‘Love from community’ and Gatorade flow to Columbia hospital fighting coronavirus

More than 1,700 bottles of Gatorade, dozens of packs of peanut butter crackers and other comfort foods to lift spirits and fortify bodies of health care workers arrived Tuesday morning at Prisma Richland, one of Columbia’s largest hospitals.

“It’s just great for the community to think about us and what we’re going through — we’re just really appreciative,” said Fay Parker-Brown, 59, of Columbia, a manager and safety officer in Prisma Richland’s microbiology and molecular pathology lab.

The delivery, from a mid-sized truck driven by Reed Mattingly, the rising chairman of the Midlands Foundation, which raises money for Prisma’s Midlands hospitals, was one in a steady stream of food and medical supplies to Prisma Richland that began weeks ago. The intended recipients: hospital health care workers on the front lines of South Carolina’s life-and-death battle against the nation’s worst pandemic in 100 years.

So far, offerings have included more than 3,500 meals — from sub sandwiches to chef salads and 280 hot pizzas — as well as 300 coffees, 118 individually wrapped cookies and 90 dozen donuts. Gatorade and bottled water the preferred drinks for hydration for health care workers working long shifts, officials said.

Non-food donations have included 9,500 masks of various kinds, thousands of sanitizing wipes and gel, five iPads for use by intensive care patients, 60 pairs of goggles and 10 hotel rooms at no cost through the end of May.

Thursday’s donations were earmarked for an unsung but essential group of health care workers at Prisma Richland — those who work behind the scenes, in laboratories, cleaning up and making sure everything is sanitary and maintaining the high-tech gear of modern medicine, officials said. More than 4,000 health care workers are at the hospital, including some 1,600 nurses, nearly 900 doctors and hundreds of other staff.

The health care workers appreciate the gifts, said Dr. Steve Shelton, an emergency medicine physician who as “incident commander” at Prisma’s Midlands hospitals oversees a coordinated response to the coronavirus. “These health care workers are on the front lines day in and day out. It’s mentally straining, physically straining — it’s a nice boost to know the community really supports them.”

“It’s not necessarily the food — it’s seeing the love shown by the community,” Shelton said. “Anybody who works in this facility I consider front-line. Some touch the patients and are right there, but there are plenty in the background — everyone has a role in the critical care of the patient.”

Mattingly, president of Rainbow International Restoration, said he too benefits from delivering the food and other items. “It has really been uplifting for me to see the business community and so many members of the community come together and recognize the front line health care workers who have stepped up to do a dangerous job, a difficult job.”

One of the few good aspects to the pandemic is that “we’ve expanded the list of heroes,” said Mattingly. “It used to be police and firefighters, and now it’s health care workers — not just nurses and doctors, but the hospitals’ environmental folks and engineers and lab technicians and so many others. This is just one small token from the business community to say, ‘Thank you’.”

Samuel Tenenbaum, president of Midlands Foundation, said Thursday’s Gatorade was donated by Costco and the “comfort food” by an anonymous donor.

“I want to thank the community for their understanding that these folks are on the front lines — all of them, from electricians to security and maintenance and lab technicians — they’re all in this together, they risk their lives, and we want them to know we are behind them.”

People wanting to donate can go here: prismahealthmidlandsfoundation.org

This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 6:01 PM.