Ceremony honors lives lost, battles won at Saginaw hospital during pandemic

A view of the lights during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

Family and friends gather around the lights during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

A staff member looks out the window during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

A view of the lights during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

Family and friends gather around the lights during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

A view of the lights during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

Family and friends gather around the lights during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

A view of the lights during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

Lights are on display during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

Family and friends gather around the lights during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

A view of the lights during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

A view of the lights during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

Friends and family hold lights during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

Family and friends gather around the lights during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

Family and friends gather around the lights during the ‘Pillars of Light’ event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at Covenant HealthCare located at 700 Cooper in Saginaw. The Covenant staff offered words of reflection for people who have struggled during the pandemic. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)

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SAGINAW, MI — Ten chimes for 670 lives lost.

The sound of bells opened and closed a somber, 20-minute ceremony outside the entrance of Covenant HealthCare’s Cooper facility in Saginaw at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28, when people gathered to reflect on the challenges the community has faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The scene resembled a vigil, and in some ways, it was.

Many of the 100 attendees — including the Covenant staff who led the procession — knew some of the 670 patients who have died of the virus at the hospital.

Gatherers cried and embraced during moments of silence and a prayer.

They bowed their heads and held electronic candles that cast a dim, yellow glow beneath the dark evening sky.

The congress collected near the foot of the campus’ tallest tower. Standing above the crowd was the seventh-floor intensive care unit where Covenant’s medical team has treated the most critically-ill COVID-19 patients since the pandemic arrived here 30 months ago. On the roof of that tower were speakers that twice played the sounds of a bell ringing 10 times, with chimes meant to symbolize both the 6,250 COVID-19 patients that have sought care there as well as the people who did not survive their stay.

Beth Charlton, Covenant’s president and chief executive officer, led the ceremony in front of three illuminated, freestanding columns inserted near the hospital’s main entrance last month.

The multi-colored pillars — which stand at 8-, 10- and 12-feet-tall, respectively, and glow luminous at night — are meant to symbolize the lives lost and lessons learned during the pandemic. Inscribed on the middle pillar are the names of two Covenant employees who died from COVID-19: Carrie Hennig, a respiratory therapist; and Kevin Jarzabkowski, a supply chain management staff member.

“These pillars stand for hope; the hope we have for the future,” Charlton told the crowd. “They stand for the healing that our teams provided, and the healing that the world has left to do. They also stand to honor those who passed during the pandemic.”

While reflecting on the tragedy, Charlton expressed an optimism she said was inspired by the local response to the global health crisis.

“We learned about our community and how much it cares,” she said. “They stepped up and helped us with donations; hosting vaccine clinics; having food brought here; people made masks. Thoughts and prayers were always offered to us.”

Dr. Matthew Deibel, the medical director at Covenant’s emergency care center, told the gathering’s attendees about the challenges the hospital has faced, including a period in late 2020 when the campus admitted more COVID-19 patients than any medical facility in the state.

“It was a very, very difficult time, but together, we made it through,” Deibel said. “Despite our best efforts, some patients lost their lives. But others — almost 90% — survived thanks to the heroic efforts of the extraordinary team here at Covenant.”

Janet Myers, a Covenant chaplain, offered a 7-minute prayer during the ceremony.

“There is no storm we cannot get through with each other, and our faith,” she said.

Michigan’s coronavirus environment has held fairly consistent throughout the summer and early fall, with weekly reporting seeing ebbs and flows. Michigan identified another 14,678 new COVID-19 cases and 160 new deaths last week, according to the state’s weekly coronavirus update.

Among the most promising signs of late: Fewer COVID patients are winding up in critical care than anytime in the pandemic in Michigan, health officials report.

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