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A selfless New York-trained nurse who came out of retirement to help train aspiring frontline workers amid COVID-19 has died from the coronavirus, her family and friends have said.
Iris Meda – a graduate of City College of New York who retired as a nurse in Texas at age 70 in January – decided she needed to do her part in the pandemic and began teaching high school students about careers in health care in September, according to parents and friends.
“One of the reasons she wanted to become an educator, especially nursing at that time, the reason she came out of retirement to pursue it was because of the pandemic,” Meda’s daughter said, Selene Meda-Schlamel, at NBC affiliate, KXAS- Television in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“She wanted to train other frontline workers to help with this crisis.
Meda, from South Carolina, has started teaching “nursing skills for Collin College at Anna High School and Allen High School,” said a GoFundMe page created for the mum-of-two family.
“She said how she could choose the [students] who were struggling and she would stay with them and give them a helping hand because she had received so much encouragement in her life, ”her daughter told KXAS of her mother.
Meda ended up with ‘contract[ing] Covid-19 in his classroom, ” the GoFundMe post said. “She tested positive on October 14, 2020 and was hospitalized on October 17, 2020.”
Meda’s students flooded her with cards and messages while she was dying. She was eventually put on a ventilator and died, with her 75-year-old daughter and husband in PPE by her side, KXAS said.
“Iris went to heaven on November 14, 2020, exactly one month after testing positive,” said the GoFundMe post, which featured a photo of Meda in a sunny backyard.
Meda’s daughter said her mother died “doing what she loved.
“Despite the risks, she was living her life to the fullest, on her own terms at the time, trying to prepare future nurses for this country,” Meda-Schlamel told KXAS.
“Just to see this amazing, lively woman… so willing to put her life on the line to help others so that they can then help others, to see her languish there – it was such a tragedy,” said her daughter.
Meda has always been a survivor, friends said.
She was a high school dropout who received her college and college diploma as well as a nursing diploma. She lost her other daughter, Tanya, to cancer in 2013, according to GoFundMe.
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