Karen Rich of Franklin Township, the first Butler Memorial Hospital patient to recover from ventilator treatment for COVID-19, receives the Pfizer by Butler Hospital RN, Stacey Heider Monday, Feb. 8, 2021.

There were hugs and tears Monday morning as an embattled lead nurse and the first Butler Health System COVID-19 patient to come off a ventilator, Karen Rich, reunited for Rich’s coronavirus vaccination.

Stacey Heider, the clinical supervisor on the 7 Tower unit at Butler Memorial Hospital, bolted toward Rich when she saw her former patient energetically enter the hospital lobby with her husband, Don.

The two embraced tightly and wiped tears from above their masks.

“She’s become our family,” Heider said of Rich. “The physical therapists, housekeepers, she was like everyone’s mother.”

Rich’s odyssey with COVID-19 started in March, when she began feeling ill at home.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Tuesday’s Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.