Monroeville ICU nurses treated to taco lunch from Irwin eatery

A group of intensive care unit nurses who have been on the front lines of treating covid patients at Allegheny Health Network’s Forbes Hospital in Monroeville got a treat Monday from an Irwin restaurant that delivered shrimp tacos, rice, beans, queso salsa and Mexican Coca-Cola to them.

“They will really appreciate it. That is very nice,” Lynn Kosar, chief nursing officer at Forbes, said of the 50 meals that Sam Murray and his assistant, Heather Sorice, made at Salsa Sam’s Eatery. Murray made the delivery — meals pulled out of coolers and placed on carts by hospital personnel — as the wind whipped through the small group that gathered about noon outside the facility.

About 44 ICU nurses at Forbes were expected to eat. The ICU also has respiratory therapists, physicians and residents and other support personnel, which boost the ICU staffing to about 100, Kosar said.

Dr. Mark A. Rubino, president of AHN Forbes Hospital, noted there had been meal donations last spring, in the early days of the pandemic, but that tailed off as the pandemic dragged into the new year.

Although the number of covid patients in the hospital remains high, Rubino said the staff is seeing a downward trend.

Murray said he selected Forbes because he has employees whose mothers work there and some of his customers who buy tacos from him at a Monroeville farmer’s market work at that hospital.

For Murray, a North Huntingdon resident who opened Salsa Sam’s about two years ago, helping nurses dealing with covid patients in the ICU hits close to home. His daughter is a physician’s assistant at UPMC Altoona hospital, a major trauma center in Central Pennsylvania.

Murray’s delivery to Forbes was one of several he has made to front-line nurses and first responders. He previously took 75 tacos to the Altoona hospital, as well as to North Huntingdon police and EMS and emergency room nurses at Excela Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg.

“We’re trying to give back to the community,” said Murray, a retired Allegheny County probation officer who was responsible for overseeing sexual offenders.

Murray said he is able to give back to the community because “people in the Irwin community have been very generous.”

In April, the Tribune-­Review published a story about Murray delivering tacos to the North Huntingdon police department and the township’s EMS. After people read the story, Murray said, he received more donations.

“We had an Irwin Borough (council) member give us money after reading the story,” Murray said.

Next month, Murray plans to deliver tacos to McKeesport police in honor of Officer Jerry Athans. The North Huntingdon native was shot three times on Dec. 20 by a man outside of the police department. Koby L. Francis of McKeesport was arrested on Dec. 29.

“McKeesport is a distressed community. It holds a key to my heart because I was a school probation officer and my wife is a teacher there,” Murray said of his wife, Jodi, an elementary school teacher.