Tower-Fall-2020

16 TOWER | FALL 2020 Alumna Helps Make Patients Comfortable KU alumna Dr. Kristina Newport, a 2000 speech pathology graduate, has been working with seriously ill patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Chief of Palliative Care with Penn State Health at Hershey Medical Center, Newport works closely with patients battling an illness – be it COVID or another ailment – on a regular basis. The difficulty of doing so was compounded by the limits the coronavirus put on caring for such individuals. But she and her team remained committed to making life with such an illness the most positive and comfortable experience possible. To keep things upbeat, the group would share poetry, art or music during their daily meetings, “to remind us that there is still some good in the world… and to value it,” Newport said. While many of her visits with patients became, and have remained, virtual, they still focused on what could be done to uplift the patients. “Any time we can help people cope a bit better, we feel better,” said the Lancaster resident. Even when COVID-19 first came to the area and it was voluntary for her team members to care for COVID-positive patients, each was quick to jump in and help. She recalls them saying, “Sign me up first.” Newport said that happy moments of celebration remained, such as a wedding at the hospital and the joy of families reunited after a COVID-19 recovery. She believes that despite the tragedies of the pandemic, some good will come from it. “It has resulted in many new and innovative ways to care for people that I believe will change healthcare in positive ways for years to come,” Newport says. “It’s impressive what we can do when we all head in the same forward-thinking direction.” When the pandemic shut down in-person classes in March, Zoe Zerman, now a senior sport management major at KU, made her way home to Jonestown, Pa., and continued her studies from the comfort of her bedroom. But the active point guard for the Golden Bears women’s basketball team grew weary, missed her teammates and was itching for a way to help. When people began wearing masks as a precaution against spreading the virus, Zerman dusted off her sewing skills and got to work. She pulled up instructions she found on Pinterest, enlisted the help of her two sisters —Zara, who is a freshman at KU, and Zeah, 11, and they started making masks. “I knowmany people who are considered essential workers,” she said, adding that her father is a postal worker in Harrisburg. “I even reached out to nurses at local hospitals in case they were in need — and they were.” To date, Zerman has crafted more than 100 masks. She did have trouble finding elastic at one point, but KU’s women’s volleyball coach, John Gump, found some and mailed it to her so that she could continue her efforts. Now working in her fifth year at Hershey Park as a photographer, Zerman continues to stress the importance of wearing a mask. “I wear it because it protects others as well as me. It (COVID-19) is still a very real thing. Enjoy the freedoms wearing a mask affords you. Yes, it can be annoying, but it allows for us to have some normalcy back in our lives.” KU COMMUNITY SHINES DURING COVID-19 Student-Athlete Sews Masks