NORWICH, Conn. — Lino Fernandes, who works in Environmental Services for Backus Hospital, speaks five languages. Tuesday morning, he spoke the language of love.
"Today, I feel proud, I feel happy because I believe in God and I believe in science," said Fernandes, who fittingly was the first Backus employee to receive the vaccine. You see, he helped care for the hospital’s first Covid patient.
"I saw him. He looked for my eyes. Maybe he was trying to tell me 'save me, help me, I don’t wanna pass away because I’ve got a family,'" Fernades recalled of that springtime encounter.
The patient then started to cry.
"I cried too because I felt sad," said Fernandes, who prayed for the man. Unfortunately, he passed.
Fernandes was the first of 30 frontline employees of Backus to receive the first round of the vaccine today. And this group will be counted on to try to convince other employees to receive the vaccine.
"I don’t think this was a vaccine that was developed overnight," said Theresa LaLomde, the Nurse Manager, in the hospital's Covid Unit. "I believe this is something, looking at the history of it, that people have been working on for a long time and now it is applicable to Covid-19."
In her view, the risk of not being vaccinated is too big.
"We need to be done with this," she said. "We need to go back to taking care of people that have had surgery."
Tonight, the hospital President is holding a virtual Town Hall for those apprehensive about receiving the vaccine.
We will have some of our staff and physicians, who were vaccinated today, speak about their experience and how they feel and why it’s important to them," said Donna Handley, President, Hartford HealthCare East Region.
Hartford HealthCare conducted a survey and only approximately 45% of all employees said they would immediately receive the vaccine when offered.
"We have our highest number of Covid patients right now (42) than we’ve had through the whole pandemic," Handley said.
21 days after their first shot it will be time for round two of this Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.