Celebration of Queens 2020

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CELEBRATION OF QUEENS 2020 23 rd Annual Edition

• Survivors’ stories • Hidden heroes

QUEENS

• Our adapting economy • What’s next

Queens’ Largest Weekly Community Newspaper Group

23RD ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF QUEENS • 2020

QUEENS STRONG

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QUEENS STRONG TA BLE OF CONTENT S • Family and new friends helped him survive COVID ....... 4 • The River Fund’s food charity efforts stand apart ....... 6 • A doctor recalls how her hospital handled the crisis .... 8 • Isolated seniors thrive on social media interactions... 10 • How one Key Food stepped up to serve the public .... 12 • Food aid groups redouble their efforts for the needy . 14 • A teacher finds new gratitude for life after his illness 16 • Businesses cope with unprecedented challenges ...... 18 • What’s next for theaters, nightclubs and gyms ........ 20 • A doctor returns to the ER after battling the virus ... 22

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Enjoying hot tea and milk with friends Strong bonds between patient and workers aid in recovery

by Katherine Donlevy Associate Editor

Franklin Diaz of Corona never admitted he was sick, so his daughter knew he was in bad shape when he called her at 8 a.m. on April 11 and told her he was taking himself to the hospital. Franklin, who had underlying heart conditions and a blood disorder, was having difficulty breathing, but was certain he just had an extreme case of the common cold.

Twenty minutes after Claudia hung up the phone, a doctor from NewYork-Presbyterian Queens called her back to tell her they were admitting her father into the emergency room with a case of pneumonia. Not long after, it was determined that Franklin had COVID-19.

“I spoke to him every morning as much as he could ... the third day I said, ‘How are you doing?’ but he said he was tired, ‘I got to go,’ and he hung up,” Claudia said of the moments before her 68-year-old father was put on a ventilator. Claudia, who lives in Florida, relied on FaceTime and telephone calls to stay updated with her sick father from thousands of miles away. “Not knowing what could happen, him being by himself, having that space between both of us was nerve-racking. My connection to him was the phone, and now I have nothing.”

Claudia and her brothers, who also live outside New York, and cousins from South America took to assembling virtually every evening at 7 p.m. to pray for Franklin. Claudia would also take the opportunity to report her

Franklin Diaz, center, developed a special relationship with his healthcare team during his 37-day stay at NewYorkPresbyterian Queens. He referred to his doctors and nurses as his “friends,” and they brought him his favorite drink, PHOTOS COURTESY CLAUDIA DIAZ, ABOVE AND FAR LEFT, AND NYPQ hot tea with milk, to cheer him up during his stay. father’s vitals to the group, which she kept in a notebook next to the telephone. She utilized NewYork-Presbyterian’s hotline for COVID patient families and sought updates every three hours, but she said she gained the most pertinent information when nurses would take the time to call her, sometimes twice a day, to talk about how Franklin was doing as they conducted their last round.

“One nurse stood out ... Jonathan — he called me and said, ‘I’m your

Claudia Diaz FaceTimed her father as much as possible during his stay, and received updates on his vitals from his healthcare team through a hotline.

dad’s nurse and your dad needs to hear your voice,’” Claudia recounted, choking up at the memory. Jonathan held out the phone toward her unconscious father so Claudia could offer him words of encouragement and a quick prayer.

Franklin would spend approximately 30 days on the ventilator. During that month, and with the help of his healthcare team, a sleeping Franklin was afforded the opportunity to hear over 2,000 voice recordings of family members and loved ones offering their prayers and hopes for recovery in the same way his daughter had.

“Having those nurses go beyond the call of duty was beyond amazing and then every day I would get follow-up calls to let me know how he was doing,” said Claudia. “I can’t pay them enough. You could say, yes, it’s their job, but they did far more than their job. They took care of him.”

When Franklin was finally taken off the ventilator, he was on heavy medication, had lost somewhere around 40 pounds and “didn’t look like himself.”

“He’d ask me if I were there and if I were coming to see him,” said Claudia on his confusion upon waking up.

At times, recovery seemed dim and the typically optimistic Franklin seemed hopeless that his health would return. He struggled to do breathing exercises, particularly with the incentive spirometer, a machine that required Franklin to lift small balls by breathing into a

tube to test his lung strength.

As days passed, Franklin slowly made physical progress. He soon switched from a liquid diet to solid food and after much practice, his lungs grew strong enough to push the balls on the machine, which he proudly showed his daughter over FaceTime. Claudia noticed her father was making real headway when he called her one day with a giant smile on his face.

“He didn’t even say hello. He just lifted a Starbucks cup of hot milk and tea and said, ‘My friend bought it for me,’” Claudia said. “He was so happy. It’s his favorite drink, and that’s a connection to home — having your special drink that’s not available in the hospital. Someone had to bring it to him. I thought it

was a nurse that did that amazing gesture for him.”

A few days later, Franklin called his daughter again to introduce her to the friend who brought him his favorite drink. Claudia was surprised to find that he was one of his doctors.

“We were, as a group, extremely ecstatic because he was one of our earliest success stories and we were just very proud of him,” said Dr. Benjamin Lee, the hospital’s chief of thoracic surgery who was reassigned to work with Franklin at the height of the pandemic. The healthcare workers and patients established a bond during their long time together, which they displayed through small acts of appreciation, such as a cup of tea with milk. Franklin returned the favor by waving, smiling and offering two thumbs up for each worker who passed by his window.

“He was one of the shining lights for us. He gave us hope that we could save others as well because there was a lot of loss ... We were very protective of our patients we were able to extubate,” said Lee. Fr a n k l i n wa s a pat ie nt at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens for 37 days before he was released to a rehab facility, where he learned to walk again and gain back the weight he had lost during his time on the ventilator.

Claudia flew up to meet her father upon his release and the two reconnected in-person on Fathers’ Day. “Imagine not having family around and having this awful virus, but the doctors making this practically your home,” said Claudia. “It’s important that despite all of this sadness there are happy moments and my dad is a happy moment ... there’s a light if you keep hope and faith, and I think that’s what kept us going, having that faith. He did and he fought and he’s now walking and hopes to go Q back to work in September.”

The NewYork-Presbysterian Queens healthcare team takes a moment to encourage one another before sharing their optimism with their patients.

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River Fund scales up to the pandemic

by Max Parrott Associate Editor

While the food insecurity of the COVID crisis has spurred the creation of mutual aid groups and food distributions across the city, in Queens one provider stands out among the rest.

The Richmond Hill-based River Fund, a nonprofit whose mission is to fight hunger, homelessness and poverty across New York City, distributed 5.2 million pounds of groceries in the first 16 weeks of its COVID operations.

How did it accomplish this feat?

Sheer logistics capacity.

Most of t he orga n i z at ion s involved in emergency food distribution in the city are smaller. Some are attached to churches, or buildings that don’t have the kind of space to fit wholesaler-sized hauls of food. River Fund, on the other hand, which has been focused on food distribution for 28 years, corners a unique part of New York’s supply chain. It is as much a food warehouse as it is a pantry.

The group’s capacity has helped it step up to fight the extreme spike in food instability during the crisis.

Whereas it previously had one food distribution day per week when they would give about 1,000 residents groceries for the week, during the pandemic it expanded operations to four days per week. At its peak, it was giving out food to 3,800 families.

“It has been an absolutely insane effort. You can’t imagine,” Chief Production Officer Otto Starzman said.

R iver Fu nd fou nder Swa m i Durga Das, who grew up in Ozone Park, originally started the organization to combat HIV and AIDS after his partner died from the virus. He had moved from California back to Queens, and became a case manager for the AIDS Center

of Queens County. At first he began baking cookies for people with HIV, then making sandwiches to give out to folks in need, and just never stopped expanding.

“And one thing led to another, and paying attention to what’s happening, we built this,” he said, gesturing to the queue of people lining the block around the house during a Saturday distribution on July 18.

Durga Das lives and breathes the River Fund program. He resides in the attic of the navy Queen Annestyle cottage house that he converted into an office, food warehouse and reception area for New York’s needy over the years.

During last Saturday’s food distribution, the nonprofit’s most popular day, pallets full of food boxes stacked 6 feet high lined the sidewalk, and a line of people waiting for groceries stretched for nearly a half m ile a rou nd t he su r rou nd i ng neighborhood.

The organization would not have been able to scale up to its current capacity with just the house alone.

Starzman said that its other location, a warehouse next to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, is the key to its ability to handle vast amounts of dry refrigerated and frozen foods.

On average, River Fund receives around 250 pallets of groceries in its Brooklyn location every week. The Richmond Hill location brings in an additional 100 pallets, he estimated.

“Just to put that in perspective, the average semi-truck takes about 20 pallets. So we’re talking about 13 tractor trailers of groceries per week, going through our site,” Starzman said.

Starzman estimated that River Fund gets about 55 percent of its food free from companies up and down the supply chain, from manufacturers all the way down to retailers and everybody in between, including logistics companies,

warehouse storage facilities and airports. Wherever food accumulates, and needs to be vented out of the system, River Fund is able to collaborate with the businesses to take it off their hands. It gets the rest of its food from the government.

“Unless you can accept vast quantities of food, certain types of donors can’t operate with you,” said Starzman.

For example, the group works with dairies in upstate New York and Massachusetts, which can only donate to organizations that have the capacity to receive an entire truckload and refrigerated space to hold it.

“Not everybody wants necessarily the jalapeño-flavored peanut butter, but the amount that’s needed to make it available in New York is less than what’s shipped, so they need to get rid of it somewhere,” Starzman said.

New York City disposes of about 5 billion pounds of perfectly good, pre-consumer groceries per year, said Starzman. Over the years, River Fund figured out that it could pull in a large slice of that overflow if it committed to storage space.

Why are manufacturers willing to give huge amounts of food away for free? It goes back to the tax code. If they throw away food because it’s not selling, they get to then write off that loss.

But River Fund capitalizes on a specific section of the tax code that incentivizes food manufacturers to give to charitable causes. If the businesses give to River Fund, section 170(e)3 gives them an additional tax write-off of 50 percent of the profits they would have realized if they had sold the product.

River Fund’s network allowed it to scale up during the crisis. Even though the government proportion of its supply shrank as demand skyrocketed during COVID, it was able to pull more from private businesses.

Apart from what River Fund is

Pallets of food line the block around the River Fund’s Richmond Hill location PHOTOS BY MAX PARROTT on its food distribution days. distributing through its own sites, it’s also giving to other food distribution organizations in the community.

To keep the nonprofit going, it staffs 22 people full-time, four people part-time, and enlists a large volunteer workforce to help on food distribution days.

“It means the world to actually say that I am doing something to help provide for people out here,” said Brendon Boodho, a staff member who started off as a volunteer.

Of the families the organization helps, about 60 percent come from different parts of Queens. Another 22 percent come from Brooklyn, but most of the rest are from the other boroughs, some even coming from as far as Staten Island, Nassau County or New Jersey.

“We don’t exactly promote what we’re doing,” said Starzman, noting that most people hear about it

Left, Swami Durga Das hands out face masks during a food distribution. Right, volunteers pack baskets full of potatoes at the Richmond Hill location. The line for food stretched out over a half mile behind them.

through word of mouth.

When people got laid off from their jobs at the outset of the pandemic and their unemployment benefits hadn’t started coming in yet, River Fund’s clientele began to spike.

And it’s not over, according to Starz man. He expects another spike after July, when the federal benefits contained in the HEROES Act come to an end.

Durga Das said that people stand in the pantry line for around an hour and a half to two hours to get their food.

His goal is not strictly to feed those who do not have the money in their bank account for groceries at the end of the week but to help families that are generally struggling against poverty.

“The people here before the pandemic were probably facing a challenge. After the pandemic, it’s a whole different challenge,” Durga Das said.

Waiting in line for a week’s worth of groceries on Saturday, Amrita Singh said that she and her husband had both lost their jobs at the outset of the pandemic and were still looking for work. She had never needed or asked for assistance in her life, but she has three teenagers to feed, she said.

“The food is helping a lot. This is my fourth week. I come once a week.

Everybody is just cooped up. Bills are piling up but we try to pay as much as we can slowly. The main thing is shelter and food,” Singh said.

“We just have to thank God we’re Q still alive.”

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Fighting COVID from the inside LIJ Forest Hills doctor recounts early days of the pandemic

by Dr. Teresa Amato “What ... is ... happening ... ?”

I stood in the emergency department and turned around in a full circle. COVID had placed its grip tightly around Forest Hills. It was pushing us to the brink. This was our hospital, this was our department and this was our community. We did not ask for this. We did not want this.

But here it was.

March 2020 started much like any other spring, and yet there was unspoken tension. We knew about what was happening in the rest of the world. We knew it was coming and we knew Queens could be a potential vulnerable area due to its travel patterns (two international airports), population density, diverse cultures and multigenerational homes. What we did not know was how well COVID would prey on those vulnerabilities.

The first COVID patients came to us in early March. Most were suffering upper respiratory symptoms like cough and sore throat. We were sending most people home with information about COVID and letting them know that they most likely had it and what to do about quarantining.

Not long after we saw those same patients, they were back and further along into the viral “ symptoms. These patients were now extremely short of breath. Many had low oxygen levels, also known as hypoxia, and their hypoxia was like nothing we had ever experienced before. We had every oxygen wall unit in use. We were using portable oxygen tanks in hallways. We started seeing X-rays that showed extensive lung disease.

Blood tests were showing remarkable abnormalities in kidney, liver and blood functions. There was something else we all started to notice, but

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were hesitant to say out loud ... so many of the sickest patients were nonwhite. COVID, it seemed, was discriminating against people of color in the most malicious way.

Suddenly the whole hospital was COVID. The Intensive Care Unit expanded to four times its normal volume. We were intubating and placing patients on ventilators at a rate we never had before. Staff came from all over the Northwell health system to help out. We were sent extra muchneeded equipment from our sister Northwell hospitals. And for a while we were holding our own ...

By the end of March it became apparent that we had to do something different. You need three things to care for patients: staff (we continued to get help from all over), equipment (due to emergency management planning we were never without supplies) and space (and that was our problem).

We simply had no more room.

March 31 was a turning point for Long Island Jewish Forest Hills. We reached out to all of the emergency departments within Northwell. Within hours, there was what can only be described as a parade of ambulances lined up around the hospital. They

Dr. Teresa Murray Amato, the director of emergency medicine at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills-Northwell, stands in PHOTOS COURTESY NORTHWELL the ambulance bay at the hospital on 102nd Street.

500 patients to its sister hospitals within the system. This included almost 90 patients on ventilators.

Although we were still well over our normal capacity, we knew we had the ability to continue our fight.

We grew more accushank you for surviving, thank you tomed to hearing “Here for crushing the curve and thank you Comes the Sun” playing overhead every time a for letting us take care of you.” patient with COVID was discharged. We would go — Dr. Teresa Amato, LIJ Forest Hills on to celebrate ou r were here to transport our patients to 1,000th COVID discharge. And we sites that had the staff, the equipment would mourn the souls we could not and the space to care for our patients. save.

It felt like the cavalry had arrived. * * * Using existing Northwell infrastructure and technology, over the I don’t remember exactly when course of just a few weeks, LIJ Forest Hills was able to transfer close to the first time I heard it was, probably

mid- or late April. But I know where I was — sitting in my office.

I have a window that faces out into the neighborhood. It was a few minutes after 7 p.m. and although the sun was starting to set, it was still light out and I could see people standing out on their balconies and they appeared to be yelling and shouting. I ran out of the ambulance bay thinking something terrible had to be happening. And I was hit by a wave of sound and emotion. Our Forest Hills community was saluting us! As tears came to my eyes, I waved up to the faces high above me. There was a chorus of voices raining dow n on the hospital.

“Thank you heroes,” “Health care heroes,” “Thank you Forest Hills Hospital!”

“No, thank you,” I thought.

“Thank you for surviving, thank you for crushing the curve and thank you for letting us take care of you.”

As we head toward our recovery and new normal, it is so amazing to see our department clean and shiny a g a i n . Eve r y t h i n g h a s b e e n scr ubbed or replaced and it is almost hard to remember what it looked like that day in March when it all seemed so overwhelming. I’m not sure yet how much or in what ways we’ve all been changed, but I know that the connection between our community and the LIJ Forest Hills hospital now feels like an unbreakable bond that was made stronger in the face of an invisible Q enemy.

Dr. Teresa Amato is the director of emergency medicine at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills-Northwell.

At the height of the pandemic, members of the hospital’s Emergency Command Center had to direct traffic on the surrounding roads in order to let ambulances pull up to the emergency department, left. The hospital celebrated Secundino Bajana, center, LIJ Forest Hill’s 1,000 discharge, on June 3. No matter how chaotic it got in the ED, staff had the situation under control, right.

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Social media living up to their name Seniors are staying in touch, doing business and even volunteering, all online

Debbie Vogel, left, of Rego Park is spending exponentially more time on Facebook than she had been before the pandemic. Alice Goldman Kasten, formerly of Flushing, has been using it for her business selling paper antiques. Melanie Lee of East Elmhurst has made social media her way of life, including by keeping in touch with people at her church on Facebook, right. COURTESY PHOTOS

by Mark Lord

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Chronicle Contributor

The American Institute for Cognitive Therapy, a group of clinical psychologists, offers multiple suggestions for dealing with isolation during times like these.

It recommends, among other things, taking up new hobbies, watching movies, preparing new dishes, maintaining a routine and, of course, focusing on health, doing exercise and getting enough sleep.

The institute also advocates using various forms of social media to stay in touch with others. This seems to be a particularly popular pastime — even among senior citizens who, some might think, know nothing about any of them.

You’d be surprised!

A sampling of individuals, all over the age of 60, indicates that Facebook is one of the chief ways they have been managing to maintain their sanity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of them, in fact, are thriving and blooming.

Take, for instance, Rego Park resident Debbie Vogel, 62, a veteran usher at Broadway shows who has been out of work since the entire theater district was put out of commission by the virus.

Before it hit, she would spend no more than two hours a day on Facebook, “just to see what was happening with my friends, grandchildren being born, interesting things about friends who wouldn’t necessarily call everybody.”

All that has changed. While she does venture out to shop for food and to take an occasional walk, she revealed that “most of my time during this pandemic has been on Facebook. Since my Facebook friends are a diverse bunch, the posts that I’ve been reading have expressed a multitude of ideas.”

Unfortunately, Vogel said, she has seen signs of depression in some of her friends, especially those in the entertainment field who will likely not be going back to work until 2021.

“Many believe Broadway will never come back,” she said. “I try to reassure them that Broadway is the Fabulous Invalid which always

bounces back. Many call me a cockeyed opti- can do; virtual is the way to go.” So busy is mist,” a phrase taken from an Oscar Hammer- she, in fact, that sometimes “you don’t want stein II lyric in the musical “South Pacific.” to go to sleep.”

“I have to be to get through the day,” Vogel She has become quite involved with Fountain added.

House, an organization dedicated to the recovFor Melanie Lee, 63, of East Elmhurst, ery of men and women with mental illnesses, using social media has become a way of life. which provides members with opportunities to She often finds herself on Twitter, YouTube, live, work and learn while contributing their talZoom and, of course, Facebook. ents through a community of mutual support.

Lee said since the pandemic, she has only The organization, Berman said, has 750 ventured outside twice. A college writing tutor, active members on its Facebook page, and she’s been doing all her teaching online. But helps them “recover by working and collabothat’s just part of how she uses social media. rating together.”

“I wake up at 8 or 9,” she said. “I open Berman said she attends virtual meetings Facebook to check to see “every day, all day,” somewhat’s there. I’m on and off it times two at a time. She throughout the day.” writes articles for the Foun“ now realize how tain House newspaper and She said she frequently updates photog raphs that on videos and podcasts much I love being works reflect the news or holidays for the organization. She or “whatever is going on in with clubhouses all on the computer.” “meets” my life.” over the world, from Scotland She added that she will “pop and Australia to Israel and — Judith Berman in to Facebook to make a comFrance. ment on the news or share a Being able to connect on thought. Sometimes I’ll engage in political Zoom with Fountain House and attend the meetdebates.” She also finds it useful to get in touch ings meant she became a lot more familiar with with people she knew in years gone by. fellow members. She plans to virtually celebrate Perhaps most importantly, “I’m able to con- her birthday with them in September. tinue to worship with my pastor and to make Though Berman spent years working with contact with people of the church.” technology, she said, “I now realize how much I And just recently through social media she love being on the computer.” So much so, she “got a glimpse into my niece’s wedding,” which added, that she could even see herself going she was unable to attend in person due to the back to work at some point. pandemic.

“I’ve thrived tremendously,” she said. “I’ve For retired computer programmer Judith Ber- evolved. I can do a lot more virtually. It’s more man, 64, of Forest Hills, using social media productive. I recommend it to everyone.” comes naturally, and she has taken full advanArea residents aren’t the only ones finding tage of her time at home. solace in their online adventures.

“I am mentally and socially active, not isolatJack Taylor Macaluso, 62, a professional ed,” she said. “I just don’t have enough hours in actor originally from Annapolis, Md., now the day to do everything.” residing in Los Angeles, said that prior to the While many consider the pandemic and the shutdown he would go on Facebook “every three isolation that has resulted a nightmare, for Ber- or four days. man “it’s a silver lining, a blessing.”

“I was very resistant when it first came out,” There is, she said, “no end to what you he said, finding it “invasive.”

I

Now, Macaluso said, “It’s my lifeline. I use it to contact and keep in touch with friends,” though in recent days he finds himself going on it a little less.

“I can’t deal with the political stuff,” he said.

“I have to temper myself.”

Though he “takes walks pretty much every day,” he has not been out socially. So, he turns to Facebook. “On a scale of one to five, it’s a five,” in importance in his life right now. “It’s a way for me to still be in contact and share joy and see pictures of some people I haven’t seen in 30 years.”

He’s on the site every day. “It is difficult for me to read a book because of my eyesight,” he said. “I blow up Facebook. It’s my nightcap, a salvation at the end of a day.”

Perhaps making the most out of Facebook is Alice Goldman Kasten, 75, a retired teacher and dealer in ephemera from Flushing who now lives in Connecticut.

“I collect trade cards,” she said, describing them as “advertising giveaways from the late 1800s” and noting, “They soon ceased to exist,” as printers came up with cheaper ways to reproduce color, and can be quite rare and valuable.

She has been collecting them for many years, and would sell them at shows that attracted others with a shared interest.

Carting crates filled with the heavy mementos became too much for her to handle after a while, so she turned to eBay, where she now has her own virtual store.

Since the pandemic struck she finds herself on Facebook “all day.” While the market there doesn’t seem to go for the more expensive items, Kasten said she is “doing OK” by selling the cheaper ones, some of which have ripped edges and appeal to buyers intending to cut them up for scrapbooks.

“I have been selling my paper antiques at least 12 hours a day,” Kasten said. “It has certainly occupied the long hours of the day.”

She sums up these days by saying, “I spend my whole life on the computer. Before [the panQ demic] it was only half my life.”

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C M CELEB page 12 Y K QUEENS STRONG

Ozone Park grocer takes on civic role Neighborhood Key Food comes to community’s aid

by Max Parrott Associate Editor

The first image that came to the mind of Hasan Zghari when asked about his experience of the pandemic was a snowstorm.

“It was an unpredictable blizzard.

Usually when it comes, it’s snow and go, and it’s over with. With this one it’s all up in the air,” he said.

As general manager of the Key Food at 102-02 101 Ave. in Ozone Park, he found himself as the sole grocery provider in the neighborhood for several weeks when the pandemic hit hardest.

To cope w it h t he su rge i n demand, he not only had to ensure that his staff and customers were as safe as possible, but shift his whole business model to meet demand and encourage phone orders.

Zghari, an Ozone Park resident, is general manager of several Key Foods stores around New York City, including one in Maspeth next to NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, which emerged as one of the most overburdened hospitals in the city.

In talking wth the Chronicle about the effects of COVID Hasan and his brother Ahmad Zghari, the manager of the Ozone Park Key Food, spoke with a special fondness for that store, where they have gotten to know many of their customers on a personal basis.

Though none of his employees there became infected, he knew of customers who were. His role took on a civic significance. He said he needed to make sure his neighbors were taken care of.

Busi ness doubled when the Ozone Park store was the only one in the area to stay open for a period of around three weeks. While the store had lines wrapping around the block, Zghari transfor med the

model of the store to focus on deliveries as much as possible.

“We didn’t want people to come to the store,” he said.

Protecting seniors citizens in the area became a priority. The store stopped charging Howard Beach and Ozone Park seniors any phone order fees to make sure that they had access to groceries.

Not only were the grocery store employees making deliveries, even to neighborhoods way out of their range like Ridgewood, they started cooking special meals for seniors who were asking for it.

“This woman called and said, ‘Could you do this for my dad?’

You’d take a chicken, cut it up into four pieces, and put it with some microwavable bag of rice and a can of beans,” said Ahmad.

At one point they called an Uber The staff of the Ozone Park store began taking their civic role more seriously during the coronavirus crisis. Above are to do a delivery, even though the cost Hasan Zghari, left, Chris Lopez, Sierra and Ahmad Zghari.

PHOTOS BY MAX PARROTT negated most of the return.

Distefano, who lives with his mom taking phone orders, she said that money he saved from his tips and When suppliers weren’t able to provides the store with groceries, and brother, said that he had to quar- she found ways to help people who extra shifts and investing it through antine himself from his family mem- were struggling to make ends meet. the Robinhood app. Distefano said Ahmad took it into his own hands.

She would work closely with cus- that Zghari encouraged many of his “We rented trucks, and went to bers when he got home.

The Zghari brothers, who live with tomers, especially seniors, to help employees to try investing for the wholesalers, and picked up stuff. We their parents in them find sales, and get the most first time, right before the market were doing it by started to rebound. their 60s, com- bang for their buck. ou r s elve s ,” “ As of July, Zghari said that the “I was definitely happy to give pletely changed Ahmad said. ou didn’t realize how clothes before back. I’m not a doctor or a lawyer. operations of the store had returned One worker, they went home, People were just so happy. You to something resembling normal, Andrew Distemuch you need a and isolated as didn’t realize how much you need a with the addition of the customer fano, said that supermarket.” much as possi- supermarket. Food is important,” base who started shopping there at he was simply the peak of the virus. In another Sierra said. ble inside. too busy to be — Sierra, Key Food employee In return, the staff said, the level change, Zghari will continue to waive Sier ra, a thinking about the fees of phone orders for seniors.

2 0 - y e a r - o l d of customer appreciation soared. h e a lt h r i s k s .

Though in many ways the Zghari “We have longtime customers who When the pandemic hit, Distefano, employee who declined to give her 20, went from doing deliveries two last name, said that she had to be not only say they appreciate us, but brothers prioritized civic obligations ahead of profit at the pandemic’s days a week to five days back-to-back extremely cautious because her actually show it,” said Ahmad.

One customer actually brought the worst, they never stopped being mother, whom she lives with, has from 12 to 9 p.m.

“I wasn’t really worried about the health problems. But even though it staff a bottle of liquor as a thank you. shrewd businessmen. Ahmad did not risk. I was more stressed about the caused anxiety, Sierra said that her Tips also increased — a silver lining miss out on the opportunity to promote his store. actual work because there was a lot. mother was proud of her for want- of the risks that the staff were taking.

“We’re still looking for more cusDistefano even earned the name There was always a backlog,” Diste- ing to help people.

Q Since her job mostly consisted of “Warren Buffet Jr.” for taking the tomers,” Ahmad said. fano said.

Y

During the pandemic, long lines wrapped around the Ozone Park Key Food, right, where Lopez, left, works the cash register. Juan Cuautle, center, works in the deli.

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C M CELEB page 14 Y K QUEENS STRONG

Hometown heroes in the war on hunger With people out of work, seniors shut in, food providers step in, stand tall

by Michael Gannon Editor

Alvaro Angulo has been a driver for City Harvest for two years, picking up donations of food from supermarkets to food manufacturers and distributors and dropping them off at soup kitchens, churches and food pantries dedicated to feeding the hungry.

“There’s no such thing as a typical day,” he said. “You make a delivery someplace with the longest line you’ve ever seen of people needing food. And the next day you see a line that’s longer.”

But even as unemployment in the city has risen; even as thousands of otherwise healthy senior citizens have become homebound by necessity; and as dozens of food pantries and soup kitchens have had to close for lack of necessary resources, thousands of staffers like Angulo and thousands more volunteers have been working in delivery trucks, kitchens and warehouses to keep vulnerable residents in Queens fed.

While the numbers for COVID-19 have been steadily trending downward, most other numbers of note have been going in the wrong direction. Unemployment in New York City, which hit 18.3 percent in May even as some businesses began to reopen, rose to 20.4 percent for June.

City Harvest, in an email to the Chronicle, said the number of people suffering from food insecurity in New York City is expected to be up 38 percent over 2018, with the number of children increasing by 49 percent.

The agency this year has collected and distributed 33 million pounds of food to its community partners since March, a 53 percent increase over the same period in 2019.

Its mobile markets, which concentrate on providing fresh produce in farmers market settings, have seen attendance climb by 30 percent since March.

On top of that, the Food Bank for New York City, which assists more than 800 emergency food providers in the five boroughs and has provided well over 21 million meals since the crisis began, says 75 percent of the soup kitchens and food pantries it helps saw immediate increases in demand early on in the crisis, with massive jumps in the numbers in first-time visitors, families with children and laid-off or furloughed workers.

“The whole world has changed,” said Wanda Flores, a driver for Citymeals on Wheels who has been delivering food to seniors for 19 years.

Citymeals was created to provide food on weekends and holidays to seniors who were shut-ins for medical or physical issues.

After working for years in the Bayside-Whitestone area, Flores now has a larger route in Flushing. She also has been assigned a partner.

And much of her routine has been greatly altered to protect her clients and herself from any possible exposure to COVID-19.

For one, clients can no longer see her caring, engaging smile.

“I wear a mask,” she said. “I wear a suit. I wear gloves.”

Much of what Flores has enjoyed in her nearly two decades is the personal interaction with her clients, many of whom invited her in and welcomed her visits when the Chronicle accompanied her on her route last year.

“I can’t go into their apartments now,” she said in a telephone interview last week. “I call them on the phone when I’m outside so they know I’m coming up to leave them their meals.”

But some things — like Flores’ desire to engage clients and make sure all is well — even COVID-19 can’t change.

“I knock on their door and leave the food,” she said. “I move away and when they open the door, I ask how they are doing. I check and see if they are OK.” She then goes back to the center where she picks up her meals and changes out of her protective gear.

Prior to the outbreak, Citymeals served 18,000 people. Since then it has added 3,000 regular clients. Including the otherwise healthy seniors who have been added because they cannot get their regular daily hot meal from their closed seniors centers, the total can top 34,000 on given days.

“For those with chronic illnesses, the risk of going to the grocery stores or local food pantry is simply too great,” the agency said in an email to the Chronicle.

Sheila Clay, a Jamaica resident, is the senior volunteer program manager and has worked for the organization for 15 years. On days when staffers such as Flores feel the personal connection has been disrupted, those working under Clay’s direction have expanded outreach efforts to help seniors avoid feelings of isolation.

“We train the volunteers and drivers,” she said. “We also collect homemade cards to send them, and write letters,” Clay said. “We conduct checks over the phone.”

And while the state shutdown has caused m a ny cor por at e volu nt eer ef for t s on Citymeals’ behalf to be halted, the group has seen 5,000 individual volunteers come forward since the start of the outbreak to contribute more than 20,000 hours of time.

City Harvest has had to expand its operations to 24 hours a day, five days a week at places such as its Long Island City warehouse and distribution center.

“It does mean more time away from my family,” Angulo said. But he added that it is a rewarding job nonetheless.

On his rounds, for example, he will stop for a scheduled pickup, and the donor will have a bonus that wasn’t on his manifest.

“The other day I was scheduled to pick up 18 pallets of plantains,” he said. “They gave me 22.”

Any time a driver accepts extra food that wasn’t expected, it is his or her job to get a client to accept the bounty, whether it be produce, juice, canned goods or anything else.

Angulo had absolutely no trouble getting organizations to accept an unanticipated donation of fresh fruit. continued on page 22

A worker with City Harvest preps canned goods for loading on a truck bound for a church, comPHOTO BY KARIM CREARY / CITY HARVEST munity center, food pantry or soup kitchen.

Sheila Clay, left, and Wanda Flores of Citymeals on Wheels help serve as lifelines for seniors needing food — and do check-ins to make sure all else is well. PHOTOS COURTESY CITYMEALS ON WHEELS

A truck from the Food Bank for New York City was in Downtown Jamaica last week making pickups, deliveries or possibly both. The agency serves more than 800 emergency food providers PHOTO BY MICHAEL GANNON within the five boroughs.

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C M CELEB page 16 Y K QUEENS STRONG

‘A greater ability to be thankful I’m alive’ Forest Hills teacher finds more ‘Wirth’ in life

by Michael Shain Chronicle Contributor

The way Forest Hills teacher Arthur Wirth tells it, surviving the coronavirus is a bit like living through a slow-motion car crash.

The symptoms keep getting worse.

But it takes weeks for them to become overwhelming, said Wirth.

The history teacher was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus in the last week of April, though he knew already by the time he called an ambulance for help that he had it.

“I’m a news junkie,” he said. “I had MSNBC on all the time. I had some perspective of what was happening to me.”

Arthur, who is 73 but appears a decade younger, spent three weeks in intensive care and another two months at home under a nurse’s care.

“I never quite thought that I was going to die,” Arthur said, “but I wasn’t sure I was going to live.”

Lying in a special ward set aside in Long Island Jewish Forest Hills hospital, unable to stand or even sit up, “I was afraid I wasn’t ever going to get better,” he said.

Arthur tells his harrowing story in the same flat, matter-of-fact tone that others might use to talk about an unpleasant trip to the Bahamas.

“In early April, my girlfriend noticed my eyes were red,” Arthur said. “That was the first sign.”

A few days later, he began getting tired and short of breath.

Within two or three weeks, “I couldn’t go from the bed to the couch without panting,” he said. His temperature was elevated a few degrees but nothing “severe.”

“I didn’t want to go to the hospital.

I thought it was unsafe,” he said.

“I thought I could deal with it at home.”

Then he started to drop weight rapidly, 20 pounds in just a few weeks.

Arthur teaches history at a private school on the West Side of Manhattan. School had been closed since March and he’d been teaching his students remotely from home over a computer hookup.

By the time he called an ambulance on the night of April 26, he’d become so sick he could no longer make it to the computer.

The risk of remaining at home untreated was now worse than the fear of going to the hospital, he concluded reluctantly.

“When I broke down and called the ambulance, I knew it,” he said, meaning he knew he had the virus.

I was never quite

“

thought that I was going to die, but I wasn’t sure I was going to live.”

— Arthur Wirth

How he contracted the bug Arthur can’t say.

“I didn’t wear a mask early on,” he confessed. “But I don’t know anyone who got it and school had been closed for more than a month.

“I guess I got it from someone passing in the street.”

Hooked up to an oxygen tank and swabbed for COVID, Arthur was admitted immediately. The test came back positive while he was still in the ER, where he was forced to wait for 48 hours until a bed opened up in the hospital upstairs.

“They first put me in a room with

people who were really sick, some of them on ventilators,” Arthur said. “It was really scary.”

Hospital discharge records show the teacher was treated with hydroxychloroquine, the controversial drug touted by President Trump and later reported to be substantially ineffective, int ravenous steroids and Anakinra, a drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis that has a track record for keeping COVID patients off respirators.

While the search for a COVID vaccine is in high gear, it is important to remember there is no cure for those who are already infected.

Treatment consists of keeping patients in the hospital until the virus either goes away or kills them, Arthur said.

“The only thing they could treat was the pneumonia” that comes with the COVID, doctors told him.

“I have to say this about the people at Forest Hills Hospital: They knew their jobs and they were compassionate. That was important,” he said.

Seventeen days later, he was tested again and found negative.

“I always had a positive feeling I’d get over it because there was always someone in the room in much worse shape than I was,” said Arthur.

“They’d wheel them out and they never came back.”

After clearing the infection, “they wanted me out of there fast,” he said.

“They needed the bed.”

“They set me up to send me to a rehab facility, but it was in a nursing home. That was the last place I wanted to go.”

It took two days but, on May 16, Arthur was able to negotiate a release to his home under the supervision of a visiting nurse.

Dependent on an oxygen concen-

Arthur Wirth was diagnosed with COVID-19 on April 27 but after two and a half weeks of treatment at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills hospital, he was found free of the disease and soon went home, where he remained under the PHOTOS BY MICHAEL SHAIN care of a visiting nurse. trator for the first weeks, he was able to go without the device only briefly. “I could take a shower and carry the garbage out to the hallway.

That was it,” he said.

The nurse urged him to push himself to do as much as possible without the oxygen as soon as he could. There was a danger of becoming dependent on the tank.

Nine weeks after the night he called the ambulance, Arthur and his girlfriend ventured out of his apartment for the first time. They walked a few hundred feet to the corner and back.

“I definitely have a greater ability to be thankful I’m alive,” he said last week. “I don’t take it for granted anyQ more.”

C M CELEB page 17 Y K

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C M CELEB page 18 Y K QUEENS STRONG

Businesses try to adjust and survive Commerce leaders in borough note problems and solutions for owners

by David Russell Associate Editor

The good news is the number of coronavirus cases in the city is minimal compared to three months ago at the height of the pandemic. The bad news is many businesses are still struggling and figuring out how to make it work.

The vast majority that are still open are on life support, according to Queens Chamber of Commerce President Tom Grech.

“I had one business owner say it’s almost like starting a whole new business,” said Jaime-Faye Bean, executive director of Sunnyside Shines.

She said there is a learning curve for businesses, especially as city and state guidelines for reopening seem to change on the fly.

“There’s a scramble for information, to adhere to changes and mandates,” Bean said, adding, “A lot of businesses have really struggled to comply and have been put in a very difficult position of being enforcers with their clients.”

Almost every step of the business approach has changed, according to Bean.

“You really do have to change, adjust your operational approach to almost everything,” she said.

Bean pointed to businesses keeping a higher standard of sanitation and retail owners installing Plexiglas.

“They’re sort of thinking about all of the ways in which you can serve customers and at the same time mitigate the risk of actually being in contact with so many people on a daily basis,” she said.

Bean also noted steps taken by Roseann McSorley, owner of Katch Astoria.

“What’s the first thing that a lot of people are going to do if they take their mask off? They’re going to put it down on the table,” Bean said of the potential contamination risk. McSorley provides a bag to customers to put their mask in so it’s not touching a surface.

“Obviously she’s cleaning the surfaces but she is somebody who is really trying to use an abundance of caution and keep the public safe,” Bean said.

Astoria Bookshop is adjusting to life during the coronavirus with books by appointment, as cusPHOTO BY MICHAEL GANNON tomers order online and pick up materials in person, one at a time.

She said a number of owners became creative during the pandemic. Bund on Broadway was offering dumplings in different flavors and customers who spent a certain amount could get them delivered.

“Especially when people were not going out and sort of staying at home, there were some restaurants that were really thinking very creatively,” Bean said.

She has not seen a large number of permanent business closures in the area though some owners have told her they’re in trouble.

“They are on their last legs,” Bean said on some feedback she has received. “They are desperately trying to make ends meet and make things work and they don’t know how much longer this can hold out.”

Businesses were also encouraging people to use credit cards in order to make contactless payments, though that costs the business some money on the transaction.

Glenn Greenidge, executive director of the Sutphin Boulevard Business Improvement District, said he’s seen businesses lower the minimum balance purchase on cards because they

don’t want to deal with cash directly.

“But now they’re using it at a lower level,” he said.

One pizzeria, on the other hand, on Myrtle Avenue in Glendale had a surcharge added to the price for customers using a credit card.

Greenidge said business owners have to check the pulse of the community.

“The key to any business right now is adaptability and being aware of what’s coming down the pike,” he said. “If you’re not able to do that as a business manager, as a business owner, you’re going to get lost in the sauce.”

Just one borough business that’s changed is Astoria Bookshop, which offers books by appointment with online ordering and scheduled pickup plans, with one customer being allowed in at a time.

Another, Jina’s Design Studio, a clothing business in Glendale, focused on making and selling masks as alteration sales plummeted.

Restaurants have had the biggest challenge, according to Greenidge, as they’ve needed to redesign entire marketing plans and make sure they have delivery and outdoor seating. Many

have shifted to outdoor dining, though if it rains, a day of business is lost.

“There’s still so much instability. People really don’t know how long this is going to last,” Greenidge said. “How long are we going to be in this state? What’s going to happen in September when there’s supposed to be a second wave?”

He said the innovation of managers and store owners has varied.

“I’ve seen some businesses go all out and really fully prepare, take care of the customers, and then I’ve seen other businesses that just put up the minimal acceptable and that was it,” Greenidge said.

A lot of smaller businesses did not receive paycheck protection program loans. He also believes bigger businesses received more, noting than an average loan was around $80,000.

“Which is substantial but when you think about it for a small mom-and-pop business, they’re not going to get $80,000. They don’t have that kind of payroll,” Greenidge said.

In order to expand, he has also advised business owners to build up their websites as many residents are still hesitant to travel outside.

“I’ve been telling businesses if you don’t have an online portion, now’s the time to develop it because we don’t know how long we’re going to be in this thing,” Greenidge said.

Grech is also advising people to look into digital platforms. The chamber is offering social media courses “for what the new environment seems to look like.”

While many businesses already had a website, Grech said there was a lot of room to improve them.

“They had websites but it wasn’t really a focus. Many of them were outdated,” he said.

“Many of them did not put current products and merchandise on them and now it’s a matter of survival in many cases.”

The most important outcome of the situation, according to Bean?

“Really working to keep our spending local and to keep dollars in our local economy,” she Q said.

Many restaurants have provided outdoor seating to add business during the pandemic. Jina’s Design Studio in Glendale began making and selling masks as sales on alterations declined PHOTO, LEFT, AND FILE PHOTO BY DAVID RUSSELL sharply during the crisis.

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C M CELEB page 20 Y K QUEENS STRONG

How will we bounce back from COVID? Nightclub, gym and movie theater owners wonder about the future

by David Russell Associate Editor

Of all the businesses impacted by the coronavirus, nightclubs are arguably in the worst position.

“The appeal is literally exactly what they don’t want you to do,” said Sean Finnegan, owner of Icon Astoria.

The selling point of nightclubs is certainly not remaining socially distant. Another appeal of Icon Astoria is that the gay bar is a safe space for the LGBTQ community, according to Finnegan.

“People can come and be themselves,” he said. “This has completely turned that around.

You push us out onto the street and now we’re not really the identity that we’ve made.”

The bar does have outdoor seating now — just like every other one in Astoria and the city, Finnegan points out.

“You lost your niche as well as losing half your square footage,” he said.

Hot dog machines were ordered as regulations mandate food is served with alcohol.

“Anything we can do with money we don’t have to pay our bills,” Finnegan said, adding that the bar doesn’t have a kitchen, chefs or dishwashers. “We’re not equipped.”

So what does the future hold? Finnegan says it looks grim and he doesn’t see an end until there’s a vaccine.

“I’m just being realistic,” Finnegan said.

“I don’t think this thing is going away anytime soon.”

Icon Astoria was closed for four months with a little bar on the street opening in mid-July with some background music being played from it, not too loudly.

“It’s better than zero but it’s not like everything’s back to normal,” Finnegan said.

He said the community has been loyal and supportive as they want to see the bar remain open.

If there was a vaccine, would people be hesitant to come out again or would they rush back?

Movie theaters have been closed since mid-March, with film buffs catching up on their viewing at home. There have been no major concerts and the Mets are playing in front of cardboard FILE PHOTO BY DAVID RUSSELL cutouts at Citi Field.

“It will definitely take awhile for people to dip their toe in and trust being out in public again,” Finnegan said.

He said it will take time before business gets back to where it was.

“Everybody’s kind of afraid of the unknown and going out but when you do eventually go out you see that it’s not so bad,” Finnegan said.

Jairo Rodriguez, owner of Hairo’s Nightclub in Jackson Heights, said he hopes the customers return.

“People are trying to go out. They’re tired of being in bed,” he said. “They want to go out and listen to music and have something to drink.”

Warren DeStefano, owner of Retro Fitness in Glendale and Forest Hills, believes people will return to gyms after a month or two of uncertainty when they reopen.

“It’s more than working out. It’s the social aspect,” he said. “You can have a home gym

Retro Fitness is holding outdoor classes as gyms closed because of the pandemic. Gym owner Warren DeStefano believes customers will head to larger gyms when they reopen so that there’s RETRO FITNESS-GLENDALE PHOTO / FACEBOOK enough space to feel comfortable.

and after a while you want to talk to somebody.” DeStefano said the camaraderie of meeting friends and sitting by the juice bar is something that cannot be replaced at home.

He said when they do reopen, customers will go to what they believe is the cleanest and safest gym.

DeStefano said it will be “survival of the fittest,” as not all gyms will reopen. He said he expects to lose about 20 percent of customers because they will be concerned about going out again. But he expects to make that up because of other closures.

“With the other gyms closing, there will be thousands of members out there who want to join a gym,” DeStefano said.

There have been outdoor classes with weights, spin classes and Zumba, as the sites have parking lot space.

“Some of our classes are busier outside than they were inside,” DeStefano said, noting there would be 16 to 20 people inside but outside he has to limit it to 25. He said outdoor classes could continue after the pandemic ends if enough members want them.

He said in recent years, people looking to exercise have increasingly been going to smaller gyms but DeStefano believes there will be a trend in the other direction.

“Now it’s going to be a return because people want to go in their corner, have 10, 15 feet around them,” he said. “They don’t want to go to these 2,000-square-feet small studios where everyone is on top of each other.”

The entertainment industry looks a lot different. Many concerts have been postponed, wh i le ot he r s h ave move d t o on l i ne performances.

Regular season baseball returned to Queens last Friday with the Mets hosting the Atlanta Braves. New York won 1-0 but the cheering fans had to root, root, root for the home team away from Citi Field.

There are cardboard cutouts of people

around the stadium, though bench players are also in the stands behind the dugouts.

It used to be that nothing beat seeing a movie on the big screen, but in recent years more and more viewers have relied on streaming services to watch films. Since mid-March, movie theaters have been closed in the city.

Rudy Toolasprashad, owner of Main Street Cinemas in Kew Gardens Hills, has been sitting patiently while the city has reopened but movie theaters have remained closed.

“It’s a scary time when you don’t know when you’re going to be open,” he said.

Toolasprashad said he’s been receiving phone calls and emails from residents asking when the theater will reopen because they want to go back.

He put a plastic shield around the concession stand and the theaters have been cleaned. Special filters were purchased and installed in the air-conditioning unit. Masks and thermometers have also been purchased and there would be viewers in every third row with every third seat unavailable, though exceptions would be made for families and couples.

“I’m fully prepared to do whatever the mayor, the governor and the Health Department tell me to do,” Toolasprashad said, adding that concession sales would be up to the latter.

He believes younger people will not be hesitant about coming, though older movie fans may have concerns. Toolasprashad said seniors might prefer coming during the afternoon showings, as they often would before the pandemic, while the young adults go at night.

“I think people want to come out,” he said. “I hope people want to come out.”

Young people may not be going out to school in the fall. Mayor de Blasio said the city wouldn’t make a final decision about reopening until September. The city has worked on plans that would see a mix of in-person and online classes.

Elected officials are relying more on Zoom meetings and town halls, though state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) said he misses being in-person.

“In-person you get the emotion from the constituent, maybe more one-on-one,” he said.

“It’s more personable.”

Addabbo said there were many things that people took for granted. He wonders if shaking hands with someone at church after saying, “May peace be with you” at Mass might not be seen again.

While some residents gripe about the government telling them to wear masks, Addabbo believes there will be people on the flip side after the pandemic ends.

“Even after we are given the green light not to wear them, I think there will be a segment of the population that still wears them and a segment of the population that won’t shake hands anymore,” he said.

Addabbo said constituents miss getting a handshake or a hug. The advising against handshakes particularly bothers him.

“I’m Italian so it’s a real torture for me,” Q Addabbo said.

C M CELEB page 21 Y K

We are proud to join with the Queens Chronicle in Celebrating Queens CONGRESSMAN

GREGORY W. MEEKS 5th Congressional District of New York

Council Member

Karen Koslowitz

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718-544-8800 118-35 Queens Blvd., 17th Floor Koslowitz@council.nyc.gov Call for appointments Tuesday through Thursday from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm

Page 21 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, July 30, 2020

T

his is truly a time to Celebrate Queens. We climbed this mountain, did what we had to do and have now reached the other side. Thank you, Queens Chronicle, for giving me an opportunity to tell the people I represent in the Forest Hills, Rego Park, Kew Gardens and Richmond Hill how very proud I am of how we all maintained the discipline that was necessary to care for ourselves, our families, our neighbors and the Borough of Queens.

Now we all need to stay on the path to recovery. I know we will come back better and stronger than ever.

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QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, July 30, 2020 Page 22

C M CELEB page 22 Y K QUEENS STRONG

ER doctor returns to the COVID-19 fight Dr. Shi-Wen Lee of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center beat the disease

by Michael Gannon Editor

For latest news visit 23RDthe ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF qchron.com QUEENS • 2020

Dr. Shi-Wen Lee of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center is back in the fight against COVID-19 after two weeks as a patient. COURTESY PHOTO

He followed every protocol, taken every reasonable precaution and then some.

Yet Dr. Shi-Wen Lee, vice chairman of the Emergency Medicine Department at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center was not greatly surprised in March when he began feeling some of the first symptoms of the coronavirus.

“I work in the emergency room,” he said.

“I’m exposed to everything in New York City.

And we are the [emergency] hospital for Kennedy Airport, where people come from all over the world.”

The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene confirmed JHMC’s first COVID-19 death on March 11, with the hospital issuing a press release the next day.

The hospital pointed out that the very circumstances that at first might cause residents concern also allowed people to be sure that JHMC was there and ready.

“As a hospital with close proximity to JFK Airport and one that treats an ethnically diverse population, Jamaica Hospital has a great deal of experience treating a variety of contagious diseases and we will continue to be here for out community throughout this global outbreak.”

Beginning ten days later, between March 21

and early April, Lee had a patient’s eye view and “I was alone,” he said. “If something hapreflections om the illness and its treatment for pened, my wife couldn’t make any decisions nearly two weeks.

— I would have to make them myself.”

Lee, like many in the medical profession The crisis, luckily, passed in just under two already had been self-quarantining from his weeks family at home by staying in their basement. He Lee was back in the fight at JHMC in did not have the complete isolation to which April. The terms “easy” and “busy” day are some people had to adjust. relative ones when one holds Lee’s position.

“A lot of doctors, nurses were sleeping in “Can you call back in two minutes?” he their basements, on the floor, in garages,” he asked last Thursday, having just finished a said. “I could still see my family, see their faces task that required his personal attention. at the top of the steps,” he said.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” he said. “InitialIt was family members and his professional ly I was very weak. I’d lost a of muscle mass. I brethren who first noticed a change. lost 14 pounds.”

“My family, colleagues on calls said I soundHe still hasn’t recovered his sense of smell. ed out of breath, that I was getting winded Lee also said COVID-19 seems to have between sentences,” he said. changed seem patient’s It manifested itself the families upon learning of a first five to six days like a loved one’s death. “ tough of the f lu with a “I thin k the medical ometimes there is a cough. com mu nit y as a whole “I thought I had a mild need for family. feels bad for the suffercase.” ng of t he fa m ilies.

These circumstances iSomet Then came he headache i me s t h e r e is a and fever. n e e d t o h ave f a m i l y. don’t allow that.”

“Then my son came These circumstances home one day. He said don’t allow that.”

— Dr. Shi-Wen Lee ‘You don’t look good ...’”

Lee said one surprise has As circumstances would been the reaction of the have it, he was not treated at JHMC. families of COVID-19 victims upon learning “I would have loved to be at Jamaica and get that their loved one has died. that extra TLC,” he said. “Unfortunately, when There are the reactions he has come to they take you out of the house in an ambulance, expect, such as anger and denial. they don’t give you a choice.”

“With others, it’s more a sense of resignaAfter admission, Lee was able to read the tion,” he said. screen of a portable X-ray they took of his chest, He believes it also has taken a toll not just specifically the lungs. on the doctors and nurses who re charged with “It [coronavirus] was everywhere,” he said. frontline care.

Having treated COVID-19 patients in various Lee said people such as admission clerks, stages of the illness, he knew, intellectually, technicians and other hospital personnel also some of the difficulties and decisions patients have been seeing more and sicker patients and their families are forced to confront. than even veterans at their jobs are accusLee then had time to reflect on them, in a set- tomed to seeing. ting far more isolated than his basement, with “Doctors and nurses are used to dealing with Q only his caretakers coming to see him. death,” Lee said, “They aren’t.”

S

Staffers and volunteers with Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens has been running targeted neighborhood-level food pantries to keep residents supplied with meals, fresh FILE PHOTO produce and grocery staples.

Heroes for Queens’ hungry continued from page 14 “At a place where some days you have one or two people there when you show up, you can have 50 or 60 when you’ve got plantains,” he said.

Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens has had its own army of 20 staffers and more than 130 volunteers in the field.

Since March the group has provided more than half a million meals at pop-up food pantries around the Diocese of Brooklyn; and thousands more at its 20 parishbased pantries.

All the organizations are accepting donations from those who are able to assist them financially.

Infor mation on the agencies, their efforts and how to contribute can be obtained online.

City Harvest’s website is cityharvest.org.

Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens can be reached at ccbq.org. Information on Citymeals on W heels is available at citymeals.org.

The Food Bank of New York City can be Q reached at foodbanknyc.org.

With a long history of dealing with the ever-diversifying population of Queens and patients from around the world coming from John F. Kennedy International Airport, Jamaica Hospital Medical PHOTO BY MICHAEL GANNON Center was ready for a contagious disease pandemic.

C M CELEB page 23 Y K

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