NANTUCKET — On any given weekday, after the lunch rush, you could find Deb and Jaime Connelly in the Nantucket Cottage Hospital cafeteria. The mother-daughter duo, who have worked together at the hospital since 2012, would go to the lunchroom later so they ccould have the place to themselves.

That was before the pandemic.

Now, Deb and Jaime work from home, separate yet still inseparable.

“We usually call each other at lunch and talk while we are eating at home,” said Jaime, a senior patient financial counselor, who joined her mother at the hospital after years of owning a cleaning business.

“I miss her when I don’t get to see her at lunch, for sure,” said Deb, a financial clearance specialist. “It’s something I’ll never forget my whole life, because who gets to work with their kid all the time?”

The Connellys are one of five mother-daughter pairs who work to keep Nantucket Cottage Hospital going through the coronavirus pandemic. Read the full story in The Cape Cod Times by clicking here. 

As we approach Mother’s Day this Sunday, we want to extend our sincere appreciation to all the moms out there, and also take this opportunity to highlight the mothers and daughters who work together as colleagues here at Nantucket Cottage Hospital.

We are lucky to have 5 such pairs of mothers and daughters working at NCH. Our workforce spans generations and while these women work in different departments and areas across the hospital, you can sometimes spot them sharing a moment or a knowing glance (and sometimes even lunch!) with the special bond between a mother and daughter.

The mother/daughter colleagues at NCH include:

• Betsey Minihan and Kathleen Minihan
• Brenda Johnson and Betsey Brooks
• Teal Beal and Hillary Polvere Reynolds
• Deb Connelly and Jaime Connelly
• Yvonne King and Diane King

Below, they shared some of their experiences working together as colleagues at NCH, starting with the moms:

As the country continues to adhere to firm physical distancing measures and work-from-home protocols, the topic of antibody testing has emerged as a promising solution to identify individuals who have been exposed to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), determine if there is immunity post-infection and set expectations moving forward.

John Iafrate, MD, PhD, vice chair of Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, and Edward Ryan, MD, director of Global Infectious Diseases at Mass General, break down the basics about antibodies, serology testing and the potential implications of a positive antibody presence in the case of COVID-19.

What is an antibody?

Antibodies are proteins in the blood produced in response to an infection. They remain as protection in case the pathogen, an organism that causes disease, invades the body again. They are detectable in the blood approximately five to seven days after symptoms begin to occur, are rapidly produced by the B cells of the immune system when a new pathogen enters the body and are critical to the body’s ability to fight off the infectious agent.

By establishing the presence of anti-COVID-19 antibodies, health care professionals can determine whether someone has been exposed to the virus and mounted an immune response. The presence of COVID-19 antibodies can help the physician make a definitive diagnosis of COVID-19, especially when the nasal pharyngeal (nose or throat) swab tests are negative. Moreover, knowledge of exposure via antibody testing can be useful in understanding those individuals who knew they were sick but did not know they were COVID-19 positive.