Dr. Amber Stein (Photo courtesy HCA Healthcare)
A Humanitarian at Home and Abroad
A local anesthesiologist is recognized for her international medical work
On any given day, you can find Dr. Amber Stein keeping patients calm and breathing while undergoing surgeries at HCA’s Chippenham Hospital. Though there are other, more visible specialties in medicine, as a pediatric anesthesiologist, Stein does what she’s always done for over 25 years: caring for patients when they are most vulnerable.
Stein on a medical trip in Dangriga, Belize, helping Eli (Photo courtesy Amber Stein)
Though she also works with adults, Stein specializes in pediatric anesthesiology. Her time spent in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit during her residency at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center fueled her interest in the field.
“It was very challenging to learn how to care for the smallest and sickest babies,” Stein says. “Nothing was rote because the babies were so small and complicated. Babies are so much more delicate and sensitive.”
Earlier this year, her drive and compassion resulted in a $10,000 award as a runner-up for HCA Virginia Health System’s Humanitarian of the Year. The health care company recognized her as a leader in pediatric anesthesia here in Richmond and abroad with the Richmond-based nonprofit World Pediatric Project, to which she donated the award money. Those funds will be used for a trip to Belize in January, where Stein will be the anesthesiologist for a plastic surgery mission.
Helping Marlon in Belize (Photo courtesy Amber Stein)
For more than 15 years, Stein has volunteered her time and her expertise to the World Pediatric Project to change the lives of children around the world. “Dr. Stein’s presence has been a major contribution of pediatric services otherwise not available,” says Milagro Garel, senior managing director at the World Pediatric Project in Belize. Garel cites Stein as the reason that teams abroad have been able to help a patient breathe in numerous difficult operations.
“We are providing life-enhancing or lifesaving care to children that likely wouldn’t have another chance to receive it,” Stein says.
The medical mission trips regularly take her to Belize, where she works with a surgical team to perform cleft lip and palate repairs as well as surgeries to correct other facial and airway deformities. She has also been on missions to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and to Honduras involving orthopedic surgeries and other specialties.
In many instances, she gets to work with the same patients year after year due to their need for continued care, which allows her to foster lifelong relationships with patients and their families.
Stein (far right) with Alexander, 2 years old, in Belize (Photo courtesy Amber Stein)
The surgeries performed on these missions are often the difference between life and death for a patient, involving a series of interventions to correct congenital anomalies that prevent them from thriving. “For me, it takes you out of your regular atmosphere,” Stein says. “It is a very pure way to do whatever you can to help people. You get to really focus on the medicine and the care and the families.”
Her greatest takeaways from performing medical work abroad shape her actions at home, Stein says. “There is so much we take for granted here that we have: supplies, medications, equipment.” Learning to adapt in situations where resources are so limited has made her more creative in the operating room here when faced with shortages of common supplies and medications or unexpected complications. “It makes me a better humanitarian at home.”
After her recognition from the HCA health system, Dr. Stein continues to share her passion for helping others by encouraging others to help as well. “It is an opportunity to go out and help heal the world in the face of so many problems,” she says. “It is so gratifying.” —Cynthia Layne
Cora O’Dell-Rodgers, age 8, participates in the VCU School of Nursing study on long COVID-19. (Photo courtesy VCU Enterprise Marketing and Communications)
Looking for Answers
VCU School of Nursing participates in a national study of long COVID-19 in young patients
Finding a diagnosis for a lurking medical condition such as long COVID-19 usually begins with assessing symptoms. For adults, long COVID may result in persistent, post-infection conditions including fatigue, dizziness and brain fog.
But what about kids?
“So many children and young adults have had a COVID-19 infection but don’t know if the symptoms they have are lingering COVID,” says Dr. Patricia Kinser, assistant dean for research at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Nursing. “There are a lot of [children and young adults] who are having symptoms and are feeling unheard.”
Kinser and her VCU colleague Dr. Amy Salisbury are co-principal investigators in the National Institutes of Health’s Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (aka RECOVER) initiative that is tracking the effects of COVID in youth up to the age of 25. Participants give blood and saliva samples and commit to follow-up appointments so researchers can track their progress.
RECOVER is an observational cohort study in which a large group of people are monitored over years to investigate health issues. More than 24,000 participants are enrolled nationally via seven health organizations, including VCU’s School of Nursing. Kinser will follow participants through 2025, though she hopes to extend follow-ups beyond then. Funding comes from the NIH, which was allocated more than $1 billion by Congress in December 2020 to study COVID and its effects.
Long COVID can present differently in adults than in a child, Kinser says. It’s common for long COVID sufferers to feel tired or unwell after physical activity; adults might easily identify that symptom, while children might just play less. In adolescents and young adults, long COVID might present as anxiety or depression.
At VCU, participants are encouraged to add their handprints to a painting of a tree on a wall of the floor where visits are held. “We want everyone to understand that they have a hand in science; they are contributing to the tree of knowledge,” Kinser says. “They know we’re in their corner.”
This research has broad applications well beyond COVID-19, Kinser says.
“Other viruses, such as Epstein-Barr, have similar long effects,” she says. “The more we can learn from this pandemic, the better.” —Paula Peters Chambers
Calling ‘Citizen Scientists’
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in late 2022 that more than 90% of children aged 6 months to 17 years old had experienced at least one COVID-19 infection. Long COVID is estimated to occur in about 25% of those who experience a COVID infection; rates appear to be higher for those who are hospitalized due to COVID.
VCU’s School of Nursing continues to enroll participants for NIH’s RECOVER study, particularly Black and Hispanic participants, because those populations have higher rates of COVID hospitalizations.
“Historically, marginalized populations have an understandable distrust of research,” says Kinser, a co-principal investigator on the study. “We really want to reach out to families who typically might not be involved.”
The research team has added staff members who speak Spanish, provides parents of minors with data collected during check-ups and sends out a regular newsletter.
“A lot of people just don’t want to hear about COVID anymore, but as a population, we’re not over it,” Kinser adds. “For people who are having lingering symptoms, we need to understand this more in depth.”
Visit rampages.us/virginiakids4covidproject to learn more. —PPC
