BATON ROUGE – On Wednesday, Millie Lashover turned 103 years old. A day later, she had more reason to celebrate. On Thursday, Millie received her first round of the Pfizer vaccine at a Ochsner Health.

“I want to get out of the house and get back to normal,” said Millie, who was eager to get the first shot.

Even the staff at Ochsner joined in on the celebration. They sang happy birthday to Millie before administering the shot.

“I thought I was finished with parties,” said Millie, wearing a party crown.

Millie said she was a little nervous.

“After looking at those big needles on television, I thought, 'gee that’s going to go in there?' But this was nice, [the staff] did a good job,” she said.

Getting to this point is an accomplishment unto itself. Millie had open heart surgery when she was 95. One of her valves was leaking, which is why her family went all out on her big day holding a drive-by celebration.

"Everybody passed by and blew horns. The neighbors all came out, and they brought balloons and we got some gifts from people I don't even know,” Millie said. “That was really nice."

Millie’s family hopes to plan more of these parties now that she's in the process of getting vaccinated. Until then, she’ll keep at her daily routine.

“It’s not too much,” Millie said. “Soap operas.”

She’ll return to the clinic in three weeks for her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

During the week, staff at the Ochsner clinic administer around 500 doses of the vaccine. On the weekends, that number jumps up to 800. Ochsner has over 15,000 appointments currently booked.