Zelie resident among 1st to receive Evusheld treatment for immunocompromised patients
When Zelienople resident Susan Dispennett received a call from UPMC about a new treatment called Evusheld, she didn’t know what to expect.
Dispennett, who has had rheumatoid arthritis for more than 20 years, takes medicine that suppresses her immune system. Despite having received a full course of the COVID-19 vaccine and a booster shot, being immunosuppressed meant the COVID-19 vaccine was unlikely to work as well to protect her.
The call explained that Dispennett’s situation qualified her to receive Evusheld, a recently approved monoclonal antibody combination designed to prevent COVID-19 infections in immunocompromised individuals who may not respond as well to vaccination.
The treatment was first distributed in limited doses to United States health care providers at the end of December, and UPMC has since used a lottery system to contact those who may be eligible to receive it.
Dispennett initially turned down the opportunity, but changed her mind after talking to her daughter, Betsy Tedesco, who works with UPMC Passavant in Cranberry.
Tedesco encouraged her mother to agree to the treatment, and Dispennett called UPMC back. She was able to receive the Evusheld treatment at a clinic on the South Side of Pittsburgh.
“My daughter drove me down, and we went in, and they were very organized, and I got the two shots,” Dispennett said. “We had to wait an hour, and then we came home. I’ve had no adverse reactions to them at all.”
Tedesco believes the opportunity for her mother to receive the treatment was “a gift.”
“Them only having a couple hundred doses initially, and that in the lottery system that her name was picked, was amazing to me,” she said. “I can sleep better at night knowing that she has that better protection.”
Allison Hydzik, public relations director at UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, said that at the point that Dispennett received her treatment, UPMC had administered fewer than a thousand doses of Evusheld.
“She was among the first thousand to receive it from UPMC for sure,” Hydzik said.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dispennett has kept a cautious approach. She plans to stay the course and continue to be careful, even after receiving Evusheld.
“I have been staying home quite a bit, but ironically my other daughter was living here with me, and she came down with COVID (in October 2021). We tried to stay apart, and luckily I didn’t get it,” she said.
Dispennett, who is a widow, still keeps busy. She has three children and several grandchildren.
“I’ve got a big house to take care of,” she said. “There’s a lot of work to be done around here, especially with the wintertime.”
She encouraged anyone else who is contacted about eligibility for Evusheld to take advantage of the opportunity.
“I would tell them to go for it and get it — it’s another layer of protection,” she said. “They say it will last for approximately six months, and hopefully in six months, they’ll come up with something else, if we need it.”
Tedesco is also grateful that her mother was able to be treated, and hopes more people will get that same chance.
“I’m glad not only that my mom was able to get this, but that we are able to tell this story,” she said. “I want more people to be able to get this as well, so that they are able to not have a bad outcome and are able to continue their memories with their family.”
