HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — A senior care facility in Hot Springs is crediting preparations, caution, and some lucky timing for coming through a dangerous outbreak of COVID-19 within days of residents getting their first doses of the vaccines.
"You immediately are frightened," said Nina Alter, the administrator at Garrett Woods Senior Living Community.
The long term care facility was among the places to receive a first dose of the vaccine around the turn of the new year. Nursing homes were in Phase 1A because of how deadly the virus is to their older, sicker residents. At a recent peak, 42 percent of all COVID deaths in Arkansas were connected to a home.
The number has tracked down in recent weeks, sitting at 37 percent on Monday.
Garrett Woods took all the precautions including restricting visitations, contracting providers to come to them rather than sending patients out to health care appointments, and asking employees to sacrifice trips, weddings and funerals to avoid contracting the virus and bringing it to work.
Alter was cautiously optimistic as the first doses arrived, but within days, 20 residents and staff turned up positive.
"You fall back on the training that you did from day one, and just start following those procedures," she said.
For patients like Corinne Gooch, it meant another stretch isolated from family and friends and concern from her son.
"I was scared, obviously for the consequences," said Don Gooch, "When your mom is 85 years old, and although she's in great shape, you're scared."
Gooch said his mother never had any reluctance to get her shot, having lived through a time when polio took lives before vaccines arrived. She, and the others who tested positive relied on the science to face the next two weeks instead of lamenting the horrible timing.
"It was totally coincidental. The shots, if anything, helped us get through it," said Alter. "I feel that the shot, getting that first vaccine helped us immensely."
Vaccine experts confirm there's no way the shots caused the outbreak. It's less clear how much they may have helped everyone fight it off, but the results were clear: almost none even became ill enough to be called "sick" and everyone survived.
And now with second doses delivered, people have gone from scared to ready to restart normal lives again.
"If normal means my mom can come over to my house and I can cook her a big steak," Don Gooch said. "I'm hopeful that that can happen sometime within the month here."
These people believe the shots are helping families go from months of restrictions to counting days until they can safely have a Sunday dinner together.