Weber Joins Fight Against COVID-19
10/5/2020
Olivia Weber (’17), an accomplished women’s basketball alumna at California Baptist, has joined a new team—one that is fighting an invisible enemy and a deadly foe. Weber, a physician assistant, recalls one evening during her night shift that the coronavirus pandemic became a reality for her.
“I was assigned a patient that had low oxygen. A few hours later, the individual was given a ventilator, and then a few hours later, that patient passed away,” Weber said. “I was heart-broken.”
Weber started working in the emergency room at Aurora Sinai Medical Center, located in the inner city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last year. After the COVID-19 outbreak, she was transferred to an intensive care unit.
Milwaukee County has reported more than 32,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of October 5 and has experienced nearly 550 deaths. Weber would work 80 hours a week—a task that would require the endurance of mind, body, and spirit.
Weber said CBU’s culture played a big part in preparing her for this crisis. She was part of a powerhouse women’s basketball team at CBU from 2014-2017 when the Lancers enjoyed arguably their best four-year run. CBU won more than 80 percent of its games with a 109-25 record and qualified for the NCAA Division II postseason in three of the four years Weber played. The team won two PacWest Conference and West Region titles, reached the division’s final four twice, and qualified for the D-II championship game in 2015. Weber also was named a PacWest Academic All-Conference team member during her time at CBU.
Weber said playing on those championship teams were some of the best times of her life that helped her learn mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual disciplines.
“CBU promoted learning in all aspects of life. This was a part of the CBU culture that helped me become a well-rounded individual,” Weber said.
After graduating, Weber hung up her blue, gold and white Lancer gear to pursue a job where white coats were the choice of uniform—as a physician assistant. After obtaining her Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies from Carroll University (Wisconsin) in May 2019, she found a job at Aurora Sinai Medical Center.
Weber recalls seeing an influx of cases at her hospital during a peak of the COVID-19 outbreak. In one evening alone, 17 patients were admitted to the hospital and 15 had the virus. Of those 15 cases, 12 ended up on ventilators.
Weber was assigned to help determine patient treatment options and communicate to patients and their families a recommended course of action. Through it all, patient care remained a high priority for Weber.
“The biggest thing for me was to talk to the patients as much as possible—even if they were sedated—and letting them know what was going to happen,” Weber said. “I would also call the patient’s family and discuss the patient’s situation and keep families involved as much as possible.”
“COVID-19 patients cannot have visitors, so in many cases, I was the hand and eyes of the families, and I tried to communicate the best I could of what was happening,” Weber said.
After a grueling day on the job, Weber turned to her faith and a familiar voice to help her cope with the stresses of the job.
“There were times I would go home and look for [pastor] Matt Brown sermons to listen to,” Weber said.
While she attended CBU, a teammate and staff member introduced her to Sandals Church, where Brown serves as the lead pastor. Weber would attend Sandals regularly during her time at CBU. She also attended a Bible study within the physician assistant program at CBU, led by Dr. Sean Sullivan, department chair of kinesiology, and Dr. Wayne Fletcher, associate provost for academic services.
“I still keep in touch with many people at CBU,” Weber said.
While Weber has witnessed a lot of grief and pain through the coronavirus, she also has memories of triumph that she is thankful for.
“I remember one patient that was in ICU for a long period of time. When I first saw him, he was gray and looked like he could die at any minute. However, they were able to perform a tracheostomy procedure to wean him off the ventilator. After about a month, he was finally able to talk to his wife; that was one of the best feelings ever,” Weber recalled.
Weber said she has formulated several insights from her coronavirus experience.
“We need to turn back to God and rely on him,” Weber said. “We also need to make changes to our daily lives. We need to be thinking of hygiene and washing our hands multiple times each day. Our American cultural view of sickness also needs to adapt. If we are sick, we should be able to stay home and not have to work ‘sick.’ We also need to have the difficult quality of life conversations with our family members.”
