• Healthy State
  • Careers
  • Education
  • Research
  • Giving
Ochsner Health Ochsner Health
  • About
  • Find A Doctor (current)
  • Find A Location
  • Specialties & Treatments
MyOchsner Logo
Login | Signup
Submit Search magnifying glass icon
Close Search X icon
  • icon of a house   Home
  • In To Your Health...
  • Food & Fitness
  • Conditions & Treatment
  • Health Trends
  • Prevention & Wellness
  • Women's Health
  • Men's Health
  • Mental Health
  • Parenting
  • I need to...
  • Find a Doctor
  • Find a Location
  • Find a Specialty
  • Schedule an Appointment
  • Pay a Bill
  • Explore
  • About Ochsner
  • Careers
  • Patients & Visitors
  • "To Your Health" Blog
  • Health Resources
  • Medical Professionals
  • Education
  • Philanthropy
  • Community Outreach
  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Research
  • Ochsner Health Network
  • Schedule an Appointment
  • Call: 1-866-624-7637
  • Online: Login to MyOchsner
  • Personalize your content
  • patient Edit Persona Persona Chooser
To Your Health

View Newsletter Editions
  • Food & Fitness
  • Conditions & Treatment
  • Health Trends
  • Prevention & Wellness
  • Women's Health
  • Men's Health
  • Mental Health
  • Parenting
Dr Jack 2

A Physician's Firsthand Experience Working the Frontlines During COVID-19

Nov 24, 2020 |
By Jack W. Heidenreich, MD
Share Facebook Logo Twitter Logo Pinterest Logo Email Logo

As we start to see another surge of COVID-19 cases around the country, we are reminded of where we started. In early March, we didn’t know what awaited us. One family medicine physician at Ochsner St. Anne in Raceland shares his story of diagnosing one of the first COVID-19 patients in Louisiana, catching the virus himself and seeing those close to him lose their battle to COVID.

Jack Heidenreich Jr., MD, is a family medicine physician at Ochsner St. Anne Hospital. Dr. Heidenreich works with five other internists and family physicians, and they each take turns treating hospitalized patients. When the COVID-19 virus made its way to Louisiana, Dr. Heidenreich unknowingly treated one of the first COVID-19-positive patients and shares his story:

“In early March, I was asked to see a patient in my ICU at Ochsner St. Anne with bilateral pneumonia, a serious infection that affects both of the lungs and can causes inflammation and scarring of the lungs. The patient was experiencing excessively rapid breathing, and we had him on BiPap, a non-invasive ventilation that is used to support breathing. I went in his room without a mask thinking he may need to be intubated. I felt his breath on my face. He was critical but stable and holding his own. I wrote some orders and went home.”

“I was watching the 10 o’clock news, and it featured a story on COVID in China. I saw a Chinese doctor hold up a chest X-ray, and it looked identical to that of my patient. ‘Oh no,’ I thought. We weren’t ready. One week ago, this patient was having a great time in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, and now he was struggling to breathe. I knew COVID was coming, and I was getting ready for it. But I was not expecting it so soon.”

“I immediately called the ICU and told them to mask up and quarantine the patient. The next morning, I called the Louisiana Department of Health. It took a while, but I was able to convince them to test my patient for COVID-19.”

“Three days later, the test came back positive. I was one of the first doctors to diagnose COVID-19 in Louisiana. My reward was a 14-day quarantine. Fortunately, the patient persevered and ultimately survived after two weeks in the hospital.”

“After my quarantine and experiencing no symptoms, they allowed me to return to work with a mask and a face shield. I was ready to return to work as long as I was safe. I followed strict CDC guidelines, but was nervous.”

“I am the vice president of medical affairs of Ochsner Bayou Region. I organized Thursday lunch meetings with my fellow physicians to discuss COVID and get specialists to call in and give us advice on patient care. Every week things were changing. The doctor that was the weekly hospitalist became the expert on COVID for that week. We would take notes and get back to work.”

“We did better than other facilities. Our numbers were small compared to New Orleans. The specialists with Ochsner were very helpful with guidance. Overall, we treated around 60 COVID patients and had around 10 deaths, including two young people, in the first three months of COVID. We lost a lot of elderly from our community and nursing homes to COVID. Compared to New Orleans, we didn’t have it so bad. I can’t imagine what those medical staffs went through.”

In addition to treating COVID-19 patients, this virus has also deeply affected Dr. Heidenreich and his family. In addition to himself, his wife and his children caught COVID, and his father-in-law and his wife’s godfather contracted COVID and died from it.

“The virus got into the nursing home facility where my father-in-law was a resident. He was a 94-year-old, Purple Heart WWII veteran. He died from the virus. They let my wife go to his bedside to say her goodbyes. All I can say is COVID is a lonely death. No one is allowed to see you and most people die alone.”

“My wife subsequently caught COVID on May 1, and I, along with our son and daughter, caught it from her. Fortunately, the four of us recovered but it wasn’t a cakewalk.”

“I had moderate symptoms including chills, muscle aches, chest pain and cough. Then I lost my sense of smell and taste. My pulmonologist and coworkers were very supportive of me and my family. They called us every day and had us on a regiment of various medications, and thankfully, we never had significant lung damage or low blood oxygen. The Ochsner nurse would check on me for about three days and finally told me I had mild symptoms. I thought if these are mild, thank God I don’t have severe symptoms.”

“Thankfully, she was right, and my symptoms progressively got better. On day 10, I was allowed to go back to work and after about a month I was finally feeling back to normal, as well as the rest of my family.”

“The leaders at Ochsner have done an amazing job helping us weather this storm. I can’t imagine what smaller health care systems went through. We had great PPE. We were able to turn our ICU into a COVID unit. I had excellent, experienced ICU nursing staff making the necessary changes as well as upper-level management keeping the supplies coming to St. Anne as well as nearby Chabert Medical Center in Houma.”

“As bad as the last several months have been, COVID-19 is the reason I became a physician.”

Learn more about Dr. Jack Heidenreich.

Tags
COVID-19
coronavirus
patient stories

You may also be interested in:

Radiology Stock Image
Conditions & Treatment
September 4, 2020

COVID-19 Caretaker Spotlight: Radiology

Radiology teams at Ochsner Health support every single COVID-19 patient with imaging practices.
By Kyle Custer
WC
Conditions & Treatment
September 24, 2020

COVID-19 Patient's Road to Recovery

Occupational therapist Lauren Siegel shares Ochsner patient Wanda Chatman's story of her road to recovery from COVID-19.
By Lauren Siegel, OT
Life after covid for medical professionals
Conditions & Treatment
September 4, 2020

Life After COVID-19 for Medical Providers

As healthcare providers serving on the front lines of the pandemic, many of us are wondering what life will be like when the country starts to reopen.
By Nigel Girgrah, MD, Ph.D

email envelop icon Comments about the blog? Send us an email!

Ochsner Health Ochsner Health
Schedule An Appointment: 1-866-624-7637
Follow us: Facebook Visit Ochsner Health on Facebook Twitter Follow Ochsner Health on Twitter LinkedIn Visit Ochsner Health's LinkedIn page Instagram Follow Ochsner Health on Instagram YouTube Subscribe to Ochsner Health on YouTube Pinterest Follow Ochsner Health on Pinterest TikTok Follow Ochsner Health on TikTok
Sign up for our free health and wellness newsletters delivered straight to your inbox.
SIGN UP

Patients & Visitors

  • Billing & Financial Services
  • Insurance Information
  • International Patients
  • Request Medical Records
  • Share Your Story
  • Read Patient Stories

Medical Professionals

  • Transfer a Patient
  • Refer a Patient

Health Resources

  • To Your Health Blog
  • Golden Opportunity
  • Healthy State
  • Ochsner Magazine

Job Seekers

  • Career Paths
  • Benefits
  • Open Positions

Employees

  • Webmail
  • OHSLink
  • Workday

Employers

  • Corporate Wellness
  • Medicare Advantage Plans

Community Outreach

  • Classes & Events
  • Programs
  • Community Health Needs Assessment
  • Dr. John Ochsner Discovery Health Sciences Academy

Education

  • Graduate Medical Education
  • Clinical Medical Education
  • Continuing Medical Education
  • Medical Library
  • Publishing Services
  • Medical Illustrations

Research

  • Clinical Trials
  • Applied Health Services Research
  • Clinical Research & Trials
  • Nursing Research
  • Translational Research

Giving

  • Donate
  • Volunteer

About Ochsner

  • Mission & Vision
  • History
  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Annual Report
  • Outcomes & Honors
  • News & Media
  • Alumni
  • Ochsner Health Network
  • Contact Us

Shop

  • O Bar
  • Optical Shop
  • Ochsner Fitness Center
  • Brent House Hotel

© Ochsner Health  | Notice of Privacy Practices | Terms of Use | Vendor Information

Ochsner accepts all major insurances.

Ochsner is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, founded on providing the best patient care, research, and education.

We are one of the country’s largest non-university based academic medical centers.

Ochsner is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.

Community Needs Health Assessment

EpicMobile Tablet | EpicMobile Phone

newsletter icon

Subscribe to Our Newsletters

newsletter icon

Select the newsletters you'd like to receive.

Please select at least one category to continue.

Curious about our newsletters?

View details for each edition
newsletter icon

Let us know where to send your newsletters.

To Your Health- Food and Fitness:
To Your Health- General:
To Your Health- Men’s Health:
To Your Health- Parenting:
To Your Health- Women’s Health:
To Your Health-Mental Health Monthly":
To Your Health- Skin Deep:

Source:
Source Description:
Marketing Goal:
newsletter icon

You're all set!

We’ll send newsletters full of healthy living tips right to your inbox.

Ochsner Health System
magnifying glass icon
ESC to Close

Begin Typing to Search

Select the drop-down to filter Search by Blog Articles or Sitewide