ISOLATION FOR HEALTH WORKERS
Western RV lends its vehicles
One of the biggest fears of front-line health-care workers is bringing the coronavirus home with them and infecting their loved ones. That overwhelming concern has helped drive an innovative solution — RVS on loan for at-risk medical personnel.
On Sunday, at 10:34 a.m., a registered psychiatric nurse, Laura Schnell, shared a post on a Facebook page for Airdrie-area moms.
“I’m doing anywhere from 20-40 one-on-one COVID assessments a day, plus seeing a patient almost every 30 minutes all day, every day right now, to make sure they are getting medications and coping as best they can,” wrote Schnell, who is the mother of two-year-old daughter Maryn, four-year-old Levi and 22-yearold stepdaughter Darian.
“To say I’m anxious about this all is an understatement, plus the potential to be moved back to acute care during the surge is high,” she added, since she currently works at an outpatient mental-health facility in Sunridge Mall near the Peter Lougheed Centre.
In her post, she asked if anyone had any contacts with people who owned recreational vehicles so, should the need arise, she could self-isolate to protect her family, including her 50-year-old husband, Darren, who has some underlying health issues that make him at higher risk should he contract the coronavirus from her.
As luck would have it, Brittany Peers had just joined the Facebook group one day earlier. As soon as she saw Schnell’s post, she took a screen grab of it and texted it to her uncle and aunt, Bruce and Cindy Urban, the owners of Western RV Country — Alberta’s largest RV dealer, with nine locations from Grand Prairie to Lethbridge. They asked Peers to have the nurse contact them.
By 11:48 a.m., a little more than one hour after her original post, Schnell revealed to the group that within minutes of sharing her post, Bruce Urban messaged her and said he would prepare and deliver an RV for her to use anywhere she wants, “so that myself and other front-line workers can self isolate and keep our families safe.”
Peers says she was not surprised.
“I know my aunt and uncle and I knew they wouldn’t hesitate to help,” said Peers, who is an oil and gas product quality analyst in Calgary and the mother of a one-year-old son. “I could empathize with this young nurse and mother of young children worrying about infecting her kids,” added Peers.
Schnell, however, was surprised by the speed of the Urbans’ offer.
“It all happened so fast,” she said Monday during a break from seeing patients, who are rigorously screened for COVID-19 symptoms prior to being allowed into the mental-health clinic she works at.
“I’m just in awe of Bruce Urban’s immediate willingness to help,” said Schnell.
“I was left speechless by his response. He didn’t hesitate for a second. He said, ‘When do you need it. You can have whatever you need, however many you need, full propane tanks, 24/7 help online if you need it, batteries — anything.’ He said he would drop it off and pick it up, make sure everything’s working perfectly, just whatever we needed.”
The 34-year-old mom said she hasn’t taken Urban up on his kind offer yet but feels a sense of relief just knowing that the RV option is open to her and other front-line health-care workers.
“If it comes to it, I can still be close but self-isolated,” she said about putting an RV on her driveway. “It would be so close but so far. No contact but I’m home at the same time.
“It was just a very heartwarming moment knowing that there’s people out there like that. He’s in need too. His businesses are closed down, but he’s still willing to help.”
You can almost hear the humble shrug from Urban over the phone.
“It’s the least we can do for these health-care heroes,” said Urban, who was reached Monday, as he was trying to figure out if his business qualifies for the federal government’s 75 per cent wage subsidy so he can hang on to as many employees as possible while his business remains closed.
“When I think about these doctors, nurses and first responders and the stress that they’re going through, not just on the job, but when they return home, I mean, God bless them, they’re working so hard and they deserve our support,” he said.
Urban says another one of his nieces, Melissa Mantai, is working at one of the fast-track COVID-19 assessment centres in Calgary and he worries for her and thinks of her constantly.
“We’re so proud of her and what she’s doing,” he said. “This is nothing what I’m doing. It’s them, so I want to help.
“We’ve got our RV technicians on standby to go into the dealership. We’ll get RVS ready for medical workers that need to self-isolate so they can go to work and fight this with peace of mind, knowing that their family is not being exposed when they walk through the door at night.”
A beautiful solution driven by an ugly necessity for our frontline soldiers in this deadly war.