It is time now to meet our guests for the day.

Kimberly Fritz is director of rehabilitation at Lehigh Valley Health Network.

The pandemic creating an entirely new class of rehab patients and from his home office in Allentown, we are joined by Ben Stemrich.

Ben covers Allentown for 91 three WLVT and has also hosted this very show.

Thank you both so much for joining us.

Then we'll be with you in just a little bit.

We're going to begin today with Kimberly Kim.

A few months ago we talked about people, many of them younger, suffering with a long term symptoms of Covid-19.

Have we learn any more about the treatment for these so-called long haulers and whether rehab is effective for them?

So certainly thanks so much for having me back.

It's really a pleasure to be able to start to talk about recovery and for so many people, we have started to call them Long haulers and we in the rehab world are really trying to change that stigma.

We want to be able to call these patients Covid recovery in active Covid recovery.

And that's really our mantra that we put in place in rehab across LVHN.

And we've learned so much what we thought was going to happen was that we were going to see a huge influx of people, that we're going to be coming in with respiratory symptoms, with difficulty breathing, with endurance issues.

And we are absolutely seeing the but these patients are recovering quickly, quicker than we expected.

We're probably seeing those patients on average for about eight visits over the course of a month to a month and a half period.

And they're able to take that information they've learned in rehab and be able to turn it into a real life situation and be able to return back to being part of their everyday lives.

We have people that are ready to go back to work and have been going through our work gardening program and have been gathering endurance and getting ready to be able to go back to their jobs, some of which our own health care providers.

Other are those who have worked in situations that unfortunately contracted Covid and have been unable to get back to work.

But I think what we really have learned is that there are so many unique things that are happening as a result of Covid sometimes Berks Covid disease process, sometimes for the way that we've had to treat that disease process and have shown up as a result of Covid maybe not necessarily as a symptom of Covid and these patients are just so unique and really what I'm proud to be able to talk about is that our Covid recovery program is able to provide this individualized care and we're able to look at each person uniquely and say, what do you need today and how do we address it where you to be able to get your back to high quality life Gamma Kim, with more people getting vaccinated, are you seeing people with long hauler symptoms come in as frequently as you did earlier in the pandemic or have vaccinations help that at all?

So vaccination has been so important and as a mother of young teenagers, I'm even more glad to be able to see that we have been able to start to vaccinate our teenagers or 12-year-olds and we're starting to see less people getting as sick with Covid.

So therefore are we're losing a number of patients that we're going to have that are going to be coming in with Covid symptoms.

But like I said, the people who there's a lot of people we just heard the statistics from you that have had Covid and have had various levels of disease process.

So some of them have been very, very sick and have required a lot of care and are some of them are six months a year after Covid and are still having symptoms.

But those who are getting vaccinated are having more mild symptoms and therefore their risk for developing is longer haul type of symptoms is decreased right along with that.

And you're working in an area of rehab that really didn't exist a year ago.

Can you please talk to us about what you've learned over the past year about this type of rehabilitation and what Covid-19 Long haulers need in terms of rehab Gamma So I think from just speaking as a rehab professional, we have learned so much over the last year, I think back to a year ago and people were captive in their homes.

Businesses were closed and we as health care providers were being asked to do things that we have never done before in an extremely stretched system to be able to manage a patient volume.

And we had to take an outpatient department which is used to seeing patients who are walking in and out of our clinic and bring them into the hospital to be able to support our hospital team that was already here and doing the care.

We started turning patients on their bellies.

Who historically when do you see patients in the hospital lying on their stomachs?

Never up until maybe about a year ago.

And those patients were ventilated Bear Lake sick and we were able to help with that.

But who better to do that than our rehab professionals, our mobility team, our cardiovascular experts Gamma And then I think the next thing that we learned is that physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy has always been a hands on business and we thought that patients needed to be in the clinic and have our hands on them all the time in order to be able to have high value, high quality care.

And what we've learned is that we were able to provide high quality and high valuable care on a virtual platform and be able to have our patients be able to be seen in the comfort of our own home where they were able to maintain without a mask and be able to interact with their therapist without a mask and be able to participate in therapy.

And it was really the most significant for our pediatric patients and specifically our pediatric speech patients because they needed to be able to learn how to use words or swallow or eat.

And to do that with a mask on in a clinic was nearly impossible.

So we were invited into their homes and be able to continue to provide that type of care and a platform that nobody really thought was even possible.

So we've learned so many things and we're going to continue to do that.

And our pediatric population has continued to participate in virtual visits.

It's still accounts for about 10% of the patients that we see in the pediatric world in rehab services, technology has definitely kept us all connected even with this show here.

I imagine with Covid patients, people are experiencing different symptoms.

I imagine with rehab and treating people with Covid symptoms.

Then the rehab has to vary from patient to patient.

Can you give us some examples as how that is so the symptoms we have to treat, we have to treat symptom, right.

Treat the person who is incredible and that's really what's going to be the most important.

And we're really proud of that unique program that we have.

And it's based upon some standardized testing.

So we want to make sure that we develop a baseline that has an objective measure.

We talk to the patient, we talk about what their goals are for recovery and what they're looking to respond and get back to.

And then we plan together to be able to to be able to tick all the boxes and to be able to make sure that the recovery plan that we have in place is driven by the goals of the patient.

And it's just a tremendous program that has been led by our teams are otes Physical and medicine rehab team and to be able to track patients progress across all different levels of care really showed some dramatic improvement from especially for our patients who have been in the hospital and have received that testing, have been done it again should rehab facility and now seeing us in outpatient able to see and show them that progress is really a motivating factor for.

And we look at the progress not only physically but cognitively and emotionally in regard to quality of life and are you seeing as you're treating these people, are you seeing people get better or is this something that can be treated and people are recovering from or are there people who this is going to be for the rest of their lives?

Are you seeing all over the map kind of thing, though?

I'm an everloving optimist.

My glass is always half full, but that's the rehab professional in me.

But we have so many people that are getting better and they're getting better quickly.

So I think that we had initially months that we were looking at this program being about a 12 week program.

And I'm proud to tell you today that we're seeing the Covid recovery program about half of that six weeks and those patients who were strictly endurance and respiratory and not having any other major other issues that have happened as a result of Covid are getting better, faster than we expected them to.

And I think that part of the vaccine is helping out as well there.

Dr Benjamin, just recently talked to us about the fact that they're seeing a lot of good positive feedback coming who have had the vaccine and it's really limiting their post Covid Long haulers.

But then we also have patients who have had strokes and who have had major blood clots who are coming into rehab now and are sharing with us their success stories.

And you know, there's a gentleman who comes to mind who we were seeing in our Bethlehem area office.

He started his Covid journey in November and now we're six months in.

He has been through all levels of our rehab care.

His major goal was to be able to not walk with a cane or with any type of device.

I'm proud to tell you that two weeks ago he discharged from PPE with no pain, no assistive device and his math major goal to be able to accomplish back is that he wants to get back behind the wheel and return back to his regular life and driving and he's still working with that with our team, with some of the technologies that we have for driving simulation.

But he's on the road to recovery and hopefully we literally get him back on the road pretty soon.

The success stories are so wonderful to hear throughout this pandemic.

Is there an average length of rehab for Covid patients?

Is there an average length of time that they are staying in rehab Gamma So like I said, it will change based upon the severity of the symptoms that they have.

But I would say the majority of the patients that we're seeing were with us for six weeks or less, about eight sessions for therapy.

We do have some that are with us for longer periods of time and are seeing multiple disciplines, both PTSD and sometimes speech.

But even those patients we are really moving with some aggressive types of care processes and they're with us for about 12 weeks.

Sure.

Is there anything you need folks to know who maybe think they are suffering from Long hauler Covid at this point?

Should they know anything?

Should they be coming in?

Should they be looking out for something, a specific symptom or just reaching out to their doctor in general?

So I think that it's super important to just remember that if you don't feel like yourself, it's been four weeks since you've had Covid it's really important to talk to your doctor about the symptoms that you're having, even things that may seem mild or in significance can sometimes be managed quickly like we just were talking about with an outpatient rehab professional that's focused and listening to the things that are specific to you in regards to your movement, in regards to your thinking, in terms of your speech and swallowing it, even just doesn't seem right.

There are so many ways to actively recover and it's important to make sure that you might need to start with one of us.

But you don't have that doesn't have to be everything.

We're going to set you up with a program or you're able to return to community activities to be able to do some of that independently and then just refer back to us as a resource.

If you need in order to be able to find you can when you were on our program in the past, you talked about the importance of exercise throughout all of this.

Why is that so critical?

Well, if it's physical therapy, so it's so critical to be able to make sure that you are that you're doing exercise.

There's so many natural emotional endorphins that get built by just exerting some energy and moving around and moving your body.

It's good for you in regards to weight bearing in regards to weight loss.

It's regards to energy conservation, in regard to fatigue management and for a lot of us, our jobs have become more sedentary.

Our lifestyle has become more sedentary.

We were restricted to our homes and that has had a lot of damaging Sibella and the best thing that we can really do for that is start to regain some semblance of normal, which is in our world.

We recommend putting one foot in front of the other and doing whatever you can to move.

And if it moves, I think I said this before last time I was here.

If you can move it, move it and it will do a lot in terms of just not only your physical health but your mental health as well.

Some great information there, Kimberly Fritz, director of rehabilitation from Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

Happy Memorial Day.

Absolutely.

Have a great holiday weekend.

We continue this community update on coronaviruses on PBS.

39, you can hear the rebroadcast on the radio tonight at nine 30 on 91 three Speaking of the radio, let's bring in our next guest.

Ben Stemrich is the Allentown reporter for 91 three WLVT and reported for PBS39 News Tonight.

Ben, thank you so much for joining today.

Of course.

Thanks for having me, Bernie.

Of course, Ben.

The pandemic has changed life in so many ways and obviously in the way that we work.

Let's start there.

How has your job as a reporter changed during the course of this pandemic?

Well, I think like most jobs, it's become a different kind of balancing act.

I mean, you know, a big part of our jobs, our dissemination of information and that has changed.

Just for example, what we're doing right now, the Zoom calls, you know, we were used to going out face to face interviews and that was the way to do.

Now a lot of this stuff happens right here in our homes, which it has its pros and cons.

It's great because, you know, we're not it doesn't take an hour to go somewhere, do something and come back.

It can happen in 15 minutes, but it also makes it more difficult because it's hard to impress somebody when they can hit a mute button or they can turn their camera off and they're done.

So that part has definitely been difficult, but that's only a small part of being a journalist.

You know, a big part of it is the telling stories and, you know, finding our way into other people's lives.

And it's really hard to find somebody who had a easy life over the past year or so to constantly be approaching people and asking to allow for them to allow you into their life is getting tougher.

It's more stories about Covid and death and things like that.

And it's just not as much pleasant things that have happened.

So we don't have that balance which we can develop relationships with these people.

You know, you sit with somebody for a few hours and ask them to pour their life emotions out to you.

You develop a connection and then that person is a person in your life and then you take that home with you, you know, no matter how much you try and Spartz and you may never communicate with that person again, which is sitting there in that experience and taking that emotion from that person is very tough.

So we went through a lot.

One thing that I often think of is the first member of the military service who passed from Covid Douglas Hickock, what's his name, and he was from Lehigh County and I was able to speak to some of his family members.

And you know, was it was very heart wrenching.

They didn't see it coming.

Nobody saw coming at that point.

And it was just a very emotional and you have to deal with that more than you would in previous tears where you could have balance, you know, little things like community affairs, the small fun things that some people really love to do as a journalist reporter.

And again, part of that balancing act.

Sure, we didn't have that.

You didn't have that balance where there was the good things because all of the good things were canceled.

They had to look for the light for sure.

That.

I wanted to ask about your experiences back last year when the pandemic first began and then the Black Lives Matter rallies started really kicking up.

You were in the center of all of that.

You were heading out.

You were in person reporting through those rallies, getting both sides of the story.

Can you tell us about your experience during that, trying to report and get the facts while also trying to keep yourself safe during a pandemic Gamma If it was tough when you were trying to get that balancing, trying to get out there knowing that this pandemic is going on and you need to be safe, that you need to be, you know, making sure your social distancing you're marching with in between thousands of people down one street, there is social distancing.

And so the thought of, OK, I'm putting myself in danger here.

What are what's the risk?

What's the reward?

Is that often happened, you know, would I be willing to go into a certain crowd Gamma I would often have to first just look around who's wearing masks, how many people have used look like they're taking mysterious Gamma That would be I'd rather walk into a crowd of 30 people wearing masks than 15 to 20, not wearing masks.

So there was a lot of that.

There was a lot of just the non Covid tension that was going on and that was that was another layer of emotion.

Little things that happened this year that fell on so many different people and it was just it felt like one thing after the other and that was a big one.

And I saw you footage the Bethlehem with the thousands of people walking down the street and that was kind of the moment where it was.

I didn't have much time to think about preparation.

It was I remember pulling to that street, looking, starting to think about where I would park and looking down to the left and seeing all the people coming and just having to essentially stop my car on the side of the road, get out and start reporting.

Whereas I had kind of had plans, I'd say the stuff I was going to get myself another white down and everything before I got going, but it was too late.

It was already happening and that happened so much over this past year, even with elections.

That was another big thing.

There were so many political rallies that were we were going to and it was such a polarizing influence.

And we went to one where it was like a drive in movie theater, essentially everybody was sitting in their cars.

There was a stage up front and announcer speakers speeches at the stage, whereas other ones it was just a sea of people.

And you're kind of in the middle of it and you have to you have to use your own judgment.

You have to understand that, you know, you're putting yourself at risk owing to that.

Absolutely.

I guess it's just part of the job.

But you did a phenomenal job covering those events.

I wanted to ask also how things have changed since vaccines are becoming more prevalent, more people are getting vaccinated and things are starting to open up.

So how now is your job shifting and changing into that new era of the pandemic Gamma There was certainly no one day turn.

I remember being at LVHN for the first for their first vaccine.

I remember coming in the door feeling you could feel the relief and but it was, you know, that kind of faded away pretty quick as you realize, all of us, all the same mandates were still out there.

You still there?

Were you at places?

We're still close.

It wasn't going to be you know, everybody gets the shot the next month and then we're back to normal.

So it was a slow burn.

It was, you know, again, feeling things out when was I ready to to go out and be in a crowd again, going covering vaccines, you know, you go to do that, you know that everybody walking in that to So again, you're putting yourself at risk and it really comes down to, you know, what's the risk reward here, do you think this news is that important that it needs to get out there, that you're willing to put yourself out there?

Then what are you most looking forward to as things start to open up?

You know, earlier this week we heard that Music Fest is going to be back in person this year and so many other events are coming back for 2021.

So what are you most looking forward to in terms of some of the good news stories to cover?

Well, I will be covering Mayfair's Mayfair's here.

I'm excited for that.

And the Allentown Fairgrounds something that I really love to to go to every year.

I don't live far.

I get to walk there and enjoy it.

I get to cover a lot of the time when it's something that I'm really looking forward to just kind being out and being a part of an seeing people out and about the people that I know just walking behind.

It's simple, but it's got so many elements that we've been missing over the past year that I don't think many people are going to be taking for granted like they may have previously.

And we only have a little at a time left here.

But if there's one thing when we move out of this pandemic years from now, when you look back, is there one thing that stands out to you that you will always remember from reporting during the Korona virus pandemic?

I think going back to a little bit of everything we talked about earlier just the layers of different monumental things that happened in this past year, we didn't only have the pandemic, we had a election like we've never seen before.

We had the protests like we've never seen before.

So many things, you know, you feel deserve to be in the history books, as you know, ten, 15, 20 and further down the road years down the road.

So just all of that stuff together.

And it made for one year that I don't think anybody will forget.

Wonderful Ben Stemrich.

And there he is an action.

I love that picture of you got mask on, but you're in the center of it making sure that you get the full story.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

And as always, people can catch you on 91 three WLVT.

thank you, Brittany.

All right.

Thanks, Ben.

We want to thank our guests for being with us today.

We want to thank you for joining us for community update on Coronavirus.

We won't have a show on Monday because of the Memorial Day holiday, but we're back again on Wednesday at four o'clock to talk about how retired front line health care workers responded to the call during the pandemic.

If you have a question, you can leave it at our website, PBS39.

Dog on social media or give us a call and leave it there.

The phone number is Fauci four eight two one zero zero zero eight four PBS39 and WLVT News.

I'm Brittany Sweeney Stacey Stauffer have a wonderful holiday weekend.

All-Clear.

I'm going to need the two of you to come back next Wednesday.

That was great.

Thank you so much.

I don't like care.

Was it making too much noise?

I didn't realize.

Oh no, I didn't hear it at all.

But that was great, guys.

Kim, thank you so much.

Have a great holiday weekend to both of you.

You're welcome.

I appreciate it.

Brittany, you make it easy.

Thank you.

Think it was great.

You guys did wonderful.

Take care.

Lebanon today.

You two.

Bye.

Everybody else,