Injured Lahey Healthcare worker heading back to Boston

MILTON, Mass. — She had been through numerous ‘iPad Goodbyes,’ during the several Covid surges, but Physician’s Assistant Beth Callahan had high hopes last fall that the Delta variant marked the beginning of the end of the pandemic.

She was wrong.

“She was tired and she needed a break,” said her sister, Sarah Nethercote Hart. “What really I think got to her was the Omicron surge because she had really, I think, mentally prepared herself for things to get better.”

Since the first Covid patients began showing up at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, Callahan has been caring for them -- and sharing the trauma of watching some of them die, alienated from family members.

“And she decided, I think, after two years of a lot of doing those ‘IPad Goodbyes’ and taking care of people on ventilators, I think she was tired and she needed a break, and so she decided to leave,” Nethercote Hart said. “And so her last day was in early February.”

Right after that, Callahan, her husband, and eight-year-old twins boarded a plane for Puerto Rico -- their first significant vacation in a long time. One-stop on the itinerary: last Wednesday was the El Yunque National Rainforest, where a popular activity is hiking trails near waterfalls -- and jumping into ponds from outcroppings dozens of feet above.

Nethercote Hart said her sister is not normally a risk-taker. But many others were jumping into the ponds from high points.

“She was being encouraged to try and do this fun thing that she never would normally do, and she ended up trying to back out and slipped and hit her head on the way down,” she said.

This caused a serious brain injury.

Worse, it had taken place in a remote location.

But Callahan did have something going for her. It turns out she was not the only healthcare worker who went to Puerto Rico last week, looking for respite from the Omicron surge.

“She very, fortunate, was cared for by at least three healthcare workers who were there on the scene, and then an ER doctor who works in Chicago,” Nethercote Hart said. “And he hiked back or ran back and was able to help keep my sister alive and breathing for about an hour or so until help could arrive.”

She later spoke with that doctor from Chicago.

“I said, I’m so sorry that this was your vacation and you were trying to get away from life a little bit and you ended up taking care of my sister. And I’m so glad that you were there.”

Nethercote Hart said the doctor called it a ‘reaffirming experience.’

“Because he realized this is why he went into healthcare and there are really good people in the world and they all seemed to rally together to keep her going,” she said.

By later this week, Beth Callahan should be back in Boston, now that doctors in San Juan have cleared her to travel. An ICU bed is waiting for her at Beth Israel Hospital.

“She very slightly started to respond to some stimulation from what we understand,” Nethercote Hart said. But Callahan remains intubated -- though she’s coming out of a medically induced coma.

“We don’t know what her prognosis is. It’s a very big question mark,” Nethercote Hart said. “It could be anything from, you know, she‘ll be playing with her kids in her backyard in a few months, to long-term rehabilitation for the rest of her life. We just have no idea at this point.”

The twins returned home to Arlington, but Callahan’s husband Daniel remains in San Juan -- though he’s not allowed into the ICU to see his wife.

“She and her husband were also high school sweethearts, so I’ve known Dan since he was 14-years-old and to just really see him struggling like this -- although he’s putting up an incredibly good face -- it just breaks my heart,” Nethercote Hart said.

A struggle of another kind likely awaits the family, as Beth Callahan’s rehabilitation will be costly. Nethercote Hart started a GoFundMe on their behalf, which can be found at:  https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-beth-nethercote-callahan

©2022 Cox Media Group