Alumni Healthcare Heroes Over the course of these past six-plus months, the world has witnessed a new kind of superhero emerge—one who doesn’t wear a cape. Instead, these champions have treated the sick and the injured on the frontlines during a once-in-a-century pandemic. They’re our healthcare heroes, and we are proud to feature the stories of two alumni, Anthony Oddo ’07 and Katherine Vendley Lynch ’09, who have been working in their respective medical fields throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Read on to learn, in their own words, about their experiences.
Anthony Oddo ’07 earned his degrees in Anthropology and Chemistry at Emory University in 2011. Subsequently, he worked two years as a high school science teacher on the TexasMexico border as a Corps Member with Teach For America. In 2017, he attained his MD at Wright State University’s Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio, where he met his wife, Betsy, who is also a pediatrician. Dr. Oddo completed his general pediatrics residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis before moving to Charleston, SC this summer, where he will practice at Mt. Pleasant Pediatrics.
During the pandemic outbreak, I was a resident physician in general pediatrics and my assignment for the month of March was to be a night shift supervising doctor. As such, I supervised general admissions to the hospital overnight, and furthermore, I was assigned to be the sole provider to evaluate and take care of all of the COVID-19 patients who were admitted to the hospital overnight. At that time, with so little evidence-based information about the virus, it was both an exciting and intimidating experience. I embraced my role as a valuable opportunity to reinforce our safety protocols and to be flexible as new guidelines were released by the CDC and our state department of health throughout those weeks. I was later assigned to the emergency department, where new safety measures were in place to best help protect our patients and providers. Employees and families alike were asked multiple screening questions and had temperatures taken. It was an adjustment to these new measures, but it also acted as a great time to reflect and to analyze our current practices in order to create safer ways to practice medicine. I helped take
care of multiple patients who were undergoing COVID work ups, and it was a unique experience to be the first physician to encounter some of these patients. This summer, I have since completed my residency training and have relocated to Charleston, SC, where I will join a pediatrics private practice. Already amidst the anticipated challenges of working independently for the first time, working in a new job, and working in a new city, I am also faced with the responsibility of being knowledgeable about the latest national and local recommendations in taking care of my personal patient population. As I prepare to start in August, I am doing my best to stay up to date and to educate myself as much as possible to make informed recommendations to my patients and families. Overall, fortunately, the pediatric population has had a much lower rate of COVID-19 diagnoses and related-illnesses, such as the multi-system inflammatory disease. Similar to the adult patients, we have children who are at known increased risk Summer/Fall 2020 | CANNON | 31
