The Daily Signal - 'It's Been a Really Dark Time for The People Here,' Says Team Lead of U.S. Charity Field Hospital in Italy

Episode Date: March 31, 2020

Bev Kauffeldt is a team leader for the Christian aid organization, Samaritan's Purse. She's joining us from Cremona, Italy where she's working in a field hospital that Samaritan's Purse set up in the parking lot of Cremona Hospital. We also cover these stories: Parts of Florida and all of Maryland and Virginia are shut down and under stay at home orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus.  Congressman Mark Meadows of North Carolina resigned from Congress on Monday afternoon and is starting Tuesday as President Trump’s chief of staff , per Fox News. Another economic blow from COVID-19: Macy's announced it is furloughing most of its 125,000 employees, who work at Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and Bluemercury. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, March 31st. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Rachel Del Judas. Bev Coffield is a team lead for the Christian Aid Organization Samaritan's Purse. She joins us from Cremona, Italy, about an hour and a half outside of Milan, where she is helping run a 14-10, 68-bed respiratory care unit field hospital that Samaritan's purse set up in the parking lot of Cremona Hospital. And if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review. view or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts, and please encourage others to subscribe. Now onto our top news. How many in the U.S. will die because of the coronavirus? In an appearance on NBC's Today Show, Dr. Deborah Birx, a top U.S. health official advising

President Trump right now, had a back and forth with NBC's Savannah Guthrie about how many Americans will die. Burke said on the high end, if we do nothing, over two million Americans could die. But she cautioned even with a lot of measures in place, 100,000 to 200,000 will likely die. Dr. Fauci said yesterday, we could see millions of cases in this country and as many as one to 200,000 deaths. Do you agree with that analysis? Is that a worst case scenario or something that we should prepare ourselves as potentially, likely. So in the flu models, the worst case scenario is between 1.6 million and 2.2 million deaths.

That's the projection if you do nothing. So we've never really done all of these things that we're doing. We've put them into a model. We've looked at the Italy data with their self-isolation. And that's where we come up with. If we do things together, well, almost perfectly, we could get in the of 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities. We don't even want to see that. I know, but you kind of take my breath away with that, because what I hear you saying is that's sort of the best case scenario. If everything works and people do the things you're asking them to do,

maybe you can hold the deaths to 1 to 200,000 in this country. Well, the best case scenario would be 100% of Americans doing precise. what is required. But we're not sure, based on the data that you're sharing from around the world and seeing these pictures, that all of America is responding in a uniform way to protect one another. So we also have to factor that in. Cities that don't social distances, that don't stay at home, that believe you can have social interactions, that believe you can have gatherings of homes of 20 and 10 people even. That is going to spread the virus, even if everyone looks well. Parts of Florida and all of Maryland and Virginia are shut down and under stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Residents of Maryland aren't allowed to leave their homes unless it's for an essential reason. And Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said that residents who have been outside the vicinity should quarantine for 14 days. He also said he is concerned that the virus could spread to thousands of facilities in Maryland. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's order states that the stay-at-home order is in effect until June. June 10th. Don't look for President Trump and House Speaker Pelosi to be singing kumbaya anytime soon. On Fox and Friends Monday, Trump reacted harshly to Pelosi's remarks about him. But then when you see Speaker Pelosi come out and say, President Trump's denial at the beginning of this was deadly, as the president fiddles, people are dying. What's your reaction to that?

Well, you know, it's a sad thing. Look, she's a sick puppy, in my opinion. She really is. She got a lot of problems. And that's a horrible thing to say, especially when I was the one. And, you know, I've gotten from fair people, you know, a lot of accolades. And I don't want the accolades. But it's just in terms of a fact. When I stopped some very, very, very, very sick people, thousands coming in from China long earlier than anybody thought, including the experts, nobody thought we should do it except me. And I stopped everybody. We stopped it cold.

It had never been done before the history of our country. And Dr. Fauci said the other day, if those people came in, if I didn't do that, you would have had deaths like you had never seen before. And, you know, she doesn't mention that. And that was early. And don't forget, she was playing the impeachment game, you know, her game where she ended up looking like a fool. She was doing nothing. But all she did for the first long time was impeach. Impeach just went on for years.

I mean, if you think about it, that's all she did. She didn't do anything. She couldn't get bills passed. She's controlled by the radical left by AOC plus three. And for her to make a statement like that, I saw that. I thought it was a disgrace. I think it's a disgrace to her country, her family. I think it shouldn't be.

And I guess now when she says, oh, I pray for the president. I pray for the president so much. Well, I don't think that's true. What a statement to make. What a horrible statement to make. Congressman Mark Meadows of North Carolina resigned from Congress on Monday and is starting Tuesday as President Trump's Chief of Staff, per Fox News, taking over Mick Melvaney's post, who since January 2019 has been acting as the White House Chief of Staff replacing General John Kelly.

On March 6th, Trump tweeted, I am pleased to announce that Congressman Mark Meadows will become White House Chief of Staff. I have long known and worked with Mark, and the relationship is a very good one. The Daily Signal previously reported Meadows, who was first elected to Congress in 2012, was a co-founder in 2015 of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of a few dozen conservative lawmakers who had a notable impact on policy when Republicans controlled the House. In 2016, Meadows became the second chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, succeeding Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio. Meadows also played an instrumental role in former House Speaker John Boehner's decision

to resign. Another economic blow from COVID-19, Macy's announced it is furlowing most of its 125,000 employees who work at Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and Blue Mercury. Noting its stores had been closed since March 18th, and there was no foreseeable date to reopen, Macy said in a press release, while the digital business remains open, we have lost the majority of our sales due to the store closures. The retail company added, at least through May, furloughed colleagues who are enrolled in health benefits will continue to receive coverage with the company covering 100% of the premium. We expect to bring colleagues back on a staggered basis as business resumes. Planned Parenthood in the American Civil Liberties Union is suing Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, a Republican for stopping abortions during the

coronavirus pandemic. A global pandemic is not an excuse to attack essential time-sensitive medical procedures like abortion. Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, following Reynolds' announcement that abortions in the state will be suspended until April 16th. Next up, we'll have Rachel's interview with a hospital aid worker on the ground in Italy. It is of the utmost importance to all of us here at the Daily Signal to ensure you are receiving the best information about how you and your loved ones can stay healthy during the coronavirus pandemic. Here is an important message from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,

on what to do if you think you might have COVID-19. People who are sick should stay home. You don't go to an emergency room, you don't go to a clinic, you get on the phone and you ask for advice and instructions from your physician. Then you use those instructions to determine of what you're going to do, but the first reflex should not be, I feel sick, I'm going to go to an emergency room, I feel sick, I'm going to just go to a doctor's office. We need to physically separate. Ultimately, you may need, obviously, to see a physician or to go to a hospital. The first reflex should be to make a call to your physician. I'm joined on the Daily Signal podcast by Bev Koffdal. She's a team lead for the Christian Aid Organization Samaritan's

Purse. She's joining us from Camona, Italy, where she's working in a field hospital that Samaritans Perce set up in the parking lot of Camerona Hospital. Bev, thank you so much for joining us today. No problem. Thank you for having us. Well, to start off, can you just set the scene right now for what things are like in Cremona and what you're seeing on the ground? Sure. Yeah. Since, I mean, we've been here will be two weeks, actually two weeks today I got here. And I think the first thing we did was we met with the hospital director here at the Cremona Hospital. And he just gave a count of just how overwhelmed they are with the cases that are here. I think if you look at the numbers and the statistics for Italy, what it doesn't say is that the majority of those cases and deaths are all in the Lombardi region.

And we are just south of Milan and Cremona. and their hospital, their 600-bed hospital is completely full. They have a number of patients that are on vents, on ventilators in the ICU, and over 500 beds had COVID patients, and they had some beds set aside for sick kids, for peds. But the majority of all the beds in there are COVID patients. And so on the whole, here in Cremona, the streets are pretty quiet. Police are out, and you sometimes have to show people.

papers to move around. Every day, probably the only sound we hear the most is ambulance going by, coming into the hospital. So that's kind of what the scene has been here for quite a while. I mean, we're coming into this. And again, we've been here for two weeks, but even before that, I would say the last month, the people of Cremona have been just really dealing with this. So when someone, a patient comes as sick needs to be part of your services and wants to, to enter the field hospital, what kind of things, what do they see when they, you know, step on the, you know, this hospital parking lot, what are they greeted with? And then what does the scene look like for you as far as the field hospital goes? Right. So our field hospital is right across the

street from the main hospital in their parking lot. And so what happens is that actually the hospital in partnership with us brings patients to us. And so as we have free beds, they take people out of their hospital and put them into our hospital so they can free up more beds as they have people coming in sometimes 50 to 60 in their emergency room just waiting to get seen. And so really what we're doing is we're alleviating a lot of that pressure off them to take patients. And so we don't have patients coming out of the ambulances straight from home to us. They do go into the hospital system first. And then as we have free beds, then the hospital brings patients to us. And so, So right now at the ICU, we have the capacity for seven vents.

And we have our wards are all full. We have 28 females and 28 males. And so even taking patients off their ward opens up new beds for them to put people in and to help them. And so that's been our biggest role just to support them and take some of the stress off of them. So I'm sure, Bev, that no day is typical for you. but can you tell us about what you've encountered so far on various days as you and your team are serving there? Typical day. It changes daily, but I think the biggest consistency is just the incredible care that our patients are getting from our amazing staff.

Our ICU nurses, our ward nurses are all caring for patients. Sometimes we have people who are discharged, which is just incredible. A lot of joy when that happens. And as soon as a bed is open, then we take another admission. from the hospital. But I can't tell you just how much our staff are incredible. The doctors and nurses and the operational staff that support them are just continually just serving the patients, praying with them, being with them, getting them outside to sit in the sunshine a little bit and talking with them through a translator. So that's what our days look like. It's just a lot of

patient care and patient movement. How did a lot of these doctors and nurses come to this project, in Italy to serve in the field hospital. Are they part of this like an international response team or did people volunteer on their own to be part of this? We have a what we call a dart roster, disaster assistance response team roster. And part of that dart roster is for medical emergencies such as this. And so we've been able to respond with doctors and nurses who have been trained in our dart training to different places like our field hospital in Mosul.

We're in DRC for Ebola. We were just recently after Hurricane Dorian, we set up a hospital at Freeport. And so we do have a roster of people who are specifically trained for this type of work. So how did the people of Italy as well as Cremona Hospital respond to your help in the outreach of Samarans First? How did you decide to end up working in partnership with Cremona Hospital? We were incredibly blessed that the Italian government, the province of Lombardi, reached out and invited us. We don't go anywhere unless we're invited. And they actually chose Cremona Hospital. And so when our advance team, myself and three others landed here two weeks ago,

we met with the hospital. We landed in Milan and went straight down to Cremona and met with the hospital director. So everything was set up for us. And I'm just so glad that we came here. It's just, it's been a really dark time for the people here. And we just want to bring some sort of hope. and I believe that we've done that through our staff and just through God's goodness, being able to bring hope in a very, just a very tough situation for the people here in Cremona. So in about the two weeks or so that you've been in Cromona working at your field hospital, are there any particular stories or particular patients that have stood out to you so far during your time there? Wow, there's actually, there's quite a few when I think about it, but there was a really cute older couple that were here.

She was in the female ward. He was in the male ward. And she got discharged a day earlier than him. And he walked out to see her go. And then he was able to be discharged the next day. And he was so excited to be able to be reunited with his wife again. And that was just like, you know, it just brings it home. These people are human and just want to be together and be with her family.

Today we're able to actually see one of our patients who has downed has Down syndrome and has a coronavirus and being able to see him improve is just a miracle of God. And we're just so thankful to see that. And so when you have these little rays of hope, I think it not only helps the patients, but it helps our staff. And it also helps the hospital staff. They see this and they hear the stories. And we're just praying that that would be a glimmer of hope for them.

Speaking of the patients that come to use your services and be part of the ministry there, Are they mostly older? Are they younger? You mentioned the older couple, that beautiful story. What kind of age range are you seeing? Yeah, the average age that we're getting is around 66 to 70. We've had had some people in their mid-50s, but the majority that we are getting are over 65 for sure. And as far as I know the doctors treat the patients that are in the field hospital, but how much interaction does your team have with the patients that aren't maybe medical staff and what kind of, what? what other services or what other things do you well provide for patients other than just the medical care? What we have here is like our staff who are operational staff, we also have some chaplains here. And so when we see the patients sitting outside, you know, through a translator, and of course we're behind a fence, we're able to ask them about them, ask their names, just find out where they're from and how they're doing,

ask them about their family. And it's kind of fun just to be able to sit and listen to them. It's also really sometimes heartbreaking to hear their stories. So we're also able to pray with them and just, yeah, just be a face of hope, hopefully, to them so that they're not alone. A lot of patients that we're hearing, of course, with Cremona, their family can't be there around them. And so hopefully in some way we can be that family.

before them. You had mentioned, Bev, that there have been some heartbreaking stories. What are some of the darker, harder things that you've seen during your time in ministry so far there? I think there was one story of a lady who, she contracted the virus and had to go to the hospital and her husband stayed home with their little dog and she found out later that he died at home by himself and authorities had to come in and knock down the door. So she was in the hospital and didn't even know that he had died. And she said to some of our staff, like when she does get discharged, the only thing she wants to do is go to his grave site and see that.

So that was hard, you know, to think that she never got to see him, that he died by himself, and they never got to be with each other. That's a difficult, difficult story. Wow, that is heartbreaking. How would you characterize the crisis in Italy overall looking at, everything you've seen so far, working with patients on the inside, as well as when you were coming in, when you first landed as part of the advanced team. How would you characterize Italy as a whole? You know, they've been absolutely incredibly gracious, so welcoming. You know, it is not an easy time for Italians here.

Italians are relational. They love to be together. They love to be with friends and family. And they're not allowed to do that. because when they are, they're getting sick. And so you can really tell it's taking its toll on this beautiful culture and country. And we've just been overwhelmed by how much they've blessed us. We've had people bring baking in for the nurses. We've had people just donate things. Like it was colder a little about a week ago

and someone donated a whole bunch of jackets for our night shift nurses. And this is just a type of people that they are. And so it's been incredible for our team to be able to just be with them during this time. And I really feel like there's like a solidarity together to fight the virus. So we've seen a lot of news reports saying that there aren't enough doctors or medical equipment in Italy to treat everyone. And you alluded to that earlier in our conversation. What are you seeing?

And is that continuing to be the case? Yeah, I think that's a global issue right now, a global issue in the shortage. of medical staff, like in Italy here, I believe 55 doctors or healthcare workers have already died. They're starting to send some doctors from the south of Italy up here to help with that. But, you know, around the world, here in Italy, in Spain, you're hearing it in the U.S., in the U.S., in the U.K., France. You're just hearing that the main two needs are staffing, nurses, doctors, and also equipment. So you mentioned earlier as well, you were part of the Ebola response team in Liberia, and you also served with Samaritan's purse there.

What was that experience like? Well, I mean, that was, I mean, in 2014 in the West Africa, yeah, I was in Liberia for the Ebola response. I mean, it was very, very difficult. That was before we had a vaccine or treatment. And so, of course, the disease was very deadly. The death rate was incredibly high. And so it was a very, very difficult time in all honesty. But I think that experience has helped us as Samaritan's purse to be able to know how to respond to infectious disease.

So after we did Ebola in Liberia in 2014, just this past year, we were in DRC also doing Ebola. And now we're here doing COVID-19. And I think every experience that we get, we just learn more and more so that we can basically what it comes down is we can serve our patients. as best as possible. Given what you experienced working in the Ebola crisis and now serving in Italy combat in COVID-19, how would you compare the two crises back from what you saw with Ebola and then looking now at COVID-19? Well, again, I think with Ebola before the vaccine, it's just that much more deadlier, it's that much more severe. It killed people very quickly and very traumatically in all honesty.

And so, of course, your death rate was very, very high for the amount of infections. Here with COVID, it spreads a lot faster, but it's not as deadly. And there's a specific, I would say, there is an age group that is more susceptible, the older age group, where Ebola, it affected everyone. There wasn't anyone that was kind of immune to that.

Obviously, we are seeing some cases of younger people, now with getting COVID. There's lots of things that are factors into that, underlying medical issues, asthma, whatever else. But on the whole, I believe still the numbers are close to 80% of all patients are over 60, where Ebola, you had an array of all kinds of different patients from babies all the way up.

And again, Ebola is a little bit harder to get, for sure, but it's much more deadlier. But, you know, through that 2014 Ebola crisis, the outcome of that was therapeutics to treat Ebola, but also a vaccine. And so I think that's really changed the face of being able to react and deal with Ebola, which is great. So obviously that is our prayer that there would be a vaccine for COVID-19 to help, you know, if this ever comes up again. And we hope it doesn't. Well, Samaritan's perch has been really busy.

I just saw, I think it was last night, you all are opening a field hospital in New York City in that area. And I'm curious, have you heard anything from teammates? I know you're in two different countries right now, but on what they're seeing in New York City at the moment. Yeah, I think they are, like when we came to Italy, we came right in the middle of the crisis. And the team lead in New York City, they're building an almost done, actually, a mere copy of what we have here in Italy, 68 beds.

And they said that they've probably arrived a week or two before it gets really, really bad. So in that way, it's really good that we're. there so that we can fully prepare and get ready. They're partnering with Mount Sinai Hospital and they're in, I believe, Central Park. They've had incredible help from everyone from the New York Police Department and other people, Mount Sinai staff. And so we're just happy to be able to, you know, be the hands and feet of Jesus and go and help people during this time. It's a, it's unprecedented that we would think that we'd be doing a response like this in Italy and Central Park in New York. We usually are in countries that are very different than this, but our teams are

adaptable, they're flexible, and again, we go where we're needed. How long, Bev, are your days, as well as your teammates, the different medical workers that you're serving with, and how well are you staying rejuvenated, I'm sure, on very long, very full days right now that you're undergoing? Yeah, I mean, we're a 24-7 operation here. Our nurses work 12-hour shifts, seven to seven, much like the nurses in North America. Our operations teams are here. We have people on call at night. Yeah, it is long days, but many of us, this is what we do, and so we kind of get into a groove. And to us, it's worth it.

We get the opportunity to pray with people, to share about Christ and how God loves them, and we get to serve other people and be together as a team doing that. we do try to get into a rhythm where we can take maybe half days off. And as team lead, that's something that I'm very aware of, making sure my team has some rest now and then. So we're getting into that rhythm as we get some staff and get our schedules down. As you've been working and serving there now for about two weeks, what would you say has been the biggest challenge or the hardest thing about what you are doing and what's been one of the most beautiful things, what's been one of the biggest blessings as well? I would say the hardest thing is just knowing that this thing isn't going anywhere for a while. And, you know, it's not a sprint. It's a marathon.

And so knowing best how to just pray for strength for that and how we can continue to support the hospital here in Cremona. But I also would say that the highlight and the blessing of being here is the people that we've met. The patients, the hospital staff at Cremona, the vendors who come and help us, the Air Force who came and helped set up our tents and allowed us to land our DC8 in Verona at their Air Force base. Things like that. Just the people of Italy have been an incredible blessing. And that's something that I don't think our team will ever forget. Well, as we wrap up, I just wanted to ask if there's any more personal stories that you'd like to share.

I know you mentioned the one about the person with Down syndrome that's recovering. You also mentioned the story of the elderly couple. So if there's any other personal stories that you'd like to highlight, and then as well as just talk about how patients have responded as they recover and leave. What is their message to you guys? Or what are you hearing from these patients as they leave? There was one other patient, a nurse who was about to retire. I think she was two weeks away from retiring. And she got sick along with five of her coworkers. And so she's been able to recover here and is doing a lot better. And just hearing her stories from working in the hospital before she got sick was just really humbling. And when people are discharged or

we hear from families, they're just incredibly thankful. We've had people like just breakdown in tears. We've gone to our vendors to pick up whatever it may be, supplies, and they know who we are, and they're like in tears thanking us. And so just an incredible amount of gratitude, and I would say it's reciprocal. Not only are they grateful for what we're doing here, but we're incredibly grateful to be able to serve them. And Bev, lastly, if there's people that want to somehow help, either here in the United States or elsewhere, how would you encourage them to do that?

I would encourage me to go to our Samaritan's Purse website. Prayers, just any resources that they want to donate will be given to our response here, both in Italy and in New York. And, you know, we just want to let people notice how thankful we are for that. We are so blessed by people who are helping us be here so that we can help other people. Well, Beth, thank you so much for making time to talk with us about the amazing work you're doing at the field hospital in Cremona, Italy that Samaritan's Pro set up. It's a honor to have you on with us. Great. Thank you so much. And please be safe.

Thank you, Bev. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal Podcast. We do appreciate your patience as we record remotely during these weeks. Please be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify. And please leave us a review or a rating on Apple Podcasts to give us your feedback. Stay healthy and we'll be back with you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Kate Shrinco and Rachel Del Judas. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Fulia Rampersad, Mark Geinie, and John Pop.

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