83: Hilary Petaccio
Nurse at the Children’s Hospital at Philadelphia
Hilary Petaccio is a Nurse at the Children’s Hospital at Philadelphia. She works about 20 hours a week in the Intensive Care Unit as an ECMO specialist, which is a heart and lung bypass machine. For four months during the pandemic, she also worked at a COVID testing center for pediatrics. Work for Hilary became much busier in some respects during the pandemic, because many more children were coming in sick to the hospital. However, many optional surgeries and procedures were being cancelled, which lead to much less work in some departments. Some of her coworkers needed to go on unemployment or were furloughed. At the start of the pandemic, the hospital was facing a drastically increased need for PPE but was unable to acquire it through the usual channels. Their friends and neighbors were making masks by hand to send to the hospital, and they found themselves needing to reuse a lot of materials.
On moment from the pandemic that Hilary will never forget was one November when she was working at CHOP’s outdoor testing center in New Jersey. About twice a week, a van would come by filled with about seven or eight of the same young boys to be tested. Every time the boys were just terrified, and the testing was a struggle. When they asked, they found out that the children were from a local boys’ home, in transition to being fostered or adopted after their parents were unable to take care of them. Hilary felt so sad for the boys because they were struggling to much and did not seem to have a lot. So, not expecting anything more than a modest turnout, she and the other nurses decided to open up donation drive to bring some Christmas presents to the home. At the end of the drive, all of the donations filled three full vans. They were able to give the boys a wonderful Christmas, as well as a great deal of other supplies they needed. She’s planning on doing the drive every year now.
Hilary lives with her husband and their three children. Personally, she knows about ten people who contracted COVID. Through her work, though, she knows about seventy-five. Her mother-in-law also contracted COVID. Hilary’s main struggle during the pandemic was just being so alone and not having any help. She lost her mother a few years ago and was feeling her loss very keenly during this time. It was difficult when the community she had always felt she could fall back on was suddenly pulled apart and unable to interact like they were before. One thing that Hilary has learned from the pandemic though is how to slow down a little bit at home and not worrying to much about the little things. She has also learned a lot more about her kids and even her husband. Sometimes one doesn’t stop to appreciate the people that they are closest too because one just becomes so used to them. She has also become a lot more aware of what is going on in other people’s lives and ways that they are differently affected by the same circumstances. She hopes that we can establish a new normal that is kinder, slower, and more peaceful.
