Delrose Thomas and mom, Laura Thompson speak about the care Thompson received at AtlantiCare.
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP – An 81-year-old Pleasantville woman doesn’t miss a beat as she describes being hospitalized for heart valve replacement at AtlantiCare in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Everybody was so wonderful,” said Laura Thompson of the providers and staff at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center Mainland Campus in Pomona.
She said the team explained why they wore masks in all encounters with her.
“They said it was to protect me. I felt safe,” she said.
“Mrs. Thompson had a blockage in her aortic valve that made it difficult for her heart to pump blood out to the rest of her body,” cardiologist Tome Nascimento, M.D. said.
Concerned with his patient’s symptoms, he had discussed her case with the structural heart team at AtlantiCare’s Heart and Vascular Institute.
“She was having these dreadful episodes where she couldn’t breathe,” Thompson’s daughter Delrose Thomas said.
Thomas had planned to be with her mother for her transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedure on March 30.
But due to temporary visitor policy changes aimed at keeping patients, families, staff and providers safe during the pandemic, Thomas was not able to be with her mother in the hospital. She also couldn’t wave to her from outside a hospital window because Thomas lives in London. She was planning to take a flight to NJ to join her mother before flights were prohibited.
“I was under lockdown so the care team talked with me to let me know everything that was going on,” Thomas said stating she had no fears for her mother being in the hospital.
“Every step of the way they were in touch with me to tell me what she was going to have done.”
Nevertheless, Thomas had many sleepless nights, noting London is five hours ahead of New Jersey time.
“She had a whole team of doctors, which made me feel a lot more at ease. I was able to talk to the surgeon right before the surgery,” Thomas said.
She didn’t fear for her mother’s safety in the midst of COVID-19.
“She went on holiday with my aunt and fell in love with America and insisted that she wanted to go back,” Thomas said, explaining why her mother moved to Atlantic City in the mid-seventies and eventually became a U.S. citizen.
At the age of 47, Thompson started working in AtlantiCare’s Environmental Services Department. She worked there 26 years before retiring in 2012.
“My son and I used to visit her in Atlantic City,” Thomas said. “We’d spend days on the beach while she was at work. It was great.”
Thomas recalls her mother telling her that the people she worked with were friendly and sociable and that she learned much from the work and her colleagues.
“She said back then that you didn’t have that divide. She felt that collaboration and respect as a patient as well. Everyone was lovely,” Thomas said.
“I was a patient there and I got that experience,” Thompson said. “I loved working at the hospital. Being a patient, it gave me such pleasure to see the doctors, nurses, housekeepers and other staff.
“To see how they clean and how the doctors treat me, I said to myself, ‘Am I a queen or celebrity or something that I get such special care?’ They took such good care of me. The nurses were so kind and said, ‘We are here for you.’ The doctors made me laugh.
“I wondered if it was because I used to work here. But it is not. It is in their nature to take care of us as patients.
“I loved my job. I was always singing. I talked with the patients. I did what I could for them,” Thompson said, describing what it was like to give the same care to patients that she experienced.
“During the COVID pandemic, we’ve continued to provide urgent, emergency, and time-sensitive heart surgeries and procedures,” Director of the Structural Heart Program Jeffrey Van Hook, D.O. said.
TAVR is a minimally invasive alternative for patients for whom surgical aortic valve replacement poses too high a risk of complications.
“We used a catheter to implant a new valve in Mrs. Thompson’s heart. We made a small incision in her leg and fed the catheter to her heart to place the new valve,” he said.
Van Hook said it is a nationwide trend for people to ignore symptoms or put off getting care for heart conditions and other chronic conditions.
“This could put them at risk of getting sicker, or even dying,” he said.
“Mrs. Thompson’s story illustrates the life-saving and life-enhancing importance of a patient, her family, and her care team communicating to insure timely treatment,” Nascimento said.
“We are committed to making it as easy as possible for individuals to get routine and specialty care – through our telehealth program, in person in our offices, and in the hospital. Of course, in an emergency, such as for chest pain, dial 911 immediately.”
“I was glad they were able to take care of her,” said Thomas, who talks with her mother daily to make sure she is taking her medication.
“Before the procedure, I was totally worried. She could barely walk. She desperately needed the operation. They saved her life. When I talked with her this week she was out in the garden about to hang laundry,” she said.
“Go to AtlantiCare. They will take care of you because there is a lot of love there,” Thompson said.
For more information about AtlantiCare, call the AtlantiCare Access Center at 1-888-569-1000; visit www.atlanticare.org; or find AtlantiCare on Facebook.
