[ad_1]
PIKEVILLE, Ky. (LEX 18) – The number of COVID hospitalizations has started to decline in and around Pike County.
While this might sound like a good sign, the fight is far from over.
LEX 18 has tried to gain insight into what’s going on inside the COVID unit at Pikeville Medical Center. We were not allowed in, but instead spoke with a nurse who worked in the unit.
“It was almost like it was overnight,” said Laura Gevedon, of the latest wave of the virus. “We went from a COVID unit to an overflow opening. I mean it was literally like it was overnight.”
“You know that you are a good nurse and that you are a good person,” she says. “There is nothing you can do. It has been the hardest part.”
But she has done everything in her power to help treat the influx of COVID-19 patients.
“It was just overwhelming,” she said. “Within days we were overwhelmed.”
“The hardest part is feeling like you can’t control it,” she added. “It happens over and over and over again, and you feel like a failure even though you have done everything. It keeps happening.”
She tries to stay strong. One of the hardest parts is spending so much time in the halls and rooms of the unit and losing patients that she tried too hard to breathe in the fresh air.
“When their families couldn’t be there, we were there,” she says. “When the doctors were in the room, we were there. When there was no one else, we were there. Hold their hands and talk to them.”
Thinking about the patients and the uphill battle shows Gevedon’s compassion and humanity.
“You come home and you can’t really turn it off,” she said. “Because you worry about them. You can’t stop thinking about them. It’s really stressful.”
According to the Kentucky Department of Public Health, 92% of patients in Kentucky hospitals from March through September are partially vaccinated or unvaccinated. Gevedon says that once unvaccinated patients arrive, those who leave – do so with a different perspective.
“They all say they would like to get the vaccine,” she said.
For anyone on the outside who doesn’t take the virus seriously, there is a message.
“Think about all the medical bills, the missed work, who’s going to watch your kids,” she says. “It’s not just being in the hospital for a few days. That’s what people think. In the worst case, being in the hospital for a few days, what’s the worst thing that can happen to me? ? The worst thing is death. “
[ad_2]
Source link