Amid applause and chants of thanks, 25 members of the U.S. Army’s 115th Field Hospital got “clapped out” Monday morning at University Hospital in Newark, where they had just spent a month — more than 4,000 clinical hours — side by side with medical workers who were exhausted and overwhelmed by omicron’s assault. Staff called the farewell “bittersweet.”
At a ceremony, the team members received medals and commendations for their work in Newark. Hospital CEO Dr. Shereef Elnahal said that when the military medical team arrived on Jan. 20, 300 University Hospital employees, or 10% of the staff, were out due to the coronavirus and it had 85 COVID-19 patients. “And we were, in fact, in crisis,” he said. “But as of this morning I can report that we only have two patients with active COVID-19 at University Hospital right now. If that doesn’t represent a mission accomplished for all of you, I don’t know what does.”
