Although she is an emergency medicine physician by trade, she was assigned to the Intensive Care Unit, because so many patients were placed on life support and there was a shortage of physicians to care for them. As was the case in many hospitals in the area, every floor of the building was converted into an ICU, and Loe had to familiarize herself with ventilator settings, specific diseases and how organ systems are managed in that setting.
"It was very out of my comfort zone, but it really made me grow into a more knowledgeable doctor, and the disease itself was quite eye-opening," she says. "Obviously, I've seen bad diseases in my whole life, but this one was a little bit different because there was just so much unknown about it at the time. Trying to manage all of that was definitely a challenge, but I was amazed to see how New York did it. The resident physicians all hit the ground running, took care of all their patients, no matter what their specialties were. I don't think it would have gone as well if, if you didn't have the staff and the fact that people stepped up out of their comfort zone really means wonders. It was amazing."
Loe credits her toughness and value of teamwork to her family upbringing and her background as an athlete and sports fan. Her mother Rachelle is a pediatric oncology nurse and her father Tim was a respiratory therapist before passing away in 2018. Both parents inspired Stephanie to explore a career in the medical field, but it was her dad who helped instill a passion for emergency medicine.
"He would always step up and take charge in chaotic and unexpected situations," Loe says. She tells the story from years ago when she and other kids were inner tubing down a mountain, and one of the kids broke their leg. "My dad went up right away and was like, 'Hey, I want you to stay calm. I'm going to help you.' And you know, my sister and I would just be looking back just in awe, like how he would just take control of a situation. I always was always amazed at how we could do that. I mean, things like that happened all the time."