Germ warfare: Saginaw hospital becomes battleground in U.S …

SAGINAW, MI Even thousands of miles removed from the shadow Mount Rainier cast on his childhood home, Jocephus Carlile can still find solace in a strange land.

Wherever hes stationed, the U.S. Army major keeps with him a photo of the stratovolcano that serves as the tallest point of the Cascades. Its 14,000-foot-tall snow-covered peak was part of the horizon in his hometown of Puyallup, Washington. Since he joined the military, the image began serving as a substitute for the real thing; a totem to represent home.

Its an awesome mountain, the 40-year-old said. I look at it whenever Im in my room.

Maj. Carlile hung that photo in a hotel room in Saginaw in December, when he and the 22-member Army medical unit he supervises arrived to reinforce the staff at Covenant HealthCare. The facility was one of four Michigan hospitals in recent weeks to welcome U.S. Department of Defense-commanded medical units, sent to assist civilian medical professionals in regions most vulnerable to a COVID-19 pandemic that regained deadly momentum.

In Saginaw County where 817 residents have died from COVID-19 since it arrived 23 months ago the Armys stay may span the entirety of a surge of virus cases tied to the highly-contagious omicron variant. Based on testing data at Covenant, officials calculated a dramatic increase in hospitalizations that began in late December may level off in February.

At any given point this week, more than 120 COVID-19 patients were housed at Covenant. Ten weeks earlier, when the Army arrived, that number was about 80.

Originally, the Saginaw-based mission was scheduled to end in mid-January, but omicrons wrath led federal officials to extend the Armys stay by one month. So, until mid-February, Carlile will continue to oversee an operation integrating his teams doctors, registered nurses and respiratory therapists with the hospital workforce.

Those reinforcements are desperately needed, Covenant staff members said. Nearly 300 job vacancies were listed this week at the hospital, which employs 4,800 people. The short-handed workforce combined with the influx of patients stretched resources there extraordinarily thin, said Kelly Dey, a 41-year-old pulmonary services manager at Covenant.

We will be forever grateful for their assistance during this difficult time, she said. They jumped right in and are a member of our team now. They are one of us. When they first started, I wanted them to feel as at home as possible.

Many members of the Army unit took that offer of hospitality seriously. Outside of their shifts at Covenant, they have adapted to Saginaw and its surroundings. That means: time spent exploring the state, meeting the locals, enjoying the menu of the Midwest, and making good use of the snow.

Fort Covenant

Saginaw presents a very different environment for some in the Army medical unit. Prior to the pandemic, most were stationed in Fort Bliss, Texas, where temperatures this week were sometimes 40 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than in Michigan.

Capt. Ashley Del Rosario grew up in that balmy southwest climate; specifically, in Rancho Cucamonga, California, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles. The 26-year-old earned her bachelors degree in nursing from Norwich University in Vermont, but otherwise, shes rarely experienced the wintry conditions shes witnessed so far in Saginaw.

I was super excited when it first snowed here, she said. I was like, Wow, its so beautiful.

Del Rosario took advantage of that snowfall, hiking in snowshoes across trails as far north as the Upper Peninsula.

She was joined at times by her Army colleagues, including Capt. Patrick Stevens. Like Carlile, Stevens was raised in Washington, where the climate much more closely resembled Michigan than the hot Texan environment where he spent much of his 4-year military career.

Its great to see some evergreens again, get some cooler weather and some snow, the 27-year-old said. I dont know why, but I thought there might be more mountains here, though.

Still, Stevens stay in Michigan has allowed him to enjoy one of his old Pacific Northwest pastimes: snowboarding. So, far, Stevens has visited ski resorts in Brighton three times; and Bellaire, Harbor Springs and Thompsonville, one time each.

Ive been collecting stickers from every single resort and putting them on my snowboard, he said. Ill always have Michigan with me now, wherever I go.

Del Rosario, meanwhile, said she will take memories of Michigan with her, including of the states distinctive delicacies.

I went to Mackinaw (City) and I tried pasties, she said. I heard that was a very Michigan food, and it was really good. It reminds me of a Hot Pocket or Shepherds pie.

Stevens said he also discovered a new favorite food here, although his supervisors cautioned him from naming the restaurant to avoid any appearance the Army favors specific businesses. His discovered delicacy: a strawberry- and cheesecake-flavored ice cream treat served at a Midwest burger chain.

Everybody was raving about it, Stevens said, so I finally tried it out. It was so good.

Stevens and others in the unit also were recommended to visit one of Saginaw Countys top tourist attractions. They obliged.

Frankenmuth is a pretty cool town, he said. The bars and restaurants there have some good food and a nice aesthetic to it.

Considering the serious nature of their stay in Saginaw, the leisure time plays an important role in keeping the Army units camaraderie strong, members said.

What also fortifies their sense of fellowship: They arent strangers to each other. Their bond spans shared experiences, on missions many of them never anticipated when they enlisted in the military. Prior to last month, Carlile, Stevens and Del Rosario never slept a night in Michigan. Since then, they spent a Christmas together in Saginaw and celebrated the arrival of a new year here.

A different kind of war

Carlile said much of the Army medical unit served together during two earlier U.S.-based missions supporting hospitals during the pandemic. The group in September was deployed to The University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. Prior to that, they were stationed at a California health care facility.

Stevens said he was one of 15 members in the 22-person unit who works in El Paso, Texas-based William Beaumont Army Medical Center when they arent traveling for COVID-19-related humanitarian missions.

Luckily, weve already got some friendships going because so many of us are from the same place, he said.

The few unit members not from El Paso originated from a military medical center in San Antonio.

They jumped right in and became part of this with us in Tennessee, and now were getting to know them even better here in Saginaw, Stevens said.

The years of experience in Army mobile medical response operations varies among the units personnel. Those like Stevens and Del Rosario are relatively new compared to Carlile, their supervisor.

Raised by a fourth-generation military family on Fort Lewis (since renamed Joint Base Lewis-McChord) in Washington, Carlile joined the Army 16 years ago. Among his first experiences in active duty involved responding to a different sort of surge. Carlile was stationed with medical units in Afghanistan and Iraq when the militarys Middle East presence was expanded in the latter half of the 2000s. He also was deployed to Kosovo.

Regardless of the setting, Carlile said military medical units are focused on preserving life. That objective involves providing medical care to civilians in regions facing crises; a task his team now is pursuing in the U.S.

Its a misconception that we only respond to combat operations, the major said. We help local populations too.

Responding to American cities facing emergency situations isnt a completely foreign task for the Army. Prior to the pandemic, military medical response missions aided communities recovering from natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

Still, Carlile said his military career since 2020 has taken a turn he did not anticipate when he joined the Army nearly two decades earlier.

I never thought wed be involved in a pandemic, he said. Were a highly technologically-advanced country. When you think military, you think of going outside of the United States. Normally, the (National) Guard will respond to things inside the United States.

Responding to a pandemic was not on Del Rosarios mind either when she began her life as an officer four years ago.

I had imagined going on overseas missions, she said. This came as a surprise.

Del Rosario and Stevens are among the units nurses. Since arriving in Saginaw, she has spent much of her stay in Covenants intensive care unit, where staff tend to the worst of the worst COVID-19 patients. Stevens, meanwhile, has worked in the Emergency Care Center, Covenants entry point for most patients.

Clothed in scrubs, they blend in with the hospitals civilian workers.

Military or not, nurses all receive the medical training and certifications necessary to treat patients. And, nearly two years into the pandemic, the medical professionals both with the Army and Covenant have extensive experience responding to COVID-19 cases. They have all seen many of those cases end with death.

Stevens said members of his Army medical unit and the staff at Covenant share a kinship that makes them indistinguishable from each other; a commonality that makes them both veterans of the same conflict, no matter how far from home the battle sent them.

At the end of the day, the patient is our priority, Stevens said. Thats why were here.

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Germ warfare: Saginaw hospital becomes battleground in U.S ...