On the Front Lines

By Sean McMullen ’96, Director of Alumni Relations

Through their formation as Men for Others, Jesuit Dallas alumni are called upon to be attuned to the needs of the world; to use their God-given talents and gifts to help society overcome its greatest challenges and to ultimately make the world a better place. During an unprecedented health crisis unlike anything else in modern history, many of our alumni have played a prominent role in responding to an emergency that has cost lives, devastated economic growth, and changed the way we live. Here are just a few of their stories…

Within a50 mile drive of Amarillo, there are five meat packing plants and a state penitentiary that employ thousands of people in their respective communities. Dr. Brian Weis ’84, who is the chief medical officer of Northwest Texas Healthcare System, was called into action when the penitentiary and two of the plants, JBS Beef and Tyson Foods, Inc., had outbreaks and quickly became a threat to overwhelm the resources of the hospital.

In an effort to protect doctors, residents, workers and patients, the Northwest Texas Healthcare System formed an internal Incident Command Structure and created critical roles to ensure a safe environment within the hospital. Weis assumed the enormous role of safety officer, providing guidance on next steps in patient care, working on protocols to prevent a spread of the outbreak or infiltration into the hospital system, and ensuring safety for all those within the system.

As he adjusted to the increased responsibilities from his normal position as CMO, Weis found that 100% of his day was checking for the number of available ventilators, ICU capacity, assessment of the quantities and quality of PPE, and serving with the mayor of Amarillo and public health department officials on tracking COVID-19 cases and the region’s coordinated response. Administrators in the NWTHS instituted a policy of total transparency. In addition to sharing the dais for weekly press conferences to the community with updates on the pandemic and its effect on the Texas panhandle, daily emails and communication were sent to the hospital staff by Weis in an effort to share information and maintain open lines of communication.

“I have been so proud to work with everyone during this health crisis. Every workflow in this hospital has been touched by COVID-19. I have seen people working together in astounding ways and we have been able to curb the spread and limit the number of cases as a result of our efforts. I treasure that I have had this experience and I hope I NEVER have it again.”

As chief medical officer of the Texas Hospital Association (THA) and the Texas Hospital Foundation, Dr. Bob Hendler ’66 has extensive experience establishing protocols and best practices that have helped shape the global response to past pandemics such as SARS, Avian Flu, EBOLA, Anthrax and the Swine Flu. In his role with the THA, Hendler serves as an advocate for hospitals in the state of Texas.

During the initial outbreak of COVID-19, Hendler was active in fighting for hospitals in need of personal protective equipment (PPE) on the state and federal level. Additionally, he participated in discussions on the allocation of grant funds received from the state and federal governments, and worked with rural hospitals to prepare for the potential spread and transmission of the virus based on trends in larger demographic areas. “To be a good resource, I have to understand the science and I will ask my colleagues about the statistics to clear up things I do not understand.” Hendler has provided guidance as a content expert to Jesuit Dallas, Cistercian, and the engineers from SMU that deal in air handling systems. Making sure his discussion points are based on science and research, Hendler shared that he leverages several hundred resources in creating the primers he shares with the groups he consults.

“Since the pandemic arrived in America, the process for the health industry has been to follow the science and then monitor the changes as new discoveries are made.” Hendler pointed to the changes in social distancing rules and how the virus presents itself with different symptoms to different people. “As we have learned more about the science of the coronavirus, we can be in better position to assist those that have to make decisions to create safe environments for their patients, offices, schools and family. The secret for the future is to detect and contain.”

Michael Darrouzet ’77 serves as the CEO and executive vice president of the Texas Medical Association. The TMA, which represents over 53,000 physicians across the state, aims to solve challenges facing physicians and have been keenly focused on targeting situations that have been exacerbated with COVID-19. Under Darrouzet’s leadership, a state-widetask forcewas created offering help toprovide counsel to the Governor’soffice and to assist in the decision processes affecting public safety.

Darrouzet was instrumental in the formation of the Texas Health Care Industry COVID-19 Strike Force, which is comprised of representatives from eight different agencies responsible for different parts of the health care industry, including theTexas Hospital Association, Texas NursesAssociation, Texas Healthcare Association and Texas Association of Community Health Centersto name a few. The strike force, which facilitates conversations in current issues that have ethical and moral dilemmas as well as potential legal repercussions, examined the possibility of experimental drugsfor the treatment of COVID-19 coronavirus on patients in the state, and how scarce medications and resources should be administered.

Like many others, Darrouzet and administrators within the TMA have been forced to get involved with the shortage of PPE’s caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. “If doctors do not have a mask for themselves or nurses and they have patients who are exhibiting symptoms of the virus, they cannot see the patient and must send them to the emergency room.” The TMA spent35 daysduring the early stages of the pandemic working with state regulators to divert masks to doctors who didn’t have them and were facing the decision of going out of business. “For many, the need led physicians to purchase their own masks online, where as a result of the high demand and need for shipping from other countries, the cartels from Mexico began stealing masks because they were so valuable. The TMA worked with Texas Department of Emergency Management, a group that traditionally oversees tornado and hurricane management during disasters, to fix the cartel issue and get the masks to the doctors in needed. It is the little things in a battle. Now thousands of physicians around the stateare able to keep their doorsopen due to a simple mask.”

A family medicine doctor with Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, Dr. Michael Tolle ’87 experienced a dramatic increase in patient requests, as the outbreak of COVID-19 created an overwhelming environment at urgent care centers and emergency rooms, while the number of people contacting the hospital seeking a family medicine doctor exploded. “We were already busy as a practice, but the global health crisis triggered a huge response, especially among those who just wanted to get screened and checked.”

Dr. Tolle believes they were seeing coronavirus symptoms in patients as early as February and potentially before that. He offered that it was a frequent doctor’s lounge discussion that the virus could be a real After serving on the North Texas Emergency Response Committee and leading efforts with the Dallas County Medical Society in the eradication of the West Nile outbreak in 2012, Dr. Rick Snyder ’79, who is president ofHeartPlace, the oldest and largest cardiovascular group in North Texas, was asked by Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins to be his representative to the Dallas County Health and Human Services Public Health Advisory Committee, a position he maintains. Snyder’s experience has enabled him to be a valuable asset to the response team for COVID-19 through the creation part of the North Texas Mass Critical Care Guidelines, which serves as a triage guideline for a respiratory pandemic and provides objective protocols for the facilitation of patient care. “When Governor Abbott issued a state of emergency, these guidelines became activated and those criteria were assigned and adopted throughout the metropolitan areas in Texas to avoid putting the incredible burden on physicians in each hospital to make those decisions.” Within 48 hours, Snyder shared that HeartPlace went almost completely Telemedicine. “The federal and state governments waived HIPAA and reimbursement obstacles, among other things, to make telemedicine a possibility. The problem. “COVID-19 is highly infectious and for most people it has not been terribly bad. Many patients have had very mild symptoms. There have been different presentations in all ages though, older people that were not that sick, younger people that were sicker than you would think.” A unique outcome has occurred because of the health emergency, and now instead of getting treated for showing symptoms, patients are interested in getting an antibody test to see if they ever had the virus.

In addition to becoming physically sick, a side effect of COVID-19 has been the intense fear that it has instilled in the general public. In his own practice, Tolle said that absent of a lot of information and conflicting reports on how the virus was spread, patients and new protocols allowed for Skype, FaceTime and Zoom to be used, none of which were HIPAA compliant before COVID-19. From a cardiology perspective, Snyder shared that similar to France and Italy, almost all heart attacks ceased coming to the emergency room during the initial outbreak. Patients were too scared to visit an ER and first responders reported a 60% increase in patients that quit breathing en route to the hospital or were DOA because they were not coming in when they staff were very scared. “Not since I was a new doctor in Africa during the height of the HIV crisis have I seen such uncertainty in the medical community.”

Tolle’s medical assistants had a real fear of contracting the virus and unintentionally exposing their families through contact, although he is very proud to point out that during the peak of cases in the late spring, they were operating at full staff. “The psychological part of COVID-19 has been bad on the populous. This uncapped anxiety disorders that were already there in some patients, and others developed anxiety as a result of being home for a few months and losing their bearing over how life is to be structured. I focus on a patient’s eyes more

than I ever have before.” experienced their heart attacks. “The impact of COVID-19 on the hospitals has been devastating. Many cancer patients would not come into the hospital to do their chemo treatments because they could not have visitors with them for support. Patients were also postponing bone marrow transplants or final stage end-of-life hospital care because they were not able to have family members with them. There are heartbreaking examples of patients having to say goodbye to their families using Zoom or on the cell phone since they were not allowed visitors.”

As president of the North Texas OB-GYN Associates, Dr. Rudy Tovar ’64 has seen radical changes in his office and in the hospitals. Delivering babies during the pandemic is not the same as it used to be prior to COVID-19. Gone are the “warm and fuzzy” considerations like having all the family present for the birth of a child, as hospitals have limited access to one support person for each delivery. And only recently have regulations relaxed to the point that expecting fathers can attend scheduled appointments for their babies, such as sonograms.

Tovar has seen changes to a number of practices throughout the country as a result of new policies put in place because of COVID-19. The changes were designed to protect care givers as well as patients, especially in circumstances where there is not a substitute for a physical encounter. Due to his age, Tovar was considered to be part of a “vulnerable group” and encouraged to remove himself for his own safety and protection.

Evaluating his options with colleagues and support staff, Tovar ultimately decided that it did not make any sense to remove himself for fear of contracting the coronavirus as he is stringent with his own precautionary health and was more concerned about colleagues with young children.

“It has been 50 years since I delivered my first baby and number 9,000 is around the corner! I am very proud to say I have never missed a day of work in 43 years (Note: Rudy claims that he did not miss a day of school in four years at Jesuit Dallas too!). God is my co-pilot and I’m in good hands. I feel privileged for being able to work. Yes, there is a risk, but I am really blessed.”

Thousands of alumni live out the Jesuit Dallas mission every day across the globe. We are thankful to all of those who answered our call for this issue of Jesuit Today and invite you to read through Class Notes for more updates from your brothers. If you have a story to share regarding how you have been impacted by this unique event in our history or how you are responding to the needs of our global neighbors, please send a message to connect@jesuitcp.org.