(Note: This story was written early in the pandemic before the vaccine, and when not much was known about the virus. There also was a national shortage of masks and gowns.)
“Her Coronavirus test is positive. Set up isolation. Now!” The infection control nurse’s words hit Jen like a tsunami. This was her patient! The one she had been taking care of for the last hour, wearing only a flimsy paper mask to protect from the dreaded virus that was claiming lives across the world.
Briana was brought in by ambulance an hour ago with a badly broken arm and cuts from a car accident. It had been a whirlwind admission, splinting her arm, getting labs, starting an IV, and giving her pain meds. She had been short of breath and using an oxygen mask, but Jen thought it was just due to her pain and the shock of her injuries. A few minutes ago Jen noticed her coughing. Once she was stabilized she had done a routine Covid test as she did with every hospital patient.
Jen hastily shut the door and helped arrange the protective equipment. Then she raced to the restroom and desperately scrubbed her face and hands to rid herself of any deadly virus. Then she hurriedly donned her gown, N95 mask, eye shield, head covering, and gloves and resumed her care of Briana.
“How did I catch this?” Briana sobbed. “I haven’t been near any sick people.”
Jen gently explained, “People can spread the virus before they have symptoms. There’s no telling where you picked this up.”
“When are they going to fix my arm?”
Jen adjusted Briana’s oxygen mask and said softly, “The doctors are working on getting your breathing in control before surgery.” Jen also knew there was a team of hospital workers working the logistics of keeping isolation precautions in place during the surgery and recovery to protect both staff and other patients.
Jen reached for her pen but realized it was in her pocket under her isolation gown. She sighed and called on the phone to the nurses’ station for someone to bring her a pen. Every supply she needed, someone had to bring her. There was a national shortage of gowns, masks, and gloves. (These are collectively called “PPE.”) She wasn’t allowed to take it off and put new PPE on for every little reason. She had to keep it on for as long as possible.
As Jen adjusted the IV pump, she noticed she felt short of breath. The N95 mask fit tightly, restricting her breathing as it did its job of filtering virus particles. She ignored the feeling and called for someone to bring more pain meds for Briana.
By the end of the night, Jen had bruises where the straps from the N95 facemask had pressed her ears tightly against the frames of her glasses. She prayed for Briana as she drove home and took a long shower.
Three days later Jen gazed out the window at the gray sky and drizzling rain. For days she moved through the motions of life with a gray cloud over her head and depression dripping through her soul.
The storm was past. Now Jen was waiting. Waiting to become sick. Or not. She had spent over an hour, unprotected, with someone ill with the Covid-19 Coronavirus. She had heard that Briana’s surgery went well, but she was still in isolation and sick with the virus.
Jen was on a two-week leave from work, stuck at home, staring at the rain, waiting to see if she would become sick. Her hands were raw from constant handwashing, trying to protect her family. She could die. Her family could die. Maybe. Probably not. Most people recover, but the chance was there. Scientists were working on a vaccine, but it would be months before she would be able to get one. She had friends who worked in the ICU where many didn’t recover.
Jen read Philippians. Paul was in prison as he wrote it, well-acquainted with rainy days. She read and reread verse 4:8 “…whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Most people recovered. God is with my family and me. He loves us. Think on these things. Focus on the good. Trust God. Rest in Him.
She looked out at the clouds and drizzling rain again, but now she trusted that behind the dark clouds, the sun was shining.
