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| Seth Barnes | | 19 Comments on Here’s How to Encourage Frontline ICU Nurses

Here’s How to Encourage Frontline ICU Nurses

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  That’s my daughter, Estie, in full battle garb this week in the photo above. Every day when she goes to work, she and other nurses are fighting this virus. It’s exhausting work. I spoke last night with Elizabeth Dawson, a nurse at Swedish Hospital in Seattle. She has been working in the …
By Seth Barnes
By Seth Barnes

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That’s my daughter, Estie, in full battle garb this week in the photo above. Every day when she goes to work, she and other nurses are fighting this virus. It’s exhausting work.

I spoke last night with Elizabeth Dawson, a nurse at Swedish Hospital in Seattle. She has been working in the ICU there, helping people with the virus to die. She says, “The situation here is horrible. When they get close to dying, we make a last desperate effort. We turn them over on their stomachs to perhaps get air to alveoli that are not shut down. It’s just a nightmare.”

She told the story of one patient – a 53 year-old woman who went to help take care of her isolated and elderly neighbor lady who had COVID-19. She cooked her neighbor a meal and cared for her.

A few days later, the woman herself came down with virus symptoms and went to the hospital. That’s when Elizabeth saw her. She had contracted the virus from her neighbor and began to go downhill quickly.

Elizabeth tended to her as she was dying a terrible death, alone and unable to see her loved ones.

Elizabeth says that there are about 50 ICU nurses who are overworked at her Seattle hospital working exclusively with COVID-19 patients. They are overwhelmed and exhausted by the process. Five of them have come down with the virus. And the rest are worried that they might get it too.

Sarah is one of the nurses. She has an 18 month baby at home. She says, “I’m constantly feeling like I need to do my duty as a nurse, but I’m afraid that I’ll bring the virus home to my baby.”

I asked Elizabeth what we could do to encourage these nurses. She said that flowers and cards would be something that they would appreciate.

She said if I could find people to write the letters and buy the flowers, that she’d find a way to get them to the nurses. She says she could give us their names and perhaps a picture and their prayer requests.

My family is going to start today with Estie. We’re going to write her notes and buy her some Easter Lillies as a celebration of life coming from death.

If you would be interested in helping out, please put your name below. I’ll get in touch with you later when I have specifics from Elizabeth.

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