‘It’s a lot of chaos.’ SLO nurses are on front lines of coronavirus pandemic in New York
San Luis Obispo emergency room nurse Elissa Molfino had never touched a ventilator before arriving in New York City 12 days ago.
Now, she ventilates three to four patients a day at a hospital in Queens.
“I was so terrified (on the first day), because I’m thinking, ‘Somebody is going to die because of me, I don’t know how to do this, I’m not equipped, and I cried and I had my tantrum,” Molfino said. “But then you go to work and you have no choice. You can’t be emotional. You just put one foot in front of the other.”
Molfino is one of several nurses who have taken a leave of absence from their jobs at French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo to go to the epicenter of the nation’s coronavirus pandemic.
As of Tuesday, New York City had seen 139,335 cases and more than 10,000 deaths, according to the New York Times. In San Luis Obispo County, there have been 134 cases and one death.
“At home where we haven’t been hit very hard, it’s hard to see people be annoyed at the shelter-in-place because I just think they don’t have a clue,” Molfino said. “I would just love to walk them down a (New York hospital) hall and then see how they feel about it.”
SLO nurse at heart of coronavirus pandemic
Molfino was placed at the NewYork-Presbyterian hospital in Queens, one of New York City’s hardest-hit neighborhoods.
Refrigerated trucks with COVID-19 patients who have died line up outside the hospital. Inside, there are patients on ventilators in every corner — “bodies everywhere,” she said.
Molfino said bags of belongings with patients’ names written on them are shoved aside to make room in the crowded hospital for more ailing patients.
Families of the deceased cannot visit their loved ones, let alone collect what they have left behind, Molfino said.
“One of my patients, his belongings bag was actually by the bedside and his phone kept ringing all day,” she said. “It’s just a weird thing, you know, he’s never going to answer his phone again.”
Although the number of new cases in New York has seen a slight decline in recent days, nurses and supplies are still stretched thin — a situation Molfino described as “a nightmare.”
“In the real world,” she said, each nurse cares for one intensive care patient. She has been assigned up to four patients each day.
And, like many other nurses on the front lines, Molfino is not trained as an intensive care unit nurse.
She said she originally went to New York to help in an emergency room but was quickly transferred to the ICU to help those most in need.
Molfino said she works in a makeshift ICU where every patient has a ventilator and most have up to 10 intravenous drips at a time. Charting, or documenting a patient’s medical treatment, is normally a critical role within the ICU, but it’s gone out the window, she said.
On top of all their medical responsibilities, nurses are also standing in as emotional support systems for patients.
“You can’t be everything to everyone,” Molfino said. “But if you can say a kind word, if you can tell them you’re going to take good care of them, you have no idea if they can understand you, but you know their family isn’t there and it’s the hardest, most sad, scariest time in their life.”
12-hour days, no breaks, no lunches
The scene is not much different at the Bronx hospital where French Hospital ICU nurses Devon Everson and Jessi Norris were placed. They didn’t name the hospital out of concerns for privacy but said it is one of the 17 most inundated hospitals in the city.
“I feel like I’ve seen the worst side of humanity with not enough nurses to take care of patients. You can imagine what that looks like,” Everson said.
“On the other side, I’ve seen the best side of humanity because all these nurses are working together,” she added.
Everson and Norris went to New York together on the same crisis assignment through a company called Crucial Staffing. The nurses have worked 12-hour days for 10 days straight and will work another 11 days without a break before being sent home.
“There were two days where we didn’t sit down at all,” Everson said. “There’s no breaks, there’s no lunches. The Army has been coming here and handing out food, and you kind of eat on the go.”
The San Luis Obispo nurses wear face masks from the time when they leave the hotel to when they get back, and even more protective equipment when they get to the hospital, Norris said.
“You’re wearing an N-95 mask for 14 hours a day,” Norris said, “then you put stuff on top of that to go into the patient’s room and you’re thinking, ‘Hopefully, there’s not a hole in anything.’ ”
For the past week, Everson said, she has cared for two to three ICU patients each day in different areas of the hospital that have been converted to intensive care units.
She said the staff is doing the best they can with what they have. However, some days the hospital runs out of N-95 masks, and she said she is glad she brought her own.
“It’s a lot of chaos, a lot of sick people, a lot of Code Blues called overhead and they’ve got three refrigerated trucks outside,” she said, referring to medical emergencies. “It’s been eye-opening.”
Although the nurses are at the same hospital, Norris works in a different unit. She said she is working in a “strict ICU” with some of the most severe patients.
“Some of these people tested positive back when the surge was at its peak, but they’re in their most critical times now. And they have even more critical times ahead,” Norris said.
Healthcare workers go where COVID-19 is ‘really serious’
“I think it’s easy to forget when we’re not around it that COVID is really serious, but it is,” Everson said.
San Luis Obispo has been preparing for a surge in cases, but the county’s coronavirus case numbers are relatively few and hospitalizations are far between.
“Even though all the numbers seem like New York City is looking better, there is still a ton of work to be done, a ton of patients on the ventilators and not enough critical care nurses to take care of them all,” Everson said.
All three nurses said they wanted to help relieve the medical workers who were fewer in numbers without them.
Norris and Molfino said French Hospital had started to reduce nurses’ hours because elective surgeries were canceled and people have been cautious of the emergency room. The hospital has been supportive of nurses, each nurse said.
Molfino, a single mother of two, said her friend who lives with her lost her job due to the shelter-at-home order. So the opportunity to go to New York also served as a means of supporting her household.
However, her driving factor, like that of Norris and Everson, was the desire to help.
“This is where I’m supposed to be,” Molfino said. “There would be one less nurse if I wasn’t here, so it can only be a good thing.”
This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 12:53 PM.
