NFL invites four staffers from Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital in Oceanside to the Super Bowl

In recognition of their tireless efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic, the NFL is sending four Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital employees to participate in the league’s Super Bowl experience for front-line workers.

The four hospital employees — two physicians, an Emergency Department nurse and a respiratory therapist — are among the 7,500 vaccinated health care workers who will receive free tickets from the NFL to the big game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa on Sunday as part of the NFL’s salute. 

A Rockville Centre resident and grateful patient of MSSN is helping to make the trip possible by sponsoring the hotel and travel expenses for the nurse and respiratory therapist.

The four hospital employees who will participate in the game day experience are Emergency Department Nurse Eileen Carolan, Director of Respiratory Therapy Iris Halem, Dr. Frank Coletta, the chief of critical care and pulmonary medicine and MSSN Chief Medical Officer Dr. Adhi Sharma.They all have received their first and second doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

“This is a dream come true,” Carolan said, according to a news release. “I’m a big football fan and I never thought I’d get to attend a Super Bowl. After the challenges of the last year, this will be a welcome break.”

MSSN President and CEO Richard J. Murphy said the four employees represent the best of the hospital.

“They have been leaders in the fight against the virus since the start of the pandemic last February and we are proud they will be able to represent Mount Sinai South Nassau at the Super Bowl,” he said, according to the news release. “Like so many other members of the hospital’s staff, they worked tirelessly, sometimes around-the-clock, putting the needs of our patients before their own family and putting themselves in harm’s way to provide care for our community. We are very grateful to the NFL for recognizing them and all health care workers at the Super Bowl.”

The facility’s staff members will be included among the about 7,500 other health care heroes at this year’s Super Bowl and around the country that the NFL will recognize through a variety of special moments both in the stadium and during the CBS broadcast of the game.

Each of hospital’s four staff members chosen played a different role to support the more than 1,600 Covid-19 patients treated at MSSN during the pandemic.

A full-time Emergency Department nurse for the hospital since 1990. Carolan cancelled a planned vacation last spring so that she would not miss a single shift during the height of the first patient surge.  Throughout the duration of the pandemic, she has served at the hospital’s on-campus and Long Beach-based emergency departments.

When the first Covid-19 patients arrived, Halem’s role as director of respiratory therapy took on a new urgency.  She worked side by side with nurses and doctors to provide respiratory treatments to severely ill patients. During the height of the pandemic in April,. Halem was coordinating the care of 97 patients on ventilators and 110 on bi-pap therapy.

As chief of critical care and pulmonary medicine, Coletta oversees the treatment of the most critically ill Covid-19 patients. He has spearheaded the training of hospital physicians, physician assistants and medical residents from all medical disciplines to assist critical care, emergency medicine and respiratory physicians as they treated the more than 1,600 hospitalized Covid-19 patients.

Sharma has provided steadfast leadership in MSSN’s ongoing response to Covid-19, overseeing the medical staff’s response to the pandemic and coordinating with the Mount Sinai Health System to ensure the hospital’s patients and staff had access to the latest therapies, equipment and research. Sharma helped lead the hospital and its clinical staff to meet daily unforeseen challenges, reallocating resources and redeploying staff to MSSN as needed during the yearlong and unprecedented public health crisis.

According to the NFL, all the health care workers at the Super Bowl will have received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.  It is using this special initiative as an opportunity to promote the importance of vaccination and appropriate health practices, including wearing masks in public settings.

The limited attendance for Super Bowl weekend and the game itself has been cleared by public health officials, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Florida Department of Health, and area hospitals and health care systems. The officials reviewed and provided feedback on the NFL’s comprehensive plans to enable the league to host vaccinated health care workers and fans safely and responsibly. 

Super Bowl Covid-19 protocols include mandatory mask wearing, social-distancing, podded seating, touch-less in-stadium experiences at concessions, restrooms and security checkpoints, as well as controlled entry and egress.

Courtesy MSSN; compiled by Mike Smollins