When COVID-19 struck New York, this Ontario prof. began running a hospital staffed by special forces medics

The first time University of Windsor nursing professor Kate Kemplin responded to a call-to-action in New York City was in 2001, following the Sept. 11 attacks. 

At the time, Kemplin worked with the New York City Fire Department to provide medical support for one of the organization's specialized teams responding to the attacks.

Almost 20 years later, Kemplin is once again in New York, running a temporary field hospital in response to COVID-19. 

"Their medical system was struggling, I was seeing my nurse colleagues on TV that were having a really, really hard time," she said. "I knew that Ontario would need help, but having been in New York as a young nurse during 9/11, I felt I had to be back there."

Kemplin serves as the chief nursing officer and deputy director for the Ryan F. Larkin New York Presbyterian Field Hospital, having been personally invited to help run the facility housed at Columbia University's athletic dome by a retired U.S. Army emergency physician.

"My colleague and friend Col. Melissa Givens just retired from the U.S. Army after 26 years," Kemplin said. "She was offered the opportunity to run this field hospital, and she asked me to run it with her."

According to Kemplin, who used to work for the U.S. army as a nurse specialist, the Ryan Larkin Field Hospital is historic, largely because it's one of the first civilian medical efforts in the U.S. that's relying on care provided by former special forces medics. 

It was named after a late Navy SEAL medic who lived with a traumatic brain injury and died by suicide in 2017, just as her own ex-husband did.

I knew that Ontario would need help, but having been in New York as a young nurse during 9/11, I felt I had to be back there- Kate Kemplin

Kemplin explained that she and Givens oversee a medical team consisting of clinicians from a number of U.S. special forces operations, including the Green Berets and Navy SEALS, among others.

"They are providing patient care that is absolutely phenomenal," Kemplin said. "[They are] compassionate, very patient-centred, and … fantastic to work with, because they are used to hardship tours, they're used to being in unfamiliar environments, they have a good sense of humour, they have a great work ethic."

Patients at the 220-bed field hospital come from all across New York City. While they don't need ICU-level care, Kemplin said they still require in-patient care, including diagnostics, nursing care, therapy and medication.

"These are not patients who can go home yet," she said." But we're finding that with the care that we're providing, it's not intensive, but it's intense. There's a lot of attention paid to the patients and they're getting home rather quickly."

When patients leave, Kemplin said, they ring a nautical bell outside the hospital as a kind of ritual. 

"Sometimes eight or 10 times a day, I'll hear that bell rung and it's the best sound in the world," she said, adding that the navy bell is yet another way that the field hospital honours the legacy of Ryan Larkin. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Kemplin said she's not sure when she'll return home to Canada. 

"Our primary purpose here is to be a relief for the city and its clinicians," she said. "They need to recover, they need a break and the hospitals need to get back to some semblance of business-as-usual and that's what we're here for."

WATCH | Timelapse of the Ryan F. Larkin New York Presbyterian field hospital under construction

In the meantime, she said she believes human life "always shines through."

"It's the simple joys and just connecting with people and patients and hearing that bell ring when they go home, there's a lot of good that's going to come out of a terrible situation," she said. 

"It seems trite because we hear it all the time now, but we really are all in this together. It's probably the only human experience in my lifetime where the entire world is going through the same thing at the same time, and that's a great equalizer."