Two years after Lee County experienced its first case of COVID-19, local healthcare leaders reflected on the pandemic in a press conference Tuesday.

Dr. Larry Antonucci, president and CEO of Lee Health, and Paul Hiltz, president and CEO of NCH Healthcare System, were joined by colleagues at Gulf Coast Medical Center addressing some of the challenges and tribulations of unprecedented events over the last 24 months.

“It’s hard to believe that two years ago on March 4, that right here in this E.D., we had our first patient with COVID,” Antonucci said. “We had no idea what the next two years would bring. During those early stages, we were filled with fear (and) uncertainties. We weren’t sure how to treat the virus – we weren’t sure the effect it would have on our staff – and yet their resiliency, their dedication, their commitment, was unwavering.”

Antonucci said since March 4, 2020, Lee Health has treated nearly 28,000 COVID-19 patients. During the 734-day period of time, Lee Health has used millions of pieces of personal protective equipment, 2 million gowns, 2.5 million gloves and 240,000 surgical masks (22,000 homemade and donated to staff).

While more than 26,000 have recovered from COVID-19, and though Tuesday, Lee Health has reported 1,416 deaths due to the virus.

“These are members of our community who lost their lives and lost the battle, and I want to take a moment of silence and recognize them, as we remember every single one of them,” Antonucci declared Tuesday.

He said though the virus has done its best to lower spirits and alter the everyday lives of millions, the resiliency shown by Lee Health employees is special and inspiring to see.

“We’ve come together and continue to show dedication of commitment every day as we still continue to treat patients with COVID,” Antonucci said. “They’re all heroes, and I’ll never be able to thank them for what they’ve done, and I know the community feels the same way.”

Antonucci also thanked community leaders and the public for their support over the last two years.

Dr. Shyam Kapadia, pulmonologist and critical care specialist at Lee Health, shared what it was like to be on the front lines of the pandemic in an area where at one point, transmission rates were high and capacity levels pushed to the brink.

“I remember like it was yesterday that I was taking care of my first COVID-19 patient,” Kapadia said. “It was a woman, she was in her 40s – she was a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a brave member of this community. She was somebody’s somebody, she was somebody’s everything, and they were counting on me, on us, to make her better and to bring her back home. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. We were all scared. We were scared for ourselves, for each other, for her, for our families.”

Kapadia said unlike in the past, he could not just go home and read up on the task at hand, as the COVID-19 textbook was being written in real time.

“Then, the onslaught began,” he said. “We as healthcare workers felt the barrage of patient after patient, bringing us to the brink of maximum stress, anxiety, depression – making us process all of these moments and emotions within minutes of each other as we moved from room to room, putting patients on life support and watching other die before our eyes. Wave, after insurmountable wave.”

As varying degrees of COVID-19 illness made their way through the community, Kapadia said he and his colleagues only saw the worst of it.

“(We only saw the side of COVID) that took away our community members, our kids, our moms, our dads, our grandparents and our families,” he said. “It was our job to bring them home, and we took that responsibility wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, there were times where we failed, and we didn’t bring them home to you. But in those moments, we made sure that they felt loved by holding their hands, playing their favorite music, comforting them, and FaceTiming you as they passed away in front of our eyes. For the ones that didn’t make it home to you, I am personally sorry for your loss.

“We as healthcare workers promise to continue to watch over our community for the rest of this pandemic, and illnesses to come.”

— Connect with this reporter on Twitter: @haddad_cj