Samantha Cercena in January, 2021.Photo: courtesy Samantha Cercena
In October 2020, 22-year-old Samantha Cercena was looking forward to finishing her senior year at Ohio University and graduating in the spring with a nursing degree, her childhood dream. But during her hands-on clinical training at a hospital pediatrics department, she tested positive for COVID-19.
Cercena, of Columbus, Ohio, became ill with respiratory symptoms and body aches. “And then about a week and a half in, all of a sudden, I just was not able to keep anything down at all,” she recalls. “And it has never changed. That’s been my symptoms for the last year and a half.”
Cercena was diagnosed withgastroparesis, a relativelyuncommon disorderthat slows or stops the movement of food from the stomach to the small intestine.
Samantha Cercena in the ICU, Jan. 1, 2022 for treatment of septic shock.courtesy Samantha Cercena
The ordeal left her unable to return to school “like I had originally planned,” says Cercena, who learned she’d been accepted into a selective emergency room immersion training program at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital. She had to drop out before she even started.
“At the time it was devastating,” she says, “because I was so excited, that’s what I had really hoped for and where I wanted to be placed.”
Still, Cercena held onto her dream of becoming an ER nurse. “I have kind of always loved emergency,” she says. “And just through my own experience in the last couple years, it has really solidified that’s where I want to be.”
Samantha Cercena.courtesy Samantha Cercena
“Everything that Samantha’s been through, at such a young age, she is going to be an amazing nurse. If I can have a piece in helping Samantha achieve that dream,” Tejada says, “then I want to do that.”
Louis Tejada.Courtesy Louis Tejada
The offer gave Cercena a much-needed boost. “To have Louis reach out to me and say we’re here whenever you’re ready, I was very excited,” she says. “I’m still very excited.”
“My goal has always been to be able to go back and finish and help others in the way that the staff at Riverside [an OhioHealth hospital in Columbus] and Cleveland Clinic have helped me,” she says. “That’s been my biggest goal.”
At the end of May, Cercena will be undergoing an operation to fully remove her colon, with doctors attaching her small intestines to her rectum. “And hopefully,” Cercena says, “that will solve my issues.”
Samantha Cercena in December, 2021 with younger sister Alex, and a neighbor’s children.courtesy Samantha Cerceda
Yet her struggles with postviral gastroparesis will continue. “In most patients it goes away within the first year,” she says. “But since mine has full GI system involvement, it is going to be a chronic lifelong issue.”
Cercena hopes to return to nursing school in the spring of 2023 and finish her training soon after, she says, “barring any other emergency situations.”
In the meantime, Cercena lives in the Columbus home where she grew up, spending time caring for her family’s three dogs. Unable to walk long distances, Cercena uses a wheelchair on frequent walks with her mother around the neighborhood. “She’s a saint for pushing that thing,” says Cercena. “It’s not light.”
Samantha Cercena, left.courtesy Samantha Cercena
And every night around 10 p.m., Cercena sets up the TPN to deliver nutrition for the next 12 hours through an IV while she sleeps.
OhioHealth made People’s annual 100 Companies That Care list in 2021. To nominate a business demonstrating outstanding respect for its employees, community and the environment, visitGreat Place to Work.
source: people.com
