When Jordan Thompson’s infant daughter was diagnosed with COVID-19, it was helpful that Jordan knew the different aspects of the virus through her role as a nurse practitioner in the Columbus Regional Health Lung Institute.

“Knowing more about the virus, including length of contagiousness, incubation periods, and symptoms to watch for were very helpful in deciding how to keep ourselves safe as well as anyone we could come in contact with,” she said.

Jordan, who has worked at CRH since 2016, specializes in general pulmonology and interventional pulmonology.

She cares for patients who have chronic lung disease, including COPD, emphysema, and asthma, as well as pulmonary nodules and lung cancer.

Jordan enjoys getting to experience both inpatient and outpatient care and the feeling of community in her work.

“I feel that everyone works as a team and is very personable. I work closely with many of the other specialties and feel that we coordinate care regularly to provide the best for our patients,” she shared.

Since the spread of COVID-19, she has transitioned a lot of her work to telehealth visits.

Some of the patients she sees need regular follow-up and care, but because of their high-risk condition, they need to stay at home to avoid being exposed to COVID-19.

“Telehealth has allowed me to still see these patients and provide their care from the safety of their home,” she said.

Like Jordan, her husband is also considered an essential employee with his job, so when COVID-19 hit the community, and they lost their childcare option, they were faced with having to figure out how to watch their two young children and still work.

Once Jordan began seeing more patients with COVID-19 in the hospital, it was decided that her husband would take a leave from work to be at home, and his company was accommodating with that request.

“It was our best option to keep our children isolated and safe given my high exposure at work,” she said.

Unfortunately, her daughter, who was nine months old at the time, was diagnosed with COVID-19.

Thankfully, her symptoms were mild, with the main symptom being a high fever that lasted several days.

Due to her young age, she was not able to express what she was feeling, but Jordan said they could tell she didn’t feel well, and her appetite was poor and she tired easily.

After a week of symptoms, her daughter fully recovered.

No one else in Jordan’s family developed symptoms while they were in quarantine for 14 days.

She said it was challenging for her five-year-old son to understand that he couldn’t cuddle with his baby sister and to help him learn to frequently wash his hands.

“It was a very scary period not knowing if the virus would spread throughout our home to each other, especially keeping our five-year-old safe as well,” she said.

When a parent contracts COVID-19, the parent can isolate away from the family, but in this instance, because her infant daughter was the one who contracted it, Jordan needed to care for her, despite her own risk of contracting the virus.

Jordan was grateful for the care her daughter received at CRH.

“Throughout her illness, CRH was phenomenal!” she said.

Jordan accessed the COVID-19 Triage Resource line, and her daughter was also seen at one of our Respiratory Clinics.

“Every single person we worked with was kind and helpful. I could not be more impressed,” she added.

During her daughter’s illness, Jordan said that the nurses from the Triage Resource line reached out to her family multiple times, providing reassurance.

“From a provider standpoint, it gave me so much reassurance in regards to how our hospital system is supporting our community through this pandemic.

Our community is in wonderful hands with this team,” she said.