Healthcare workers talk about treating COVID 19 patients and the affect on them personally

Looking back on the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Latasha Green of Jackson, recalls the wave of people coming in the doors at Rush Memorial Hospital in Meridian, extremely ill.  She and her colleagues were stunned.

"To see people take their last breath.  To see people crying because they know that they're dying, you're trying your best to save them," said Green. 

Jackson's been in the medical field for 25 years and explains that in March of 2020, healthcare workers didn’t know what Mississippians were contracting or how contagious it might be.  There were plenty of questions, but no answers.  She had never seen anything like this.

"There were a lot of emotions...We didn't know how to treat them or what to treat them with or anything,"

Amid working to save lives of patients in isolation, she began to worry about her own safety.  Nurses were contracting coronavirus and some even quit their jobs. Fortunately, she says she never got COVID 19.

"I strongly believe that nursing is a ministry.  I strongly believe that we as nurses have a duty to put people back on the battlefield. That's my job.  They say we are essential workers yes, but we are human are well.  We have families.  We have lives." said Green.

Staffing shortages left the 46-year old exhausted. On every shift she took care of at least five patients.  Green had to have a different set of personal protective gear for each patient.  She says nurses were one of the few staff who could go into a patient's room to reduce the potential spread of COVID 19. 

"We have to go in the room to draw the lab.  We have to go in the room to feed them.  We have to go in the room to bathe them.  We have to go in the room to give them their medicine, to change their IVs, said Green.

"We have to dress from head to toe, headgear, double mask, goggles, gown, gloves, feet gear and then go in the room.  And please don't forget anything because you have to undress go out, dress again, come back in.”

One day in late March after working the overnight shift, Green sat in her car and recorded a video she posted to Facebook about her experience on the job, which she says went viral.  She was frustrated because some people weren't heeding warnings about the coronavirus.  She says a woman 23 months pregnant was in the hospital after testing positive for COVID 19.

"She contracted it because she wanted to have a gender reveal party.  She contracted it from a family member who came in from out of town, when we're telling you to stay home, not to have gatherings,"

Green was losing sleep, wasn't eating, and felt burnt out.  She was trying to figure out what to do and says she needed a change, something calmer.  So, she didn't renew her contract with the hospital and took a break to get herself together she said.  After some soul-searching, Green took a job as an occupational nurse.  She also teaches a certified nursing assistant boot camp, CPR and started her own business.

"I love nursing.  I love it.  But it got to the point where I didn't anymore.  I didn't want that on my conscience.  I got to the point, I hated going to work," said Green.

In March of 2020, Intensive Care Nurse Laveria Dent, returned home to Hattiesburg from California.  The 62-year old was hired as a nurse supervisor at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg.  Dent began to feel she had abandoned her fellow nurses on the front lines of treating coronavirus patients. So, she traveled to Maine, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin to work in hospital ICU's.  

She says taking care of patients during the pandemic was exhausting because they needed so much care. She relied on her faith to keep her going.

"Sometimes it was frightening because they were so sick and there was so much to do for them.  It was really tiring,"

Dent says sometimes there were emergencies and in the spur of the moment she would run into patients’ rooms with only a surgical mask, not the required N95 mask.  But she says she never tested positive for coronavirus. 

Dent who has been a nurse for 35 years says her heart went out to families who couldn't see their loved ones before they died. It made her more compassionate about what families go through when they can't be with loved ones.

"It's those times when people if they lose a loved one and they're crying, I cry with them at times and there's just times when I had to walk away and cry or embrace them...pray for them,” says Dent.

Dent has turned down more travel assignments and says her focus now is on healthcare disparities and educating Mississippians about preventive care.  She says people don't always get the care they need.

"I tend to want to educate people more not just about COVID but about other diseases and prevention and wellness, because people seem to think hospitals are a quick fix but they have to do something as well," said Dent.

Mississippi's first reported positive coronavirus case was diagnosed in Forrest County.  Dr. Steven Stogner is a pulmonary and critical care physician who works at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg.  Thinking back, he says the best they could do was treat the symptoms of the virus because there wasn't a cure.  He says it was difficult on the staff.  

"Physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, we all felt helpless,"

Stogner explains they were used to treating diseases. But the coronavirus was different. Often, he says the virus attacked the patient's lungs and he estimates 50 to 70 percent of people put on ventilators at the hospital died.

Stogner says the loss of life took a toll on him and the rest of the staff.

"You have the anxiety of the situation, including for yourself but also your family.  But then you have these patients who were basically on their deaths beds and their families couldn't be with them.   And that's some of the saddest things I've ever seen," said Stogner.

Healthcare workers including Stogner worked extra shifts during the week and weekends.  They expanded the ICU to accommodate the rush of patients.  Additional ICU beds required more staff and some workers had to be taken out of rotation and quarantined because they became infected.

"Two of my co-workers, physicians got COVID and of course they were home for two weeks. They did well. They recovered.  But all of a sudden there's two people, two physicians in the ICU, who can't pull shifts. So, the other doctors in my group had to pull extra shifts.” 

The doctor, now 60-year old, describes it as a time filled with anxiety and depression.   Through the ensuing months, Stogner didn't realize he was neglecting his own health.

"October last year, I got really ill, not with COVID, and had to have surgery and this, that and the other.  It's no doubt that it was the stress of the preceding eight months," said Stogner.

Stogner is fine now and says he has a greater appreciation for life.  He says he didn't notice the deep compassion displayed by fellow healthcare workers until they were in the midst of fighting the coronavirus.  Stogner says the administration worked to come up with policies to care for patients.  He says the changes along with new procedures are in place should another pandemic surge arise.