About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 29, 2020)
m 61 st annual Lanierland basketball tournament begins for area high schools. sporis,5a Tuesday, December 29,20201 GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com | Free Chapel opening Braselton church campus soon, inside, 3A Honestly Local Kemp touts ‘exciting’ chapter First local nursing home workers receive vaccine BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com Nursing home staff members in Gainesville were receiving some of the first COVID-19 vaccine doses allocated to long-term care facili ties Monday, Dec. 28. Gov. Brian Kemp spoke Monday morning outside of PruittHealth’s The Oaks at Limestone on Flin- tridge Road about the beginning of an “exciting and important chap ter” regarding the vaccine rollout. “Right here at this facility, Pruit- tHealth is already lining up its caregivers to receive the vaccine,” Kemp said. PruittHealth’s Senior Vice Pres ident of Communications Tonja Bridges said 18 caregivers and 35 patients were vaccinated Monday at the Gainesville facility. “We will continue to work to col lect more consent so additional frontline workers and patients can be vaccinated at the center’s sec ond clinic,” Bridges said. Kemp said a senior certified nursing assistant, Jonathan Har ris, was selected to be the first PruittHealth worker in Georgia to receive the vaccine. The governor lauded the health care worker’s “willingness to step up.” “It says a lot about your commit ment to your patients and to your profession,” Kemp said. Harris said it was “honor and a privilege” to be chosen. “It gives me a measure of hope, hope for a better tomorrow,” he said. “It gives me hope for my resi dents that they’re safe. That’s what I look forward to.” Nursing homes and other long term care facilities across the state have partnered with CVS Health and Walgreens to administer the vaccine to staff and residents. “Across the country, no group has been hit harder by the virus than the residents and staff of our long-term care facilities,” Kemp said. Kemp and Dr. Kathleen Toomey, the Georgia Department of Public Health commissioner, reiterated their public charge for people to avoid large gatherings particularly ahead of the New ■ Please see VACCINE, 4A NICK WATSON I The Times Gov. Brian Kemp speaks Monday, Dec. 28, outside of The Oaks at Limestone nursing home in Gainesville. Nursing home staff were set to receive some of the first COVID-19 vaccines allocated to long-term care facilities. ‘It just kept going and going’ SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Kelly LaCerra is a charge nurse in the COVID ICU at Northeast Georgia Medical Center and has been working there since NGMC Gainesville started treating COVID patients in March. ICU nurse describes ‘intense’ work of caring for COVID patients BY MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com Kelly LaCerra, who has been a charge nurse in the COVID-19 intensive care unit since March, said the most recent months of her career have been some of the most challenging. “I never thought in my 35 years of being a nurse that I would ever work as hard as I’ve worked this past eight months, emotionally and physically,” LaCerra said. She has been treating COVID-19 patients at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville since the hospital first started admitting them. She said at the beginning of the pandemic, nurses were unsure what they would be facing. “I think we all thought it would be over by summer. It just kept going and going and was super busy, every bed filled,” LaCerra said. And when COVID-19 patient numbers were declining over the summer, hos pital staff thought the situation would improve, but “then within a week or two weeks, it was full again and it has pretty much been full since then,” she said. The unit has seen some difficult losses, LaCerra said, encouraging peo ple to take precautions to protect them selves and others. “I have lost young patients, 24, 32, 45 (years old). It shouldn’t have hap pened,” she said. The pandemic has been an adjust ment, she said, as nurses deal with new protocols with personal protective equipment and treating a new virus. “The doors are all closed. You can’t see the patient except on a viewing screen in the hallway, unless you go in the room,” LaCerra said. “You have to put gowns on, gloves, masks, shields or eye protection. It’s kind of intense, and Hometown heroes COVID-19 has been hard on many, but for these frontline health care workers, its effects are an everyday reality. Over the next two weeks, we share the stories of a few of those who have risen to the occasion and done their jobs well in the face of unmatched pressure professionally and sometimes personally. We need heroes in this battle, and through their dedication, they have shown us what that looks like. We worked with Northeast Georgia Health System to identify those we are profiling. If you have a story about a frontline health care worker who has made a difference, please submit your story to news@ gainesvilletimes.com. even in an emergency you have to get all that stuff on. If you get sick, who is going to take care of patients?” Another change has been treating patients who cannot see their families. At first, nurses from other departments were helping communicate with fami lies, and then the hospital brought in two licensed practical nurses to update families on patients’ conditions, LaC erra said. Despite the stressful environment, nurses in the COVID ICU have sup ported each other through the difficult year — “Lots of helping out each other, rushing to help when somebody is going bad. It’s very much team-oriented,” LaCerra said. As the charge nurse, LaCerra said she checks in on other nurses to make sure they are OK. “I try to check in on every single nurse during the day. ... Making sure they’re keeping up with their chart- ‘You have to put gowns on, gloves, masks, shields or eye protection. It’s kind of intense, and even in an emergency you have to get all that stuff on. If you get sick, who is going to take care of patients?’ Kelly LaCerra ICU nurse, NGMC ing and they’re not getting behind. ‘What can I do to help you? Can I send another down to help?”’ LaCerra said. “... There’s a lot of days where I’m not at the desk. I’m in the rooms turning patients, proning patients.” LaCerra said she has turned to fam ily for support. “My husband is retired, so he pretty much does everything at home — cleaning, cooking. When I come home, he’s made dinner and it’s ready to eat, which is super supportive,” she said. “ ... My kids are super funny. They’re super supportive, too, but neither one of them lives here.” LaCerra, who lives in White County and moved to Georgia from Florida about three years ago, said she has kept in touch with friends through Zoom. Her parents also live nearby. While she broke her leg in October and has not ■ Please see LACERRA, 4A Gainesville remembers lawyer’s zeal, philanthropy BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com Remembering her friend’s quick dry wit and caring nature, Hall County Superior Court Judge Bonnie Oliver said the death of Phillip Sartain is the loss of a “true master craftsman.” Sartain, a Gainesville lawyer and philanthropist, died Mon day, Dec. 28, at the age of 62. According to his obituary, Phil lip was diagnosed with early onset dementia in early 2016. His wife, Lydia Sartain, and their three daughters spent the day before Thanksgiving with him. His daughters told him how much they loved him, and he put his hand up against his heart “for them to know that he loved them,” Lydia Sartain said. “It was a sweet time that they communicated their love for each other,” she said. ■ Please see SARTAIN, 4A Flowery Branch mourns loss of pitcher Niekro BY MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com Jimmy Lawler will always remember his encounter with Phil Niekro, long after the Hall of Fame knuckleballer retired and had settled down in Flowery Branch. It was a great exam ple of Niekro’s giving spirit and willingness to be involved in the community. It was the late 1990s and Lawler, now the ath letics director at Flowery Branch High, was base ball coach at Johnson High. Lawler had a friend, Steve Free, who was the father of one of his players and owned an indoor facility where they could set up cages for batting practice. So, during a period where it rained almost every day, the Knights’ coach asked if they could use it to hit. Lawler’s friend said that wouldn’t be a problem. Then came the real surprise. ■ Please see NIEKRO, 3A Times file photo Former Atlanta Brave and Major League Baseball Hall of Fame member Phil Niekro at the site of an empty lot at Alberta Banks Park in Flowery Branch that has since become a Field of Dreams allowing children with special needs to play baseball. Sartain
