Dear readers,
After 35-plus years of continuous publication, Catholic Health World has temporarily suspended its print edition. The logistical reasons won't surprise you. CHA staff are working from home as we shelter in place during the novel coronavirus pandemic. The newspaper will be back in print after we return to the office. In the meantime, we invite you to visit Catholic Health World online several times each week to read ongoing coverage during this unprecedented time.
We've always been inspired by the people of Catholic health care whose call to heal and shared mission sets them apart. In this crisis, we are humbled and awed by the countless everyday selfless acts of courage, perseverance and spirit. Thinking about health care heroes in the season of COVID-19, I was reminded of a firefighter I interviewed almost 30 years ago, back when I reported for a daily newspaper. You might have seen his face without knowing his name. In an unforgettable Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, Adam Long breathes life into the limp and soot-streaked body of a two-year-old girl as he bolts from a burning building toward a waiting ambulance. He'd crawled across the floor to get below the dense smoke and the ferocious heat in the bedroom where he found her. "I was just doing my job," he later said of the rescue. He held the tiny hand of Patricia Pettis when he visited her at the hospital. She died the next day.
"We are in it because we care. Why else would you run into a burning building when everyone else was running out," Long told me. Why indeed?
Compassion is the reason health care workers now run towards those battling COVID-19. Their bravery in the face of a deadly contagion, their competence under pressure, their humanity and empathy are the stuff of heroes. At Catholic Health World we want to share your stories to capture this moment, which surely will change health care, our country and even our world. We invite you to reach out to us at [email protected] with story suggestions. We all need the strength of community now and we hope you'll see Catholic Health World as a platform to reinforce each other by sharing acts of heart, hope and creative problem solving.