On this week’s episode of In Depth from WWJ, host Rob St. Mary speaks with a local nurse who has contracted a suspected case of COVID-19. Also, the United Way for Southwest Michigan is raising money and volunteers to help in the fight against the disease. Plus, some local folks are finding ways to have a “happy hour” from their couch, and a local film writer gives her suggestions on what to check out while you’re at home during the pandemic.
WHEN A NURSE GETS COVID-19
“It was portrayed to us as “don’t worry about – you nurses don’t fit the bill, you guys won’t get sick and you’ll have the protective gear and it’s all going to be good”… and instead we’ve been so overrun that we’re running ourselves like a MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital – seen during wartime) hospital,” a nurse at a local hospital system tells WWJ’s Rob St. Mary.
On this episode Rob shares an interview with a dear friend who has contracted the illness while working for an area hospital system. Her name is being withheld because she’s not authorized to speak without permission from the hospital. But, her story is compelling and help us understand what is going on day-to-day in Metro Detroit as well as the weeks the lead up to the first cases and what its like when you come down with a case of COVID-19 yourself.
She says in early March, the directives were different than what they are being told today when it comes to dealing with patients.
“We had patients we were testing for COVID that we weren’t wearing any type of mask with because we didn’t want patients to feel uncomfortable while we were testing for COVID – that it wasn’t necessary and that you only need to mask after they come back positive. Now that’s counterintuitive to our policies that we have on other airborne diseases such as TB… because, the idea is treat them as positive until they are turned out negative. Instead, with COVID, we did the opposite,” says the nurse.
At the same time, she says testing was taking four days to come up back with a positive or negative.“That’s four days of nurses and aides and doctors and housekeepers all being exposed to this patient and then the idea was “don’t worry about it, we’ll deal with it after they come back positive” we were kind of lulled into a sense that this isn’t going to be a problem,” the nurse says.
She adds that what ever failures have happened, she placed them up the chain and is looking towards Washington DC.
“I don’t think the doctors or (the hospital system) had a really good grasp on this… and I don’t know if it’s the CDC that didn’t give them the information, I’m sure where the breakdown was… but, I’m going to have to put it back on the federal government because, I think that they had a better idea of what was going on with this disease but they weren’t really giving out the information because they didn’t want to cause chaos out in the public because they already saw people grabbing toilet paper or if it was the very idea that they didn’t understand it either,” she said.
At the same time, she says the patients they expected are not the ones they are seeing – at least at her Metro Detroit hospital.
“We’re not seeing the patient. The one that they described to us that we were supposed to get was going to be 80-years-old and have heart disease and diabetes and COPD and be a smoker and not compliant with their medications… that’s not who’s coming through. I’m getting a lot of 40-year-olds who the only thing that they have in their diagnosis is that they have diabetes,” she said.
Now that she has presumed case of COVID-19 she’s watching to make sure she doesn’t develop pneumonia and checking her temperature often. She was tested on Monday and it could be Friday at the earliest before the results are back. She was told would take about 4-to-7 days for results from the lab handling her test.
In the meantime, she urges people to be patient while the medical community as it figures this out and please, stay home.
As for those who get sick from COVID-19, the nurse says she needs to be home for at least two weeks and then have a solid 72 hours with no symptoms without the aid of medication before she’s allowed to return to work.
HELPING DURING THESE TIMES
The United Way For Southeast Michigan is working on a fund to help local non-profits during this time of need. Chris Perry with the United Way says the fund goal is $10 million. All are welcome to donate. But, if you want to volunteer your time, you can also do that as well. More information is available at this link.
TIPPING A FEW BREWS WITH FRIENDS
For Chuck and Brenda Marshall of Ann Arbor, getting together with friends was a weekly affair – a time to catch up and enjoy some craft brews. Now that everything is closed to that kind of closeness between people due to the coronavirus, the Marshalls have gone online to the zoom platform to host a weekly “virtual happy hour” with their friends. They aren’t the only ones doing it.
You can learn more about Chuck and Brenda’s work through their blog site “Life in Michigan."
SEE YOU AT THE MOVIES… LATER.
Michelle Kisner is a Detroit area film reviewer and writer. Typically, she’s a big fan of DVD and Blu-Ray. But, with the studios pushing films out to Video on Demand, she’s starting to dip her toe in those waters. Michelle tells us about what she’s watching and brings a few recommendations.
You are read her work at this link or at www.spoilerfreemoviesleuth.com.