Healthcare Hero: Meghan Kelly
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Meghan Kelly, Child Life Program Director
Children’s Hospital at Montefiore
Meghan started her career in Child Life at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) in 1999 - first as an intern, then a child life specialist. When she became Director in 2004, there were just 5 members on staff. She now leads a team of 25, which includes two mentorship programs for Bronx young adults that are leading them into health care careers.
Prior to her Child Life career, Meghan was a special education teacher for 15 years in Boston.
Meghan's COVID-19 Story
March 16th started like any other workday for Meghan.
As her day progressed, she started experiencing sinus pressure and a bad headache, thinking it was seasonal allergies. When a colleague took her temperature and discovered she had then developed a 101.9 fever, she was encouraged to leave work and get a COVID-19 test.
Since she wasn’t experiencing shortness of breath or coughing, which were the known symptoms at the time, she didn’t think it was possible she had it.
She was swabbed for both the flu and COVID-19. The next day, still with a high fever and a feeling of complete exhaustion, her flu test came back negative. She remembers thinking to herself, “If I don’t have the flu, I probably have COVID.”
Two days later, it was confirmed. Meghan was overcome with fear.
“I started crying, because all I knew about COVID-19 at that point was that you die from it. Everyone was dying. And I live alone, so I’m thinking I’m going to be alone in this apartment and I’m going to die by myself. Because nobody can come near me.” Remembering this day still makes her emotional.
It took great courage for Meghan to face this alone.
Her positive test results were followed by 12 days of serious symptoms. Meghan had a fever that wouldn’t break, along with a fierce headache, shortness of breath, nausea, extreme fatigue, and she could barely eat. She lost 17 pounds in the first week.
“I was terrified to tell people because I thought they would be afraid of me. I thought they would judge me.”
Five days in, Meghan changed her mind. “I decided I had to let people know what was happening to me because I needed prayers. I needed lots of prayers. And so I put it out there.”
Meghan’s resilience shone brightly. She began taking photos daily to capture and share her journey. Now, even a year later, people tell her they followed her story on Facebook and shared it with others who were sick. “It gave them hope. And they went forward.”
Meghan has also come to realize that sharing personal stories is an important step in her recovery process. “As I continue to tell my story – each time something new may come out from it. A new emotion may come up. Another depth of emotion might come up that maybe I was suppressing. But it also gets me closer to my full recovery – not just my physical recovery – from the fear of that experience.”
Fighting the virus wasn’t the only challenge she faced in March 2020. During her own recovery, she learned that her mentor of 20 years, Dr. James T. Goodrich, died from COVID-19. “He was the first person I knew personally to pass away.” The “normal” methods of grief weren’t available which made it harder to bear.
Then came the guilt.
Over the course of two weeks in March 2020, COVID-19 cases systemwide at Montefiore grew from two to almost 700. While Meghan was home recovering, her team was in the throes of it as the hospital was overwhelmed and had to pivot in unexpected ways.
The guilt was almost as hard to get over as the disease. “I was okay during the time when I was sick. I was not okay during the time I was recovering because I felt really guilty that they were in the thick of it.”
Meghan did recover, and when she did, she returned to a very different environment from the one she had left. (See COVID-19 at Montefiore section)
When not at work, she paid attention to what she could do within her community. She lives in a predominately Latinx and Black community, which are groups who have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
She learned that as schools turned to remote learning, many families did not have necessary WiFi access for their kids to participate. To combat this, Meghan and her community started a campaign that raised $40,000 to buy hot spots so kids could connect to their remote classrooms.
Now, one year after the start of the global pandemic, Meghan is looking at what the long-lasting effects on children might be and how she and her colleagues can advocate for them and adapt to their evolving needs. One thing she knows for sure is that she can count on enCourage Kids as a partner to help in any way.
When called a healthcare hero, Meghan humbly rejects the title.
“I don’t think there is a person who is a healthcare hero. I think it’s the teams of people that have been working collaboratively to care for patients during this time – whether they are COVID-19 patients or not.”
Meghan is a hero to us and to the many families she has comforted, encouraged, and helped get through some of the most challenging events in their lives. We thank her for her courage, strength, and her tireless commitment to providing the highest level of care to all who need it.
COVID-19 at Montefiore
Over the course of two weeks in March (2020), COVID-19 cases at Montefiore grew from 2 to almost 700.
As the health system looked to increase capacity, an inpatient pediatric unit at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) quickly became a 40-bed unit that would be home to adult patients.
Approximately 150 adults received COVID-19 treatment at CHAM (2020).
The last adult patient was discharged from CHAM’s 8th floor unit on May 2, 2020.
Adult patients have continued to be admitted to the critical care unit all year, and during the 2021 winter surge, adults were admitted to pediatrics for several weeks.
CHAM’s COVID-19 Story
While the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology unit at CHAM was still functioning and serving children who needed care, other pediatric units became dedicated to serving adult COVID-19 patients, playrooms for kids were closed, and staff lounges were transformed into caregiver support centers.
Having fewer pediatric patients under their care, Meghan and the Child Life team began to fill other roles within the hospital, pivoting to utilize their skills organizing donations, passing out lunches, and pitching in wherever they were needed. There were approximately 150 adults who received COVID-19 treatment at CHAM.
At the height of the pandemic in New York City, anyone passing by or entering the hospital had a visual reminder of the severity of the virus as they walked past five semi-tractor trailer freezer trucks storing bodies of those who died from the virus.
Resources and emotions were stretched thin. As brave as everyone was, Meghan shares that “people were terrified about coming to work. People were terrified about riding subways.” But caring for sick people in the hospital is not a work-from-home kind of job. While there were challenges, there were also silver linings. The child life team rallied to make sure the kids got what they needed and that the staff felt supported.
In an effort to concentrate on the positive outcomes, Meghan led the charge for making a larger-than-life sign for the lobby focused on sharing the number of people who recovered at CHAM.
Additionally, research demonstrated that there were no disparities in the outcomes of white patients and patients of color at Montefiore. Their care was standard across the board, and there was attention paid to the fact that patients of color coming into the hospital generally had comorbidities (the presence of two or more diseases in one person).
During this time, the healthcare staff at CHAM also worked to navigate a tense social and racial climate as events unfolded across the country that were impacting patients and hospital staff, as well as the daily interactions staff were having with colleagues and patients. Located in the Bronx, the community they serve is exceptionally diverse and has a large percentage of people of color. Meghan and leadership at CHAM knew it was important to have discussions about implicit bias, racial disparities in healthcare, and how that affects their patient population, and staff worked to talk about healthcare without imposing their own views.
Pivoting During a Pandemic
In addition to providing distraction for young patients, the enCourage Kids Tablets are also used to teach patients about their diagnosis and procedures, which child life specialists site as a critical resource in learning to cope with their illness.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, one staff member from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), who had transitioned to treating adult patients, found a different use for them – connecting adult patients with their families through FaceTime. Having pivoted to seeing adult patients, she also did a lot of bereavement work with children of adults who were dying.
enCourage Kids Support
enCourage Kids Coping Kits
Since 1997, enCourage Kids has provided more than $500,000 in direct funding to CHAM through our Pediatric Hospital Support Program.
Since 2010, this funding has supported an Artist in Residence Program that facilitates workshops and individual sessions that encourages children to use artistic processes as vehicles for self-expression.
For the last five years, CHAM’s Artist in Residence has been Duv, a beatboxer and songwriter who helps address the specific needs of CHAM’s patient population. Music is his tool and his medicine. He takes an art form familiar to kids and teens served there, and uses it to help them heal. Through beatboxing, kids are encouraged to emote and feel like they have a voice.
Throughout the pandemic, enCourage Kids pivoted to meet the evolving needs of our hospital partners and their patients. Children in the hospital were more isolated than ever due to limited visitor restrictions and closed playrooms and experienced heightened stress and fear.
In the Spring and Summer, enCourage Kids provided CHAM with a range of age-appropriate COVID-19 and Coping Kits. These included crafts and small toys that offered vital distraction and entertainment in between procedures and treatments, and provided activities to engage with while alone.
Future Challenges
In discussions with our pediatric healthcare heroes, an important question emerged: what does the future hold?
The pandemic has brought to light a number of challenges that kids and pediatric patients may face in the next few months and even years.
