McAlester Hospital Shares Hope, Support With Butterfly Release After 1 Year Of COVID

It has been one year since McAlester Regional hospital cared for their first COVID-19 patient, but hospital staff are determined to share hope as they keep pushing forward.

The hospital held a ceremony Thursday to release butterflies and show their staff support. 

"You don't go into the business of healthcare expecting to lose that many lives in that short amount of time," said McAlester Regional Health Center VP Shawn Howard. 

There are some people who believe that once a trauma is experienced, or many traumas, it is best to move on, not to talk about it. Leadership at McAlester Regional Health Center doesn't feel like that. They believe the things staff members have experienced during this pandemic need to be addressed and they need to know they are not alone.

"Something that is often overlooked, especially in a community this size is not only is the staff helping the patients that are coming in the hospital, but they are losing friends at the same time, they are losing family members,” said Howard. “There is no one who works at this hospital that hasn't been touched by that."

Some of the nurses and doctors have become like family members to dying patients when biological family members weren't allowed in the room. Some of the staff have seen what they call miracles with their patients, others have lost people they thought would make it. The ceremony is to honor all those experiences.

They released butterflies, both in honor of the resilience of the staff, and in honor of the patients they lost from COVID and the families those patients left behind.

"You can go talk to your pastor, you can go talk to your church, you can call, we have numbers of hotlines you can talk to, you have got to get it out," said McAlester Regional Health Center Chaplain Louis R Reynolds. 

They heard from pastors, one of whom was treated for COVID-19 by this staff.

"Butterflies - they symbolize struggle, but they also symbolize rebirth," said Howard. "We are aware that it is not over. We are aware that we are just coming into the light."