April 26, 2020 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
Month xx–xx, 2019
LOCAL
CLASSIFIEDS
PAGE 7
Group homes
desperate
for help amid
COVID-19
BY BEN VERDE
Due to an oversight from the
state government, group homes
for the developmentally disabled
are now forced to fend for themselves
as they try to buy muchneeded
protective medical equipment
— which are in short supply
and rising in cost amid the novel
coronavirus, according to disability
advocates.
Facilities that care for the developmentally
disabled are not
listed as priority recipients of
personal protective equipment
under state guidelines, which
only prioritize hospitals, EMS operators,
nursing homes, and dialysis
centers — which leaves these
homes scrambling to fi nd medical
supplies, such as face masks
and rubber gloves.
The lack of regulatory help
from the state has forced fi nancially
well-off group homes to
compete on the open market for
supplies, while less cash-fl ush facilities
have been forced to rely
on donations and handmade replacements
— rather than allocating
resources based on need,
‘EVERYONE
LOVED HIM’
Coney Island Hospital mourns
employee dead from COVID-19
Do-gooders install outdoor fridge with free food in Bed-Stuy
BY ROSE ADAMS
A local community group
erected a fully-stocked outdoor refrigerator
on Van Buren Street in
Bedford-Stuyvesant, where hungry
passersby can pick up food free
of charge.
“It’s got a variety of fresh produce,
things you’d fi nd in a grocery
store,” said John Stephanian, who
volunteers with Community Solidarity,
an organization that hosts
free food markets. “Usually we
stock it four or fi ve times a day.”
The fridge, located at 133 Van
Buren St. between Marcus Garvey
and Throop avenues, was purchased
by one of the organization’s
volunteers who was searching for
a place to store the food.
“We were looking for a fridge to
store donations during the week,
and I found the fridge on Craigslist
in the free section, and it didn’t fi t
in my house,” said Thadeaus Umpster,
who’s tasked with maintaining
the food stock.
Volunteers at Community Solidarity,
which runs a free food market
at Von King Park once a week,
decided to install the free food storage
in the front yard of a volunteer’s
house in February.
Since its installation, the fridge
has been a hit among locals, particularly
as the COVID-19 outbreak
has increased food insecurity and
has made some Brooklynites fearful
of crowded grocery stores.
,“The demand has about tripled
of what we normally do. At our
Bed-Stuy distribution, our line
was a couple of blocks,” Stephanian
said
Continued on page 4
BY ROSE ADAMS
Alex Bass, a physician assistant
who worked at Coney Island
Hospital for 22 years, died
on April 10 from coronavirusrelated
complications. He was
52.
A beloved family man and
respected healthcare worker,
Bass moved from his home in
Ukraine to Brooklyn in 1993.
He attended Hunter College as
an undergraduate and received
his medical training from
Touro College before working
in the urology department at
Coney Island Hospital, where
his sense of humor and generosity
won over coworkers and
patients.
“If you ever called Coney
Island Hospital and asked for
Alex Bass, everyone knew who
he was,” said Bass’ close friend,
Lenny Gets. “He was a 100-percent
positive person.“
Bass, who lived in Staten Island
with his wife and two children,
first began to feel ill in
late March. Once his fever rose,
Bass visited a doctor in Staten
Island, a close friend of his,
who rushed him to a nearby
hospital.
Bass’ condition initially
worsened and he was placed
on a ventilator, Gets said. But
after two weeks, his symptoms
appeared to improve.
“He didn’t have a fever for
three or four days,” Gets said.
“Then it was rapid decline.”
Bass died shortly after. He
didn’t have any pre-existing
conditions, his friends said.
Bass is one of more than 9,000
healthcare workers around the
country who has been diagnosed
with COVID-19, and one
Continued on page 4
Alex Bass, a physician assistant at Coney Island Hospital, died of COVID-19.
Photo by Alex Beylinson
The outdoor fridge offers free food to
hungry Brooklynites. Thadeaus Umpster
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