Labor and delivery nurses stand in their masks and face shields at Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital on April 4, 2020. Healthcare workers have worked throughout the pandemic to care for their patients, at the risk of their own health. Photo courtesy of Lisa Dondero
Healthcare workers have done their best to protect the public from COVID-19. Now we need to do the same for them.
For healthcare workers across the globe, the fight against COVID-19 has been brutal — and in some cases, their strongest opposition has come from the very people they’re trying to help.
My mom, a labor and delivery nurse at Piedmont Athens Regional, has seen this first hand.
Although she doesn’t work exclusively with COVID-19 patients like ICU and emergency room personnel do, she’s still cared for many COVID positive patients and she’s had to show up at the hospital every week throughout the pandemic, a risk in itself.
Although numbers have risen and fallen throughout the pandemic, Athens hospitals have had COVID cases consistently since March 2020. This has meant suffering patients, deaths and for healthcare workers, an increased risk of contracting COVID.
Even at the hospital, surrounded by the worst COVID cases in Athens, there were people who still wouldn’t wear masks or follow COVID protocols.
And even at the hospital, surrounded by the worst COVID cases in Athens, there were people who still wouldn’t wear masks or follow COVID protocols.
All of this has taken both a physical and mental toll on healthcare workers. Several of my mom’s coworkers contracted COVID, and some were left with lasting effects for months. For my mom, the worst part was the fear that she was putting her family, especially my grandparents, at a greater risk — and that while she had no power to stop this, the patients and visitors refusing to follow protocol did and just wouldn’t.
Because of my mom’s challenging experiences at the hospital, my family has heard a lot about the extreme effects contracting COVID can have, which has increased our caution throughout the pandemic.
Until the pandemic is over, we all need to keep taking precautions: getting vaccinated if you are able, wearing masks, social distancing whenever possible. Do it for yourself, do it for your loved ones, and do it for the healthcare workers who risk their lives to care for us through these unprecedented times.
