Dr. Felipe Vivas needed to get to work on Monday, so he dusted off and strapped on nordic skis he hadn’t used in 12 years.
Vivas is a hospitalist at Kent Hospital in Warwick. And he had a shift as the Blizzard of ‘26 made many roads simply impassable. So he was one of at least a few Rhode Island doctors who utilized unconventional commutes to make it to their patients during the height of the storm.
Vivas said, despite the blizzard warnings, he didn’t think the roads would be so blocked.
“I thought it was going to be difficult, but not that bad,” Vivas said. “(And) I knew that it was going to be tough for patient care and was going to be difficult for the workload, for the colleagues that were working in the hospital.”
Vivas lives about 7 miles away from the hospital. First, his wife helped him clear the wall of snow blocking his doorway and garage. Then he trudged slowly towards work, unsure if he would make it.
Skiing just one mile to Middle Road took him nearly an hour, he said.
“The skis were sinking dramatically because this snow was getting above the knees, probably mid-thigh,” Vivas said.
After several hours, he made it to the hospital. Care New England, which operates Kent Hospital, said other staff members, such as Dr. Kalin Gregory-Davis at Women & Infants in Providence, skied or hiked to work during the blizzard, too.
As an internist at the hospital, Vivas takes care of non-surgical conditions like organ failures, infections and heart attacks. And in the event primary care doctors are not present, he can essentially serve as a primary care doctor for patients in the hospital.
Vivas said part of his motivation to make it through the storm was the possibility of his colleagues in the Emergency Room getting overwhelmed during the storm’s influx of patients.
“The ER starts to get busy, not immediately during the storm, but right after,” Vivas explained. “Patients and people that are coming with typical conditions related to the winter are requiring medical care. And the volume was going to escalate quickly, so I thought that was going to be something to be prepared for.”
Vivas said he had initially hoped to hitch a ride with firefighters or police, but after calling 911 and informing them about his situation, he was told that simply wasn’t possible. So he got out his skis.
In the midst of his preparations, his own home lost power and his family was scrambling to find a hotel to relocate to.
Vivas worked the night shift on Monday, staying at the hospital overnight. By noon on Tuesday, the roads were drivable again. A coworker gave him a ride home, where the power was still out and “the house was already getting cold.”
“I checked into a hotel, and like two or three hours after that, we recovered power,” Vivas said. “So we decided ‘No, we’ll just go back home and stay there.’ No better place (than) at home.”
Vivas said he has another shift beginning Wednesday afternoon. But this time he’s going to drive.
