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"Felt like I was making history" | Methodist Germantown medical workers among first to get COVID-19 vaccine in Shelby County

Doctors and nurses celebrated the significant milestone and reflected on the difficult months of COVID-19 patient care.

GERMANTOWN, Tennessee — "It's surreal. It's surreal," Methodist Germantown nurse Lynde Sain said.

Methodist Germantown frontline medical workers held back their emotions Thursday morning as they received some of the first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses in Shelby County. 

"It's been a long nine months. It's been exhausting. It's been very challenging, but getting that is the hope," Sain said.

For Sain and others, COVID-19 care continues to be a difficult balancing act.

"There's various tangents on the toll it takes professionally, obviously, but then you have to think about our kids at home," Sain said

That's why the COVID vaccinations are so significant; protecting those who protect patients.

"It doesn't replace the need for masks and social distancing, at least not as of yet, but certainly a step in the right direction," Methodist Germantown ER Medical Director Dr. Ben Bowman said.

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare is expected to vaccinate around 4,000 of its frontline workers by the end of the weekend, an important system-wide shot in the arm.

"The more we can control it, the closer we can return to some sense of normalcy," Dr. Bowman said.

For the healthcare heroes, the vaccine doses also represented a needed light after plenty of dark days on duty.

"We've had so many lows, seeing families pass away, seeing some of of our coworkers pass away, you know in the healthcare community pass away from this virus, so today just brings a certain cheer to the day that we've needed for a long time," Methodist Germantown Administrative Director of Nursing Ptosha Jackson said.

The historic moment Thursday morning at Methodist Germantown didn't come without a little local historic timing. The first vaccine was administered at 9:01 a.m.

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