South Nassau Staff Heading To Super Bowl To Honor Their Work

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

The four hospital employees — two doctors, 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 Super Bowl in Tampa as part of the NFL’s salute. A Rockville Centre resident and grateful patient of Mount Sinai South Nassau is helping to make the trip possible by sponsoring the hotel and travel expenses for the nurse and respiratory therapist.

The four Mount Sinai South Nassau employees who will participate in the gameday experience are Emergency Department nurse Eileen Carolan, Director of Respiratory Therapy Iris Halem, Chief of Critical Care and Pulmonary Medicine Dr. Frank Coletta and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Adhi Sharma, MD, Chief Medical Officer. They all have received their first and second doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

“This is a dream come true,” said Carolan. “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.”

Carolan and Halem's travel and hotel expenses are being covered by Rockville Centre resident Larry Ferazani. Though not a coronavirus patient, Ferazani helped secure the tickets for the South Nassau workers as a way of showing thanks for the care he received after he suffered a heart attack.

“These four employees represent the very best of Mount Sinai South Nassau. 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,” said Richard J. Murphy, president and CEO of the hospital. “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 Mount Sinai South Nassau staff members will be included among the approximately 7,500 other health care workers 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 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 Mount Sinai South Nassau during the pandemic.

A full-time Emergency Department nurse for South Nassau 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 coronavirus 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, she 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 coronavirus 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, the hospital’s chief medical officer, has provided steadfast leadership in the ongoing response to the pandemic, overseeing the medical staff 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. He helped lead the hospital and its clinical staff to meet daily challenges, reallocating resources and redeploying staff to Mount Sinai South Nassau 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 coronavirus 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. These 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 coronavirus protocols include mandatory masks, social distancing, podded seating, touchless in-stadium experiences at concessions, restrooms, and security checkpoints, as well as controlled entry and egress.