Colleague Spotlight: South Shore Health's Ironman
While you are sleeping in on Sunday morning, Dean Haspela, nurse manager on the orthopedics unit on Emerson 5 at South Shore Hospital, will be working out...for a long, long time.
Dean will be in Kona, Hawaii this weekend for the Ironman World Championships, where he will swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and finish off his day with a simple 26.2 mile “jog”.
“I think most of my family and friends think I’m crazy,” Dean said.
Dean got into the sport several years ago on the advice and nudging of his brother and worked his way up from smaller events to a full Ironman. Earlier this year, at the North American Championships in Texas, Dean finished fifth overall in his age group, giving him the necessary qualification time to make it to Hawaii this weekend for the biggest event in the sport.
Dean manages a nursing unit where patients are overcoming injuries and recovering from surgery with goals of getting back to doing the things they love. That’s a driving force for why he trains and why he loves to do the work he does at the hospital.
“I like to believe some of what I’m doing also role models to the team here that taking care of patients requires that we take care of ourselves first,” said Dean. “If you don’t take care of yourself at the end of the day you are not left with anything to give to your patients when you are here.”
