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improve patient survival rates. "In both Italy and New Mexico, I leaned on my training in emergency medicine and triage to continually determine where my efforts needed to be directed," Zimmerman says. "And much like my years in medical school, I was constantly learning something and applying it again and again." In October, Zimmerman traveled to Sudan for a six-week deployment. Unlike previous missions, where she provided direct patient care, this time she played an educational role. Though the number of COVID-19 cases in the African nation was low, officials were worried about the pandemic's potential impact on the country. Using the field hospital tents as a training center for local physicians and nurses, Zimmerman paired specific COVID-19 education with broader lessons on infectious disease prevention. The group's hunger for understanding energized her. "I never saw myself as an educator of medicine, but this was my call here, and I enjoyed it," she says. When a physician phoned Zimmerman's Sudanese interpreter and enthusiastically relayed the story of a patient's improvement thanks to her suggestion of dexamethasone, Zimmerman realized the tangible impact of her work. "It blessed my heart that she had learned and applied the training to improve her patient's outcome," she says. Heartwarming memories like that stick with Zimmerman and propel her continued commitment to Samaritan's Purse. She recalls the passionate response of her interpreters in Italy, medical students who paused their own education to "bravely face the unknown and care for their countrymen, often doing menial tasks," as well as DART colleagues who ministered to their fellow global citizens amid taxing, turbulent times. "I don't know what's next, but I know I'll be doing something to help," Zimmerman says. "I'm so thankful that I can use my skills and experience to contribute." Soon after returning from Italy last May and completing a required 14-day quarantine at her Peoria condo, Zimmerman ventured to Shiprock, New Mexico, to care for a swelling number of COVID-19 patients in the Navajo Nation. Over that monthlong summer deployment, she worked in a step-down ICU environment created from ambulatory surgical suites at the Northern Navajo Medical Center. While Zimmerman's experience in Italy consisted of paper- charting in a tent and trialing various unproven treatments to combat the surge of COVID-19, in New Mexico she worked from electronic medical records and actively applied new knowledge to treat the deadly virus, including proning patients and using medications such as remdesivir and dexamethasone to B Y D A N I E L P . S M I T H Responding in Retirement Alumna steps into the COVID-19 breach in Italy, the Navajo Nation and Sudan A B O V E L E F T: Barbara Zimmerman, MD' 85, and the rest of her team from Samaritan's Purse climb on board to travel to Italy. A B O V E R I G H T: In the foreground is the tent hospital where Zimmerman and her colleagues treated patients in Italy; behind that is Cremona Hospital. B E L O W : Zimmerman pulled 45 12-hour shifts during her deployment in Italy. "I have my health, my mental faculties, and now just isn't the time for sitting on a beach with a little umbrella drink," she says. Illinois Medicine | 31