By GREGORY ZELLER //
Four Long Island heroes will join thousands of doctors, nurses and other front-line healthcare providers in Tampa for this Sunday’s Super Bowl LV.
The National Football League is providing free tickets to the big game for 7,500 vaccinated healthcare workers – a big thank you to them and their hundreds of thousands of front-line fellows for beyond-the-call efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lion’s share of the invited guests hail from Central Florida, where the Big Game is scheduled to kick off at 6:30 p.m. Sunday. But the invitees represent healthcare systems from across the nation – all 32 NFL clubs were allowed to select providers from their communities – and four employees of Mouth Sinai South Nassau hospital, the Long Island flagship of the New York City-based Mount Sinai Health System, will be among them.
All four – two physicians, an emergency department nurse and a respiratory therapist – have received two COVID-19 vaccine doses. They will join a projected in-stadium crowd of 25,000 fans, who are slated to mingle with 50,000 cardboard cutouts inside Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium.
Super Bowl LV is set to break Super Bowl I’s longstanding record for lowest-attended Super Bowl (a less-than-capacity crowd of 61,946 went to the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1967 for the first Super Bowl). Interestingly, 2020’s Super Bowl LIV marked the second-lowest attendance of a Super Bowl – only 62,417 fans, which was a sellout for Miami Gardens’ Hard Rock Stadium but not up to usual Big Game standards (1980’s Super Bowl XIV drew 103,985 to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., still the record).
A big, pandemic-shaped asterisk marks this year’s minimal attendance. But however many humans are allowed in to cheer on the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs and hometown Tampa Bay Buccaneers, ensuring that three out of every 10 are healthcare workers was a brilliant stroke by the NFL, according to Mount Sinai Health Nassau CEO Richard Murphy.
“We are very grateful to the NFL for recognizing them and all healthcare workers at the Super Bowl,” Murphy said.
Heading to Tampa are Adhi Sharma, South Nassau’s chief medical officer; Iris Halem, the hospital’s director of respiratory therapy; Frank Coletta, chief of critical care and pulmonary medicine; and Emergency Department Nurse Eileen Carolan, who called the gratis trip “a dream come true.”
“I’m a big football fan and I never thought I’d get to attend a Super Bowl,” the RN noted. “After the challenges of the last year, this will be a welcome break.”
Special teams: Mount Sinai South Nassau staffers (left to right) Adhi Sharma, Frank Coletta, Eileen Carolan and Iris Halem are heading to the Big Game on the NFL’s dime.
It’s also a bit of full-circle serendipity for Carolan, a South Nassau employee since 1990 who canceled a vacation last spring and didn’t miss a shift during the initial patient surge.
That same dedication marked the COVID-19 efforts logged by Halem, who provided life-saving respiratory treatments to dozens of severely ill patients; Coletta, who spearheaded on-the-fly training of staffers inundated by 1,600 hospitalized patients; and Sharma, who “has provided steadfast leadership in Mount Sinai South Nassau’s ongoing response to COVID-19,” according to the Oceanside-based hospital.
Along with other healthcare heroes in attendance, the South Nassau team will be saluted throughout the game via in-stadium announcements and on-air recognitions – a fitting tribute to the lucky four and all of their comrades on Long Island and beyond, according to Murphy.
“They worked tirelessly, sometimes around-the-clock, putting the needs of our patients before their own family and putting themselves in harm’s way to provide care for our community,” the CEO said. “They have been leaders in the fight against the virus since the start of the pandemic last February.
“These four employees represent the very best of Mount Sinai South Nassau.”
