Meet Keelin, an essential worker and an essential mom.
WATCH KEELIN’S STORY
Meet Keelin, an essential worker and an essential mom.
WATCH KEELIN’S STORYIn normal times Keelin and her husband Erik Sadosky considered being parents to two little ones their biggest challenge. But in March 2020, COVID-19 began, and nothing was ever normal again.
Since 2009, Keelin has been a Medical Lab Technician at Crystal Run Healthcare’s Central Laboratory. Keelin is part of a highly-trained lab team of 90+ people strong, including microbiologists, and pathologists, working across Crystal Run Healthcare's five in-house labs.
For Keelin and the lab team, COVID-19 meant thousands more tests performed in-house, every single day. For Keelin and her family, it meant juggling schedules, missed family dinners, and savoring precious moments at home.
Erik, also a long-time employee in the Crystal Run Healthcare IT Department, was able to shift his schedule to work from home, so Keelin could work 12 hour shifts in the lab. Right from the beginning, Keelin found herself in the epicenter of COVID-19.
In the Central Lab, where Keelin works, she and the rest of the team have been running anywhere from hundreds to thousands of COVID-19 tests every day for the past two years, in addition to the hundreds of other needed tests for the 400+ provider medical practice that are completed in-house. To date, the Labs at Crystal Run Healthcare have processed over 200,000 COVID-19 tests for patients in Orange, Rockland, and Sullivan Counties.
“In the beginning, we were doubling up on testing containers because every test meant we were interacting with a live strain of the virus. We did not have the equipment we do now, so it was scary to not know if we were bringing COVID-19 back from the lab to our families.” –Keelin
As testing techniques and processing machines were approved for use under changing regulations, Keelin and the team had to quickly adapt to new methods in order to keep up with the testing demands. “It was hard but we were all there for each other. We really learned to lean on each other as a team,” said Keelin. After a year of change and a smaller than anticipated flu season in 2021, the team “almost felt like we could finally take a breath. We were getting through it.”
In December 2021 the Omicron variant of COVID-19 hit the Hudson Valley, with a high transmission rate and subsequent demand for testing that spanned well into the new year. Keelin recalls how over half the staff, herself included, tested positive for Omicron during that time, and one by one they had to quarantine, leaving their coworkers to manage without them.
“There wasn’t time to be selfish. A lot of people were counting on us to do our jobs, so we did.” –Keelin
Rather than letting the exhausting scenario get to them, the team’s response to working at less than half capacity with more than double the tests needed was to make it work so test results could be sent out as soon as possible. “We took on more weekend shifts, stayed later, and learned quickly how to fix temperamental equipment ourselves as we couldn’t wait for scheduled technicians every time the machine errored,” Keelin recalled, “There wasn’t time to be selfish. A lot of people were counting on us to do our jobs, so we did.”
Keelin said she can’t speak for everybody, but she personally stayed on because she believed her job was essential to helping people get through not just the global pandemic, but their everyday health needs as well. “You can get a paycheck anywhere, but I always wanted to be able to help people,” she said, “With COVID-19 too, there are illnesses that don’t just stop because we have a global pandemic. People still have cancer, they still have HIV. Patients getting their treatments faster because of the work we do is why I come into work every day.”
Keelin also contributes her ability to work through the increased demand for testing due to the strength and resilience of her team. “Even through COVID-19, we have specific turnaround times for these tests. We had to do our jobs timely and accurately because people are relying on these results to make their next health decisions. We really leaned on each other to get through each wave of the pandemic. It was a collective effort.”
To get your tests to you faster.
To ease your mind.
To protect you and your family.
And their families.
Because she knew how it felt - To be a parent.
To make sacrifices.
To fight fear.
And to care deeply.
