemic. As most of us shelter at home, Alberghini added, "Stay safe. Wash your hands. Don't overreact."
The RB4L Spotlight is highlighting former student-athletes who have been impacted by COVID-19. If you'd like to be featured in the RB4L Spotlight and share your story, email rb4l@ilstu.edu.
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