THANK YOU — Wintersville resident John Gale, a respiratory therapist supervisor at UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital, was honored Christmas Eve on ABC’s “Good Morning America” as part of its Honor a Health Care Hero segment. (Contributed photo)

WINTERSVILLE — As a registered respiratory therapist on the front lines treating COVID-19 patients daily, John Gale holds out hope for a healthier 2021 with a vaccine to the rescue.

But what a year it’s been, assesses the Wintersville resident who works at UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital in Pittsburgh and on Christmas Eve was featured on “Good Morning America” as part of its Honor a Health Care Hero segment.

Recommended for the acknowledgment by his supervisor, Bill Vehovic, director of respiratory care and director of emergency management, Gale was applauded on the broadcast and had his photo featured on the electronic board in Times Square outside of the ABC studio in New York City.

Gale didn’t see his 15 seconds of fame live, however, given he was working what’s been a typical 70-hour week during the pandemic in his role as a respiratory supervisor. But thanks to it being recorded by his in-laws, Vince and Maureen Trivoli of Wintersville, he watched it later.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Gale said Magee has “a very good rapport” with GMA, and the show was looking for someone specifically from there to highlight.

“Our CEO of the hospital said he wanted it to be somebody from respiratory, so my boss asked if I’d be willing to be the one,” he said, noting that he does the scheduling, the upside of which is being able to get days off as needed, “but when you don’t have any people to put on it (the schedule), you throw yourself in, so I’ve been working pretty close to 70 hours a week.”

He added, “And I take the ICU every day because that’s what I like to do first of all and not everybody does. It’s very busy in there and not everyone wants to do that so it works out for our staff and I would rather take care of the sickest patients. That’s just what I like to do.

“So I think that’s why he asked if I’d be interested in doing it and that’s how it ended up being me — it came from the top. They wanted respiratory since they felt like we were at the actual front lines,” he said.

Gale was flattered, proud for a couple of reasons, including that his particular profession “has come to the spotlight” because of COVID-19.

“Respiratory has always been an important part of the hospital system, it’s just that when you think of hospitals, people think of nurses and doctors, not necessarily respiratory therapists, so I think this has kind of brought us to the forefront, which is nice,” Gale said.

“I’m a mill worker who went back and learned a new profession, which I wished I would have done 20 years prior had I known. I like what I do now much better than what I did then. I like the interaction with the people,” he said.

“Unfortunately at this time, there’s a whole lot more sadness than happiness at our work. It’s just we’re not getting very many wins. I feel like the way this is going on I keep telling everybody it’s all these patients are like the same. It’s like a movie I keep seeing over and over, the way they progress and how they get sick,” he said.

“You can see it coming from a mile away at this point, and you sit and you talk with these people because the problem with it is that they’re sick, like you’re needing tons of oxygen, but they feel OK and they’re able to talk to you and they know they’re sick but they don’t feel that bad, and a lot of them will be like I just want to go home and I say yeah, but you’re on just about every bit of oxygen I can give you, and they just progress. In the early-on stage, you’re talking with them, you find out about their family, and then two weeks later, they’re gone,” he said.

A 1983 graduate of Wintersville High School, Gale is the son of the late Jack and Ethel Hall. After high school he worked various construction jobs, including with 84 Lumber and Ryan Homes. He got hired at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. in 1990, working there 20 years before losing his job when the mill shut down.

His response was to pursue a different career path at Eastern Gateway Community College, where initially he was interested in its radiology program. There were no openings, though, so he applied to study the respiratory program, graduating magna cum laude in 2012. After completing the basic program, he completed the requirements to become a registered respiratory therapist and attained credentials as an adult critical care specialist, grateful for the education and training EGCC afforded.

Gale has worked in various area hospitals, including East Ohio Regional, East Liverpool City Hospital, Lifeline, Trinity Medical Center West, UPMC Mercy and has been at UPMC Magee Hospital since 2017.

Gale and his wife, Mary Susan Trivoli Gale, a registered nurse who works for a surgical group at Weirton Medical Center, have two children, Chris Gale and Julie Gale. Their son also is in the medical profession, working as a radiology technician at Jefferson Hospital/Allegheny Health Network.

Working during the pandemic has been challenging, Gale agreed when asked how he was dealing with the implications emotionally and professionally.

“It’s kind of tough. They have resources at work for us, if we need to talk to people we can get some time, and they have rooms set aside just to go and be by yourself or with somebody else and hang out. They’re trying to do all that stuff,” he said.

“I’ve only been in respiratory for about eight and a half years, but I haven’t seen anything like this, the amount of death we’re seeing is overwhelming,” Gale said.

“UPMC puts out a fairly low death rate on this because there are a lot of people who come and have COVID and go home and are not ever hospitalized, but I would say right now for us at my particular hospital, if you are over 60 and in the ICU on a lot of oxygen the death rate is probably 80 percent.

“We’re losing most of them,” he said.

“We’ve lost some younger than 60, but it feels like we haven’t saved too many people who are over 60, so it’s been kind of this every day you go to work and somebody is dying,” Gale said.

“The last month it’s been pretty sad stories and not a lot of victories, so when we get one we’re pretty excited, and we’ve had a few, but they seem far apart,” he said.

Gale recently received the COVID-19 vaccine and feels hopeful about 2021 because of it.

“I am, and I think most of my colleagues are feeling hopeful. Respiratory in my hospital has already been vaccinated. We got the first round. We were high on the list to get it along with ICU workers and nurses and doctors,” Gale said. “I feel hopeful that, yes, this could be an end in sight. I just think we’re a ways away. This is going to run into for sure the middle of next year. I don’t see it ending quickly because it’s going to take a while to get everybody vaccinated,” he added.

“We are optimistic, but I haven’t seen anything slowing down now,” he said, noting, “We actually opened up a whole other floor of just COVID patients and pretty much our whole ICU is COVID patients. It can be a little disheartening. Some days are worse than others. You can have more than few deaths in a day which is not something we are used to,” he added.

Gale is on an unexpected “vacation.”

“I am off today because I am now quarantined for 14 days. My daughter tested positive yesterday,” Gale said Tuesday, noting his absence poses a scheduling challenge “because I’m the one filling all the holes and I’m not sure who’s going to do it for the next 14 days.

“I have a laptop and I do the schedule and I am kind of looking at it from home and sending out messages to people trying to get them to pick up some shifts,” he said. “They pay a decent bonus for overtime, which is helpful, but still people get burned out and when you go to work every day and you’re lucky you get 20 minutes to eat, it’s hard to get people to take those shifts.”

New Year’s Eve brings a time of reflection for Gale.

“This started out very slowly for us. We took it serious, but it didn’t hit that close to home. Everybody I talked to didn’t know anybody who has it. To the end of 2020, I feel like everybody I talk to knows somebody who has it or had it so I feel like it’s the year where we sat in the house a lot and have been more creative,” Gale said.

Evidence of the latter came in how family celebrated Christmas.

“We actually did Christmas the Wednesday before Christmas. We all have our own little fire burning pits that are portable,” he said, noting extended family gathered in a driveway and socially distanced for a holiday visit.

” I think even though it’s not been a year where we’ve been able to visit a lot, we’ve been creative in doing this and it’s brought a lot of families closer together,” he said.

Gale hopes people feel comfortable getting the vaccine.

“I think it’s our way to get back to normalcy and, hopefully, there is an end in sight,” he said when asked what he hoped this story might get across to readers.

“The other thing is I see a lot of, it’s unfortunate everything’s number based, but you know there’s a lot out there on numbers like this many people died and this many people survived, and I think doing what I do, those numbers have a name beside them. They’re people, and we get to know them, and it’s somebody’s family,” Gale said.

“We can talk numbers, but they’re actual people with stories and families — try to get not to caught up in the numbers. There’s a lot of sad stories out there for these holidays,” he said.

Feedback from his “Good Morning America” spotlight brought congratulatory remarks from family, friends, former classmates and co-workers

It also spurred its share of conversations from people curious to know what it’s really like on the front lines

People are appreciative of health care workers, he said.

Even before the GMA spot, Gale said thank-you signs were put in his yard in appreciation of his working on the front lines. Someone left the gift of a foot massager on his porch.

“That was a few weeks before Christmas and very thoughtful,” he said.

“I think people are thankful not just for myself but for what everybody is doing. It’s just been a little bit of a tough year that way.”

(Kiaski can be contacted at jkiaski@heraldstaronline.com.)