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Essential Owls: Marcus Bartels
7/15/2020 12:59:00 PM | Football
"Essential Owls" is a series of features highlighting former FAU student-athletes who are working in a host of professions attempting to stem the impact of the COVID-19 virus.
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The next subject of our series, "Essential Owls," is focused on former FAU football player Marcus Bartels, an anesthesiologist assistant that began assisting in the fight against COVID-19 in Ohio and who recently moved to Tampa where he continues those same battles.
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"Assess," "Adjust," and "Attack the problem head on" are words that describe the mindset of an outstanding safety or defensive quarterback. Those words also describe how Marcus Bartels went about his collegiate football career and they are the way he manages each case that is presented in his role as an anesthesiologist assistant.
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Bartels played for Florida Atlantic University from 2007-11 and solidified himself as one of the top defensive backs in program history. The Flanagan High School product followed in the footsteps of his older brother Kris ('04-'07) in college selection and while at FAU he became a student of the game, in a sport he was meant to play. Bartels used his cognitive ability to access and his natural aggressive mindset to become a three-year starter/letterwinner and a 2011 team captain as well as the team's Co-MVP alongside Alfred Morris, who played eight seasons in the NFL. Bartels, who earned Sun Belt Conference honorable mention honors in 2009 and Second Team honors in 2010, was the perfect blend of student and athlete. The seven time 3.0-GPA Club member and 2010 Football Student-Athlete of the Year was also named FAU's 2009 and 2011 Ramon Rickards Bone Award recipient. The FAU "Bone Award" was presented at the conclusion of each season to the hardest hitting member of the team, and in Bartels' case the big hits were delivered by someone who was relatively small in terms of football at 5-9 and 170 pounds. He remains among the Owl all-time tacklers at No. 5 with 141 career tackle assists, No. 6 in total tackles with 297 and No. 8 in unassisted tackles with 156.
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Bartels graduated from FAU in 2011 with a degree in criminal justice and a minor in chemistry. Following a football-related surgery his sophomore season, the Hollywood, Florida native awoke from a successful shoulder surgery at Cleveland Clinic not knowing where he was and not feeling his shoulder.
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"I didn't feel anything and just woke up in the recovery room and I couldn't feel my arm because they put a nerve block on me and I thought that was the coolest thing ever," said Bartels nearly 10 years later. "The doctor said this is the guy that did your anesthesia. I started looking into that profession and thought it was really cool. I shadowed anesthesiologists and saw exactly what they did and then went for it."
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Access, Adjust, Attack.
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With his undergraduate degree in hand and his football playing days behind him, Bartels began the prerequisite pre-med classes needed to enter the anesthesiologist assistant program at Nova Southeastern University, where he attended from 2014-16.
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Much like football, working as an anesthetist was perfect for Bartels and he could equate the two.
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"For me, that is what I immediately compared (anesthesiology to football) and how I thought about the whole situation … It is different every day. With a patient in the operating room, I had a game plan, but I'm always thinking if this happens, how am I going to react? It is the same way on the football field. I would see the formation and anticipate that this is going to happen and then I just had to react.
Â
"As far as the (anesthesiology) team side of things, the specific model that my job works in is called the anesthesia care team and that is exactly what it is. It is a team making a decision, making the game plan between the anesthesiologist and the anesthetist, which is a person like me. We formulate a game plan for each case and each patient. It fits me perfect."
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Bartels worked in Tampa upon first completing his course work and then moved to Erie, Pennsylvania with his wife, Maya Bartels (Ramon), who graduated from FAU with a degree in biology ('13). While Maya was attending Lecom School of Dental Medicine, the pair began a family with son Madden, who is now two, and then daughter Malia, who is seven months old.
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"She is amazing," said Marcus Bartels of his wife Maya. "She had two kids during dental school, that was impressive."
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Just as impressive is someone that can set aside fear and the passion to keep his family safe while helping combat the world's pandemic, without hesitation. Similar to the mindset a special teams football player uses when running downfield at full speed to stop an aggressive kick or punt returner also traveling at full speed.
Â
"(Staying home when the outbreak occurred) didn't cross my mind…I just feel like this is what I signed up for and I have this responsibility, this talent, this skill that I studied and prepared for and now someone needs me more than ever … no offense or shame on anyone who wanted to stay home and wanted to stay out of this, I totally understand, but I would not be able to sleep well if I just sat at home knowing that I could be out there doing what I can to help and maybe save somebody's life and what not."
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The "small Ohio hospital" just across the Pennsylvania border where Bartels traveled to each day didn't have the number of cases that New York was battling, but they definitely were exposed and affected by the outbreak.
Â
"When COVID-19 started, I was on the emergency intubation team and any person with possible COVID that presented breathing problems and needed to be intubated they would page us. We had the full protocol. We gowned up, all the gear that you could think of and would either go to their room in the ICU or to the emergency room if that is where they were. The number of people that would go in there were limited to me and one other person and we would intubate them right there in their room. At the same time that we were doing that, we still had some high priority or emergency operating room cases that we had to do as well. Those still went on. We had a team that was for emergency intubations."
Â
In the beginning when no one knew anything about COVID-19 and no one was tested or knew how it spread, Bartels admitted to being "nervous." Not so much for himself, but the chances of bringing it back to his family. His teammate attitude and the understanding that he is working for something bigger than himself is the prologue to Bartels' game plan.
Â
"There have been times, maybe two in the last four years, that I feel like if I wasn't in that room, the patient may not have made it. Patients that coded and I recognized something quickly and was able to call for help as quickly as I could. I just feel like maybe I was meant to be in there with that person at that time because I recognized that situation so quickly … had it been somebody else maybe the outcome wouldn't have been the same. Maybe it would have. I felt like I was in the right place at the right time for that person. To walk into Nebraska with 90,000 fans packed (in a football stadium) was pretty wild my first time, but there is almost nothing like the feeling of having a patient code and almost dying in front of you. That just sends all kinds of emotions and adrenaline to you."
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As the country and the world moved through the various stages of COVID, Bartels and his family have made their return to Florida where they will soon begin their next chapter, with Marcus moving to a South Florida Hospital and Maya beginning her dental practice. The Bartels will reunite with a family of FAU graduates including Kris, who teaches and serves as the Owls' radio analyst; sister Heidi, who ran for FAU in 2010-11; and brother Cheyn , who is currently attending FAU. With Kris working the games, the Bartels, led by father Jack and mother Manuela, have become the largest family cheering, especially with both daughters-in-law being alumni and five grandkids in tow.
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The close-knit family celebrated at FAU, but rallied around Marcus in the early days of COVID with both worry and support.
Â
"We were checking in daily almost. Every time I had these encounters with COVID patients, I would let them know and they kept following up on me to see how I was doing, how the family was doing and thankfully we have all been able to stay healthy throughout this. That has been a blessing."
Â
As life for the Bartels family moves forward, Marcus will continue to Access, Adjust and Attack.
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The next subject of our series, "Essential Owls," is focused on former FAU football player Marcus Bartels, an anesthesiologist assistant that began assisting in the fight against COVID-19 in Ohio and who recently moved to Tampa where he continues those same battles.
Â
Marcus Bartels
"Assess," "Adjust," and "Attack the problem head on" are words that describe the mindset of an outstanding safety or defensive quarterback. Those words also describe how Marcus Bartels went about his collegiate football career and they are the way he manages each case that is presented in his role as an anesthesiologist assistant.
Â
Bartels played for Florida Atlantic University from 2007-11 and solidified himself as one of the top defensive backs in program history. The Flanagan High School product followed in the footsteps of his older brother Kris ('04-'07) in college selection and while at FAU he became a student of the game, in a sport he was meant to play. Bartels used his cognitive ability to access and his natural aggressive mindset to become a three-year starter/letterwinner and a 2011 team captain as well as the team's Co-MVP alongside Alfred Morris, who played eight seasons in the NFL. Bartels, who earned Sun Belt Conference honorable mention honors in 2009 and Second Team honors in 2010, was the perfect blend of student and athlete. The seven time 3.0-GPA Club member and 2010 Football Student-Athlete of the Year was also named FAU's 2009 and 2011 Ramon Rickards Bone Award recipient. The FAU "Bone Award" was presented at the conclusion of each season to the hardest hitting member of the team, and in Bartels' case the big hits were delivered by someone who was relatively small in terms of football at 5-9 and 170 pounds. He remains among the Owl all-time tacklers at No. 5 with 141 career tackle assists, No. 6 in total tackles with 297 and No. 8 in unassisted tackles with 156.
Â
Bartels graduated from FAU in 2011 with a degree in criminal justice and a minor in chemistry. Following a football-related surgery his sophomore season, the Hollywood, Florida native awoke from a successful shoulder surgery at Cleveland Clinic not knowing where he was and not feeling his shoulder.
Â
"I didn't feel anything and just woke up in the recovery room and I couldn't feel my arm because they put a nerve block on me and I thought that was the coolest thing ever," said Bartels nearly 10 years later. "The doctor said this is the guy that did your anesthesia. I started looking into that profession and thought it was really cool. I shadowed anesthesiologists and saw exactly what they did and then went for it."
Â
Access, Adjust, Attack.
Â
With his undergraduate degree in hand and his football playing days behind him, Bartels began the prerequisite pre-med classes needed to enter the anesthesiologist assistant program at Nova Southeastern University, where he attended from 2014-16.
Â
Much like football, working as an anesthetist was perfect for Bartels and he could equate the two.
Â
"For me, that is what I immediately compared (anesthesiology to football) and how I thought about the whole situation … It is different every day. With a patient in the operating room, I had a game plan, but I'm always thinking if this happens, how am I going to react? It is the same way on the football field. I would see the formation and anticipate that this is going to happen and then I just had to react.
Â
"As far as the (anesthesiology) team side of things, the specific model that my job works in is called the anesthesia care team and that is exactly what it is. It is a team making a decision, making the game plan between the anesthesiologist and the anesthetist, which is a person like me. We formulate a game plan for each case and each patient. It fits me perfect."
Â
Bartels worked in Tampa upon first completing his course work and then moved to Erie, Pennsylvania with his wife, Maya Bartels (Ramon), who graduated from FAU with a degree in biology ('13). While Maya was attending Lecom School of Dental Medicine, the pair began a family with son Madden, who is now two, and then daughter Malia, who is seven months old.
Â
"She is amazing," said Marcus Bartels of his wife Maya. "She had two kids during dental school, that was impressive."
Â
Just as impressive is someone that can set aside fear and the passion to keep his family safe while helping combat the world's pandemic, without hesitation. Similar to the mindset a special teams football player uses when running downfield at full speed to stop an aggressive kick or punt returner also traveling at full speed.
Â
"(Staying home when the outbreak occurred) didn't cross my mind…I just feel like this is what I signed up for and I have this responsibility, this talent, this skill that I studied and prepared for and now someone needs me more than ever … no offense or shame on anyone who wanted to stay home and wanted to stay out of this, I totally understand, but I would not be able to sleep well if I just sat at home knowing that I could be out there doing what I can to help and maybe save somebody's life and what not."
Â
The "small Ohio hospital" just across the Pennsylvania border where Bartels traveled to each day didn't have the number of cases that New York was battling, but they definitely were exposed and affected by the outbreak.
Â
"When COVID-19 started, I was on the emergency intubation team and any person with possible COVID that presented breathing problems and needed to be intubated they would page us. We had the full protocol. We gowned up, all the gear that you could think of and would either go to their room in the ICU or to the emergency room if that is where they were. The number of people that would go in there were limited to me and one other person and we would intubate them right there in their room. At the same time that we were doing that, we still had some high priority or emergency operating room cases that we had to do as well. Those still went on. We had a team that was for emergency intubations."
Â
In the beginning when no one knew anything about COVID-19 and no one was tested or knew how it spread, Bartels admitted to being "nervous." Not so much for himself, but the chances of bringing it back to his family. His teammate attitude and the understanding that he is working for something bigger than himself is the prologue to Bartels' game plan.
Â
"There have been times, maybe two in the last four years, that I feel like if I wasn't in that room, the patient may not have made it. Patients that coded and I recognized something quickly and was able to call for help as quickly as I could. I just feel like maybe I was meant to be in there with that person at that time because I recognized that situation so quickly … had it been somebody else maybe the outcome wouldn't have been the same. Maybe it would have. I felt like I was in the right place at the right time for that person. To walk into Nebraska with 90,000 fans packed (in a football stadium) was pretty wild my first time, but there is almost nothing like the feeling of having a patient code and almost dying in front of you. That just sends all kinds of emotions and adrenaline to you."
Â
As the country and the world moved through the various stages of COVID, Bartels and his family have made their return to Florida where they will soon begin their next chapter, with Marcus moving to a South Florida Hospital and Maya beginning her dental practice. The Bartels will reunite with a family of FAU graduates including Kris, who teaches and serves as the Owls' radio analyst; sister Heidi, who ran for FAU in 2010-11; and brother Cheyn , who is currently attending FAU. With Kris working the games, the Bartels, led by father Jack and mother Manuela, have become the largest family cheering, especially with both daughters-in-law being alumni and five grandkids in tow.
Â
The close-knit family celebrated at FAU, but rallied around Marcus in the early days of COVID with both worry and support.
Â
"We were checking in daily almost. Every time I had these encounters with COVID patients, I would let them know and they kept following up on me to see how I was doing, how the family was doing and thankfully we have all been able to stay healthy throughout this. That has been a blessing."
Â
As life for the Bartels family moves forward, Marcus will continue to Access, Adjust and Attack.
Â
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