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A mayor read a nurse’s Facebook post at a city council meeting.
A nurse’s words about the immense personal toll of treating COVID-19 patients have gone viral, notably drawing the attention of her local mayor.
At this week’s city council committee meeting in Aurora, Ill., Mayor Richard Irvin read the powerful Facebook post from intensive care unit nurse Carol Williams on Saturday.
“Look into his eyes, look into his face. The pain, the frustration,” Irvin said at the meeting. “I want to read his words to you, everyone who’s listening, so I don’t have to say it anymore.”
Williams posted this selfie after spending five hours working to save a COVID-19 patient.
“Right now I felt defeated because I already knew what the outcome would be even if it hadn’t happened yet,” Williams wrote.
“The inability to save a patient with all you can is mentally exhausting. Now imagine doing this on a loop for eight months and counting, ”she says. “Imagine watching a patient choke through a door while struggling to put on your PPE because he inadvertently took off the mask he desperately needed to breathe, but you still need to protect yourself first.”
“Imagine the nurse and the doctor telling a patient that we need to put them on a ventilator because we have exhausted all other measures,” Williams wrote. “Imagine being the nurse or the doctor holding this same patient’s hand and stroking his head weeks later while his ventilator is removed because he hasn’t improved and his family tells him then goodbye and love you on FaceTime as they take their last breath.
Williams then urged readers to step into the shoes of the COVID-19 patient.
“Shortness of breath, pain, fear, loneliness, isolation, anxiety, hopelessness and sadness. The need to use all of your energy just to breathe, ”she says. “The real realization that you can’t get better and face your own mortality.”
Williams pleaded: “Stop laughing at the fact that it won’t affect you or someone you love or know it will. Stop thinking that only unhealthy people with pre-existing health conditions or the elderly are the ones who die, they are not the only ones. “
“Please do not neglect all the lives lost or affected by this pandemic anymore,” Williams concluded, calling on Americans to work together and come together as a country.
Mayor Irvin said at the meeting, “Remember his words. Remember the anguish on his face.
Many board members seemed overwhelmed with emotion after hearing Williams’ words, with one member saying, “So moved.”
Aurora, Illinois has more than 10,000 cases of COVID-19 and at least 155 deaths. The United States now has more than 11.7 million cases and at least 252,654 deaths.
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