A frontline dispatch from ‘Warrior Nurse’
When the odds are you against you, what do you do? One longtime nurse on the front line of the city’s COVID-19 war has chosen to fight the good fight, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
A candid, anonymous report from this Warrior Nurse — one of New York’s thousands of front-line nurses, doctors, emergency medical personnel, police and others warriors — carries sobering lessons for all New Yorkers.
She’s a battle-hardened medical provider with multiple deployments in intensive care units, working alongside many nurses with Caribbean roots. She is saddened and sobered by the stark realities of this crisis.
The coronavirus crisis has made insurance documents and other personal papers paramount for Warrior Nurse, whose COVID-19 workday includes wards and hallways full of patients — including infected hospital coworkers connected to ventilators — and iffy amounts of masks and other necessary protective equipment.
“I need to get all my papers together and make sure that the kids have the information, just in case,” Warrior Nurse said. “It pains me that I haven’t physically been near you for several weeks,” she said, addressing her kin, “but I won’t take the chance of bringing the virus to any of you. If any of you got sick because I infected you, I would carry that guilt with me for the rest of my life.
“The way the coronavirus continues to spread indicates visiting you would not be wise,” she added. “So moving forward, until this virus is under control, I will need to stay away from my babies and grandbabies, until it’s safe for us to be together again.”
Meanwhile, on the hospital front lines, there’s bad and good news to report.
“More and more staff at work are becoming ill with the coronavirus. Several people I’ve known for years are currently patients in ICU, on ventilators. I’m taking precautions at work not to get infected, but only God knows if those precautions are adequate,” the Warrior Nurse said wearily.
“Recent reports now say that some people who are not sick are carriers of the virus, and others are contagious and spreading the virus up to 48 hours prior to showing symptoms.”
What’s the good news? “There are supplies for now. Yet it’s predicted another shortage will come soon.”
Protective equipment at hospitals all over the city is being strictly rationed because of the severe shortages. But nurses are literally “coming from all over the country” to help overworked staffers in the city’s medical facilities, she said excitedly.
The Warrior Nurse’s lessons? Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.