Annual Pub 2022 - Flipbook - Page 7
The doctor became the sickest in her family. Though seeing patients was obviously not possible, she kept checking on her loved ones at home. She was out of work for a month.
“My symptoms developed after the Christmas holiday. I remember that I felt extremely tired, and every muscle of
my body ached. I had di昀케culty concentrating with brain fog and really felt tired by the end of the day. I had no taste
and no appetite. I had a severe sore throat that lasted two weeks. I developed a fever, which kicked in like clockwork
at 10 p.m., with my heart beating fast. I developed severe back pains and at one point, I thought I was having a
heart attack. I also had developed diarrhea but no vomiting. I slept long hours and could not even do paperwork at
home. I was monitoring my oxygen saturation, which was low normal. I thought I had pneumonia; however, I was
able to get a chest 昀椀lm, which thankfully was normal. In all my 37 years as a physician, I never was so sick. I had
in昀氀uenza before which would last a week and be able to bounce back to go to work. People make comments that
this is like the 昀氀u, but truthfully, it is not. It took at least six months to recover my sense of smell and taste. I did not
return to work until after my cough stopped, which was after four weeks.”
In the wake of her battle with COVID, Dr. Montalvo Stanton was spurred to do something positive, just as she did
40 years ago after seeing the child hit by a car. She became, and remains, a tireless advocate for people to get
vaccinated. Bilingual, she has raised the public consciousness of the COVID crisis by reaching out to TV, radio and
newspaper outlets in both English and Spanish. She has been actively involved in COVID immunizations for children 5-11 years of age, and is a member of the UNLV COVID Task Force. In addition, she developed a newsletter
sent to area physicians that gave them information on how to best help adolescents with emotional problems
caused by COVID.
GENESIS LEON | PHOTO: CAMERON HARRIS
“We have tools now we can use to combat COVID and I want to make sure they’re used,” Dr. Montalvo Stanton says.
“We don’t have to feel helpless today.”
Student Concentration Tested by COVID
by Paul Harasim
Focused, tuned in, dialed in, plugged in -- however you describe heightened concentration, one thing is clear: without it as a student at the Kirk Kerkorian School
of Medicine, comprehending all the material faculty hold medical students
responsible for becomes practically impossible.
Genesis Leon, now in her second year of medical school, found out that when
your parents, with whom you live, are hit with COVID-19, concentration becomes
even more di昀케cult. Worrying over the possible death of loved ones, she says,
grabs your attention.
Crippling lethargy, coughing and shortness of breath 昀椀rst brought her father
down. Mom followed. “I’ve never seen my dad so sick,” Leon says of her father.
“He had extreme fatigue. Just stayed in bed. But there he was...Mom, too…I
couldn’t see them but I could talk through the door.”
The daughter of Mexican immigrants would go from studying the neurology
block of the medical school curriculum to making food and leaving it outside her
parents’ bedroom. Her virtual studies in 2020 would allow her to study at home
so she could still take care of mom and dad.
After a month, Leon says her parents began to feel much better. She believes her
newfound ability to compartmentalize -- keep her worry at bay so she could study
-- helped her deal with the emotional stress the virus brought to her family home.
Today, her parents aren’t quite as energetic as they were prior to being hit by the
virus.
“But everything is getting better,” she says.
UNLV.EDU/MEDICINE
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