Dr. Jaroslaw Parkolap

Medical Director of Emergency Services
Westside Regional Hospital (E. FL Division)

"I love helping people. I always have. We see people at their sickest and help them get better. When you work in an emergency room, you are the first people patients see when they come to a hospital for an emergency. It gives us instant gratification knowing that we get the chance to impact lives. I’ve never had to deal with something like the coronavirus before. For the first time ever, we are also having to think about ourselves and our safety, instead of just the patients. Thankfully, we have the support and resources we need to care for these patients in the community. This experience has truly made us work together. We’ve always worked as a team here at Westside, but this has definitely brought us closer. I’m very confident in the team that I have here. We’ve done a great job at handling strokes, heart attacks and other emergencies, so there is no reason why we wouldn’t be able to handle this crisis. We are aware that things may get worse and may push us even harder, but we will continue to wake up each day ready to give it our all."