From my Daughter,
I don’t think I can say it better.
“ I have never talked about what it is like as a Covid ICU nurse for the past 18months but I think it's time to start sharing to let friend and family in my hometown know.
Its bad. It's really bad... it's more than bad because bad is left up to interpretation. So let me explain.
It's heart aching to know as healthcare workers with years of schooling and experience we are still not able to save our patients. We encourage families to pray for the best and hope that their loved ones recover but it's not enough. This disease is rapidly progressing and I have seen more body bags this month than ever before.
Everyday we walk into the hospital knowing every room is pretty much an airborne room. These patients are isolated. It's quiet for them. No visitors. It's hard to even have a telephone conversations or walk to the bathroom due to oxygen levels dropping and the patients gasping for air through a mask ; a mask that pushes air forcefully into their lungs, making their mouths so dry and trying to eat? Well oxygen vs food becomes the choice for many. If it's not a mask it's being intubated, sedated, paralyzed and flipped upside down into a rotoprone bed.
It's tragic, while many might think it's the elderly, it's not. It's the young individuals this time that are dying. 30-65, mainly 30 and 40yos.
I wish I could say we are drowning at work because of workload, being short staffed, or patient census/ratio. The main reason right now why health care providers are saying they are drowning is because we try so damn hard to recover and save patients and when we can't it mentally wears us out seeing another one not recover.
I'm not telling anyone what to do but please be extra careful. I know everyone thinks they will be fine until they are in a hospital bed begging for us to save them.
If you haven't experienced or know a loved one that is currently hospitalized or passed away from covid, just know how fortunate you are because many people can not believe that their husband, wife, mom, dad are gone. The saddest part is seeing the school age children come in to tell their mom or dad to come home soon, with us only knowing they will not be coming home.
Dakazman