{"id":99788,"date":"2021-01-04T09:30:22","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T14:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=99788"},"modified":"2024-01-04T14:46:15","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T19:46:15","slug":"wright-state-alums-father-son-duo-helping-battle-covid-19-in-same-emergency-rooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2021\/01\/04\/wright-state-alums-father-son-duo-helping-battle-covid-19-in-same-emergency-rooms\/","title":{"rendered":"Dayton Daily News: Wright State alums, father-son duo helping battle COVID-19 in same emergency rooms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Drs. Rick (left) and Randy Marriott. Photo contributed<\/p><\/div>\n

Dr. Rick Marriott reads medical journals to his December-born daughter as he puts her to sleep.<\/p>\n

His father, Dr. Randy Marriott, did the same thing 31 years ago and now both are working on the same hospital emergency room floors helping save lives and responding to the needs of COVID-19 patients during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m extremely proud; there\u2019s no way I couldn\u2019t be,\u201d said Randy about working with his son.<\/p>\n

Randy is the chair of the Emergency Management Committee for Miami Valley Hospital and the medical director for the Premier Health Center of Excellence.<\/p>\n

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Both father and son are part of Miami Valley Emergency Specialists, which contracts to provide emergency room doctors to all Premier Health hospitals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Working together has its challenges, like constantly getting emails meant for each other, or patients or staff being confused over which Dr. Marriott they were talking to. But working together has also been a continuation of a close father-son bond over medicine.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cWe talk frequently during shifts,\u201d said Rick. \u201cWe know where each other is working, and we know the direct phone line to the physicians at those hospitals, so we will call each other and bounce things off each other. I don\u2019t think he asks me many questions; I usually end up calling him to ask most questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working together<\/b><\/p>\n

Rick is about 18 months out of residency, but his father is quick to point out that communication goes both ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call him on occasion as well,\u201d said Randy, \u201cbecause there are things that have changed in the last 25 years since I went through residency, particularly as it pertains to new technology. I\u2019ve found myself turning to Rick to ask, \u2018How do you apply this to this situation?\u2019 or \u2018How would you ultrasound this?\u2019 Because emergency medicine is an extremely broad specialty, so trying to keep up with innovations is always challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege a lot of people don\u2019t get,\u201d said Rick. \u201cGrowing up, I knew my dad at home and didn\u2019t always know him at work. It\u2019s a whole different side of things. I understand my dad better now, having done this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though working together in the hospital is still somewhat new for the father and son, spending time together in the hospital isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would take me into lectures that he gave, he would take me into fire departments to visit and sign off on his drug licenses, or he would take me to the hospital and he would finish up charts, and he would let me hang out in the doctors lounge and eat ice cream, and I loved it,\u201d said Rick.<\/p>\n

Following in his father\u2019s footsteps<\/b><\/p>\n

While Rick grew up around medicine, it wasn\u2019t a sure thing that he would choose to follow his father\u2019s path. Randy and his wife, Lynda, tried to be supportive but not persuasive. Both say it was important that Rick forge his own path.<\/p>\n

While attending Cedarville University, Rick followed in his father\u2019s footsteps and became an EMT in Cedarville.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hooked at that point. I had a great experience out there, learned a lot. I really enjoyed it,\u201d Rick said.<\/p>\n

Watching without interfering was hard for his father.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard along the way to become invested because he could have changed his mind at any number of junctures,\u201d said Randy. \u201cI tried not to be overly influential., I tried to make sure he made his own choice. It\u2019s a long road and you have to be motivated to do it yourself. Of course, secretly, every time he made a choice in that direction, I was like \u2018Yes, all right!\u2019 But it had to be his decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The father-son duo both also attended Wright State\u2019s Boonshoft School of Medicine. Randy was medical director there when Rick attended and lived in there home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was almost a little PTSD for me to watch him go through medical school, knowing that he was being beat up in the way that he was. Residency was about the same experience,\u201d said Randy.<\/p>\n

The years of medical school ended in an emotional graduation day. There is a tradition that students can have a family member who is a physician place the hood on them during the ceremony. Randy got to stand on the stage, placing the hood over his son. Lynda watched, thinking about her husband and her son.<\/p>\n

COVID-19 response<\/b><\/p>\n

For Lynda, having both a husband and son on the front lines of the COVID-19 response has been a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially at the beginning,\u201d she said, \u201cwhen there was so much unknown. Even now, there\u2019s a lot of angst, and of course Rick\u2019s wife Christine (who is a physician\u2019s assistant) was also in the thick of it in the beginning. Having three very close family members right in it, it was a lot of faith and prayer and a lot of support of family and friends to get through it. I\u2019m very proud of all of them and the work that they\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like families around the world, the Marriotts have limited their time together during this pandemic. They\u2019ve kept any family gatherings to less than six people, and Randy didn\u2019t see his 85-year-old mother over the holidays.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving two of us exposed to COVID patients in the same place wasn\u2019t a great idea, as it doubled everyone\u2019s risk,\u201d said Randy. \u201cAs far as our exposure, we take every precaution. We are wearing personal protective equipment and doing it according to guidelines, and maybe exceeding guidelines to make sure we don\u2019t get ill ourselves. Even with our best efforts, we have had several of our partners and associates become ill; none seriously, none hospitalized, but I think the number is probably approaching 20 or more out of the (emergency physicians) group who have been affected. So that is a significant number, probably approaching 25-30% of us who have had the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n

With emergency medicine a family business, the hardest part of the pandemic for the doctors has been seeing families devastated by what the virus has done.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely horrible,\u201d said Randy. \u201cIn some cases, particularly if the dying patient has been an extended care facility, not only can they not see them at that time, they haven\u2019t seen them for months because they have not been allowed, in some cases, into the facility. It is very demoralizing for families, and for us to see that. This person is dying, and they haven\u2019t seen their family for weeks or months.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the difficult part of COVID,\u201d said Rick. \u201cI think I\u2019ve treated someone or hospitalized someone who has been affected by COVID that probably reminds me of any given member of my family or myself, and it\u2019s been a tad bit scary, but it\u2019s like my dad said, part of the challenge that we accept every day in the ER is to face these things, but try to face them as objectively as possible while trying to provide the most empathy we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a tough balance,\u201d said Randy. \u201cIf you lose empathy, you\u2019ve lost your humanity. That\u2019s not the way you want to live. If you internalize, that is not healthy either. You really do need to keep a balanced perspective when it comes to what emotional burdens you choose to take on. I don\u2019t claim to have it mastered, but I have been able to weather enough years I think I will be ok at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Randy\u2019s experience is something Rick continues to lean on, and not just in the medical field. In mid-December, Rick\u2019s first child, Madeline, was born. He says the years of residency and emergency medicine, with the long shifts and interrupted sleep have helped prepare him for life with a baby. But he says it\u2019s his lifetime of learning from his father that has prepared him to be a dad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s surreal (having child). I\u2019ve been so close with my dad over my 31 years, and I look at my kid and I hope we can have that kind of connection,\u201d said Rick. \u201cI think about how dedicated my dad has been to myself, my siblings, my family throughout my life, how steadfast he has been. That is what I want for my kids, my family, and I hope that\u2019s how my daughter grows up, and that she can say the same thing about me when she is my age, no matter what she chooses to do in life or where she ends up. I hope she can say the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

View the original story at daytondailynews.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Working together has its challenges, like constantly getting emails meant for each other, or patients or staff being confused over which Dr. Marriott they were talking to. But working together has also been a continuation of a close father-son bond over medicine. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":99800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wright-state-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99788"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145281,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99788\/revisions\/145281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}