Joe Eads will be long remembered at LRMC

Editor’s Note: Rakunas is the chief operating officer(COO) at Lehigh Regional Medical Center.

One of the good guys is no longer with us.

In a field where you get to see the beginning and end of life, one might think that death doesn’t have a big effect on healthcare workers, but this one hurts.

On Wednesday the 14th of October, Joe Eads passed away. Joe worked here at Lehigh Regional Medical Center as the House Supervisor part nurse, part administrator, and full-time advocate for patients.

It was that last role that always impressed me the most about him. No matter how many hats he was wearing at once, the one that always took precedence was his passion for caring about others.

House Supervisors are where the buck stops in a hospital. They are in charge at night and on weekends, asked to assume responsibility for everything that pops up. They speak with unhappy patients, they give staff words of wisdom, and they deal with administrators in the wee hours of the morning.

I always knew that Joe’s priority was on the patients. He made no bones about it, and anyone who ever had contact with him felt his compassion for those who were sick and in his care. You just felt comfortable whenever you were around Joe, and his calm demeanor let you know that, no matter what happened, things would be fine.

My favorite story about him involved his “gator broom.” Joe occasionally spotted alligators sunning themselves on the hospital’s helicopter pad, and took it upon himself to help them move elsewhere. When we reminded him that Florida law prohibited us from harassing gators never mind the fact that shushing them with a broom was probably dangerous Joe just replied, “But what will happen to a patient who needs a transfer if the chopper can’t land?”

Every weekend that Joe was working, I slept a little easier.

All of us had faith in him that he could handle anything, including alligators. Unfortunately, Joe’s last battle was not with a reptile, but with cancer. After working in hospitals for 40 years, Joe’s last day was spent in one, but this time as a patient.

Like many others at Lehigh Regional, I will sorely miss him.