Barth On Front Lines of COVID-19 Battle

As a young girl, Catherine Barth dreamed of training whales at Sea World.
Later, she wanted to be a member of the uber-popular Spice Girls performing troupe.
As she advanced through life, other careers entered and retreated from her mind: physical therapist, nurse, doctor.
Finally, Barth decided on an amalgam of the last two and graduated in May 2019 from USC’s primary care physician assistant program.
These days, she finds herself about as far away as you can possibly be from a tank of playful whales or a stadium packed with screaming tweens. Barth is on the front lines of this world’s war against the COVID-19 virus that has brought life as we know it to a stop.
Except for Barth, of course. The San Marino native and 2010 graduate of San Marino High School is putting in 60-hour work weeks at two Westside medical facilities. She works full-time at Providence ExpressCare and has a per diem gig at Cedars-Sinai Urgent Care.
“I have two jobs, which is common for many physician assistants,” she said in her typically upbeat fashion.
Life changed for Barth on Thursday, March 19, when she showed up for her noon-to-10 p.m. shift at Cedars and was told that the urgent care center she typically inhabited was being turned into a COVID clinic.
“We were going to be separating and triaging patients based on their symptoms,” Barth said. “Anyone with a fever, cough, shortness of breath or upper respiratory symptoms is seen in our COVID clinic while anyone free of these symptoms would be seen on a non-COVID side, which was previously a geriatric and internal medicine office.”
Barth works on the COVID side one or two days a week, seeing patients who are possibly infected with the virus.
Originally, Barth was given a pair of goggles that she had to clean between patients a handful of disposable surgical masks and a hairnet, which she wears all day and stores between shifts in a plastic bag. She mentioned that she now has much greater access to personal protective equipment (PPE) than she did at the beginning of the Cedars assignment.
Since she has not shown any symptoms of the virus, Barth is not quarantined by mandate, but both of her roommates (including her younger sister, Avery) moved out of their Brentwood apartment when Catherine mentioned she was about to work in a high-exposure environment and possibly exposing them.
“So, I am living alone in my apartment, feeling like I am quarantined,” she said with a laugh. “I have not seen my family or friends outside of Facetime, or the very rare 6-foot socially-distanced conversation for the last three weeks.”
Barth said she actually offers to work more hours than scheduled so she can get out of her apartment and spend more time around people. She is expected to show up at both of her jobs if she is symptom-free and logs in her medical condition daily.
“I am keeping myself quarantined and acting like I have the virus,” she said, adding that several of her co-workers have tested positive.
“That has been lingering in the back of my mind,” Barth said. “I am considering getting an antibody test to see if I have already had COVID. Part of me would like to get it and just get it over with.”
Barth said she wears a mask and gloves whenever in public and is very careful about cleaning her living environment. Upon arriving at her apartment, she begins a thorough — and careful — ritual of removing and cleaning her many layers of protective clothing.
She said she initially considered refusing to do the job, but quickly thought otherwise.
“In my head I said, ‘Why do I have to do this?’” she asked rhetorically. “But there is absolutely no second-guessing, to my core. I am trained for this and it is my duty to help people who are not well.”
Her parents, longtime local residents Avery and Andy Barth, and other family members are “so worried,” Catherine said. “We talk every day. They keep telling me to wash my hands.” Her mom and dad have made many a journey to Brentwood, speaking to their daughter through lowered car windows.
Catherine has other family members involved in aiding against the coronavirus. Her cousin, Lyle Hanf – also a SMHS graduate and a physical therapist by trade – is working at a COVID testing center in Pasadena.
Meanwhile, Barth’s friends have sent her more meals than she can possibly consume and Barth said she has even received words of praise and encouragement from the proverbial “people I don’t even know” when they hear of her dedication.
“Such an outpouring of love,” she said, her voice taking a brief pause. “I mentioned to a friend that I wasn’t sleeping well and the next day an essential oil diffuser shows up. It’s incredible.”
Incredible is also a word that could describe Barth. While at San Marino High School, she was involved in seemingly everything. She played three years of varsity soccer and four years each of volleyball and softball, captaining both. Success in athletics certainly helped prepare her for this current task, but Barth freely admits to experiencing a breakdown shortly after receiving her assignment.
“One night I woke up and thought, ‘I am not going to be able to go home for a long, long time,’” she said.
Support was quick to arrive, albeit from an unlikely source, cousin Janell Hanf, who is a captain in the United States Marines.
“She related my situation to going to war,” Barth said. “She told me, ‘You have the skills, you are prepared and you have been trained, now go and do it.’ She is right. She said that when she gets deployed, her unit has six weeks to prepare. I had one day. It was a quick turnaround, but this is my job now.”