Rockin' around the HSC — Health Science Center holiday stories
Health care and research don't stop for the holidays. While some of us are roasting chestnuts, watching football or perhaps "It's a Wonderful Life" for the 5,000th time, there are many folks across campus who still work or volunteer their time no matter what day of the year it is. This month, with Hanukkah, Christmas, Yule, Kwanzaa, New Year's Day and other celebrations upon us, The POST is shining a light on a few of the people who stay hard at work regardless of the day and who often don't get a lot of attention for what they do — be it unclogging toilets or making the season a little brighter for patients and our troops.
Where a kid can be a kid
Every Dec. 24, a special visitor leaves his reindeer by the curb and rides the elevator up to the fourth floor of Shands at UF. Clad in his traditional red garb with Mrs. Claus by his side, Santa Claus ho-ho-hos his way through the pediatrics unit, visiting every child who would like to greet him.
Just like a traditional visit with Santa, the event is photographed, and for many families, that small, instant print-out is a precious memento, says Naomi Martinez, a Shands Child Life specialist.
"Parents will cry because it may be their child's first Christmas or it may be their child's last," Martinez said. "And that's the part that really gets you, when you see the families."
Kids don't stop being kids just because they're in the hospital. That's why Shands and UF staff members who work with children band together to make every holiday special on the pediatrics floor, be it Halloween or Hanukkah. Shands Guest Services, Child Life, Arts in Medicine and the clinical staff are just a few of the groups that make the holidays a little brighter for children.
"We really want to show parents that we care about their child, more than just as a sick child who we are going to take excellent care of their medical needs," said Marie Kasprow, M.S.N., a pediatrics nursing manager. "But we understand their child is a child and we don't want them to miss out on things."
Each year, during the winter holiday season, the pediatrics nursing staff picks a theme for the floor and buys decorations — often using their own money. This year for "Winter Wonderland," intricate snowflakes dangle from the ceiling of the playroom and glittery snowmen lurk around every corner. Activities in the playroom often match the theme, too. In early December, a group of UF students gathered to help children make penguin and snowmen door hangers for their rooms.
Every child who stays in the hospital during Christmas also receives a special surprise when they wake up Dec. 25 — presents the nurses deliver while children are sleeping.
"We try to make this a happy experience for kids," Kasprow said.
To donate presents for pediatrics patients, you can purchase presents directly from the Shands Children's Hospital wish list at www.amazon.com/gp/registry/CWU7FPAU07Z6. If donations cannot be made prior to Christmas, toys can still be used for pediatrics patients throughout the year. — April Frawley Lacey
Sinks clog on holidays, too
Vivian Young, a senior custodian supervisor, won't forget the Christmas Day she was called at home about a building emergency. A security guard had discovered a faucet left running in a lab in the Basic Science Building and the flooding spanned two floors. Young came in to oversee the cleanup and called in other custodial staff to help on that wet Dec. 25.
There may be a lot fewer Health Science Center employees working in labs and offices during the holiday break, but there are still emergencies, trash that needs collecting and toilets that need to be unstopped. A skeleton crew of six custodial staff who volunteer to work the weekdays between Christmas and New Year's Day is here to take care of those needs.
"Research doesn't cut off during the break. Some people need to be here every day or every other day to monitor research, and people also use the time to catch up on their work," said Young, adding that the fifth floor of the McKnight Brain Institute, the basement labs in the Communicore Building and the Human Development Center are among the busiest areas during holiday break.
Directed by one of the custodial services supervisors (they take turns every year), the six-member crew spreads out to cover an area that, on a normal workday, would be cleaned by 60 custodial staff.
It's a lot of work, but it does have its perks, says Clifford Gordon who, before transferring recently to the Academic Research Building, worked for several years at the College of Veterinary Medicine and was the sole custodial staff member to clean the college's academic buildings and hospitals in the last week of December.
"I was authorized to visit parts of the buildings I didn't normally see," Gordon said. "During my work breaks I could peek through the windows of the operating rooms of the Large Animal Hospital and see surgeons operating on horses and a cow. It was very, very interesting."
Working amid quiet hallways and shuttered classrooms can get lonely, but it's also a good opportunity for those who are here to bond, said HPNP Complex custodial staff member Estelita Winkel.
"We all enjoy working together and getting to know each other," Winkel said. "I'm looking forward to working with the group again this year. I'm pretty sure each one of us made a self-sacrifice to break away from families to work voluntarily this season." — Jill Pease
Heart to heart
Allison Kleinfeldt knows sickness knows no holidays.
As one of five patient schedulers for the department of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery who will be around the office during the holiday break, she remains willing and eager to carry on business as usual. Kleinfeldt and the other schedulers serve as the first point of contact for patients who wish to schedule surgeries or appointments — and they reschedule appointments when unexpected heart transplants or surgeries make changing the schedule a life-saving necessity. She also books clinics, fields questions and retrieves proper scans and documents.
"Allie is a saint," said Tomas Martin, M.D., who has worked with Kleinfeldt for more than 10 years. "I always tell everyone there are three women in my life — my wife, my daughter and my secretary — and I just do whatever they tell me to."
Martin said even though Kleinfeldt is not trained in medicine, she has learned a lot about the field and serves as the department's "executive coordinator." She often even has to work as a counselor, apologizing when things don't go perfectly or easing patient fears and concerns about surgery, he said.
"Her duties extend way beyond her job description," Martin said. "If she and others like her weren't here during the holidays, our patients would not know where to go or how to get there." — Kim Libby
To Iraq with love
Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday for Linda Stanley's family. So, three days before the annual turkey fest, it was hard for her to talk about who wouldn't be at her table this year — her son, Sean.
Of course, it's hard for Stanley to talk about Sean's absence most days. Stanley's son, U.S. Army Spc. Sean Cavanaugh, has been serving in Iraq since Aug. 24. Cavanaugh is part of a canine unit and he and his dog, Ata, are responsible for checking for bombs in places where the troops are headed. Like any mother, Stanley worries. A lot.
"I am so proud of him, but by the same token I know he is in harm's way and that's hard," said Stanley, a client services representative for the UF College of Veterinary Medicine. "It is miserable to know your child is out there and you can't do anything."
Wanting to do something to help her son and his unit — and their canine companions — Stanley and her colleague Linda Howard began collecting items to ship to Iraq a few months ago. The box started out small, but as word spread about Stanley's son and the canine unit, the boxes began to multiply, filled with everything from doggie goggles for keeping the dogs' eyes safe from sand to snacks for the soldiers, human and canine alike.
The first shipment was 50 pounds. The second, sent for Thanksgiving, weighed more than 140.
During the past few weeks, the women have been collecting items to send the soldiers for the holidays, too. Although they have again been flooded with donations, Howard admits they could still use funds to help pay for costly shipping.
The outpouring of support means a lot to Stanley, who has to keep back tears when people she doesn't know come in loaded with bags of stuff to send to her son.
"The students, they are paying for school and probably having a hard enough time as it is, and they are coming in with bags of stuff for the doggies," Howard said. "It's so heartwarming."
For more information, e-mail Linda Howard at howardl@vetmed.ufl.edu. — April Frawley Lacey
What's cooking?
The cafeteria may be closed on the holidays, but it doesn't mean Shands at UF Food and Nutrition Services workers aren't busy throughout the season. Patients still need to be fed, and parties need to be catered.
On Thanksgiving, Shands at UF patients received a special holiday meal, complete with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans and pie. Thanks to Parkview Baptist Church, a local congregation, the families of pediatric patients received the same meal for free. The parish paid for holiday meals with all the fixings for patients' families.
Food and Nutrition Services prepared the meals, which church members delivered. Faye Hunter, manager of patient nutrition services, said the patients and their families don't take the gesture for granted.
"Thanksgiving is all about giving and counting your blessings," she said. "That's the greatest thing we can do, to provide those families with holiday meals. I think it's a great thing that we're doing." Patients also get special meals on Christmas and New Year's Day. This year's Christmas meal will be prime rib. Yum!
Other Food and Nutrition Services employees are helping people get in the holiday spirit, too. Lisa Millen, commercial food services manager, and her employees cater about 50 parties every holiday season, some with as many as several hundred guests.
And thanks to Lee Raynor, executive chef, the Health Science Center has its very own homemade gingerbread hospital this year. — Laura Mize
The art of giving
There are sounds you expect to hear in a tunnel between two hospitals: the click-clack of busy feet, the whooshing of carts and wheelchairs rolling through the corridor, the sound of a 16th century recorder playing "Greensleeves" ...
OK, maybe not the "Greensleeves," but if you happen to meander through the visitor's tunnel between the Shands at UF South and North campuses in December, that may just be what you hear. Led by Arts in Medicine's music program coordinator Cathy DeWitt, musicians from the Shands AIM program will be performing every Monday and Friday around lunchtime in the tunnel. Of course, this isjust one of the many things AIM is doing this year to make the holiday season a little brighter for patients and staff members.
"Some of our musicians have been known to visit patients on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day," DeWitt said.
The group also held its annual AIM for the Holidays event Dec. 11, which featured a daylong concert in the Shands at UF lobby, performances in the South Campus, dancing, Christmas carols and Hanukkah stories.
AIM artists volunteer their time throughout the holidays, and sometimes it's not even their songs or performances that help patients. Paula Patterson, a dramatist in residence who runs AIM's Playback Theater program, remembers one year when she walked into a patient's room and found the girl's mother crying. Doctors had told the family the girl could go home for Christmas if she ate something, but the only thing that seemed appetizing was wonton soup, something the Shands kitchen could not make. Patterson left the hospital and got the girl her soup.
"Her mother burst into tears and said, ‘This is the most wonderful gift I have ever been given,'" remembered Patterson. "The two were alone together away from the hospital for the first time in four months." — April Frawley Lacey