Mural honoring healthcare workers, those impacted by COVID-19 to be installed at UMBW Medical Center

BALTIMORE - Since the start of the pandemic, Anne Arundel County had more than 126,000 COVID-19 cases, and more than 1,300 COVID-19-related deaths, according to the Maryland Department of Health.

The University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center partnered with "Art with a Heart" to create a permanent symbol of strength and resilience.

"The healthcare workers here did an incredible job. They brought me back from the brink," COVID-19 survivor Craig Miyamoto said.

In the fall of 2020, Miyamoto was admitted to the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center with COVID-19. His case was severe and he had to be intubated.

"I was unconscious for about a month, in the ICU the whole time, I believe," Miyamoto said.

It was a scary time for patients who experienced severe COVID-19, including Miyamoto, and for the healthcare workers who saved his life.

"We were all scared" said Kathy McCollum, the President and CEO of UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center. "BWMC saw, I think, more COVID patients hospitalized during that time than most hospitals in the state of Maryland. At one point, we had almost 200 inpatients."

But it was also a time medical personnel wanted to forget.

"We want to remember what our team did, what our community did, what our community needed," McCollum said.

Four years since the start of the pandemic, former patients and healthcare workers are working together to create a mosaic mural in honor of their strength and resilience during that time.

"To do something that would really commemorate for generations, what our experience was during the COVID-19 pandemic," McCollum said.

Miyamoto says he wanted to contribute to the mural to show his gratitude for the healthcare workers who saved his life.

"I kind of wanted to make sure they understand that there are people who appreciated, I mean whose lives depended on their work, not just appreciated their work," he said.

"To this day, we might be through the pandemic, but these individuals show up each and every day with that mindset of we're going to do this," McCullom said. "We're going to show up and take care of people."

The mural will be installed in the atrium here the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center in May.