Recently, several healthcare workers have spoken out about their experiences with COVID-19 patients. Some doctors and nurses are so fed up with people (including very sick COVID-19 patients in the ICU) insisting that COVID-19 does not exist and that it is just the flu. Now, another nurse has come forward with her story and the reason why she quit her job.
A Twitter user named Ashley was an OR nurse in El Paso, Texas, until she was transferred to the COVID ICU. Eventually, she decided to quit her job, and multiple people wanted to know what happened. In order to explain, Ashley decided to share one story from her experience via a Twitter thread.
I’m an RN in El Paso and was recently transferred from the OR to COVID ICU. I resigned from my job last week and I’ve been asked several times, “What was the breaking point?” I don’t know a specific one, but I’ll share this: a thread 🧵1/
— Ashley in the OR😷 (@TheBlondeRN) November 16, 2020
Ashley wrote about her very last shift in the COVID ICU.
One of my last rooms to go into the patient was awake and alert. He was being transferred to a lower level of care in the next hour or so. The news was on, El Paso in the national headlines again for needing more freezer truck morgues. The patient makes small talk. 3/
— Ashley in the OR😷 (@TheBlondeRN) November 16, 2020
Ashley went on to explain how her conversation with the patient progressed. She couldn’t believe that he still didn’t believe COVID was worse than the flu.
I’m at a loss for words. Here I am basically wrapped in tarp, here he is in a Covid ICU. How can you deny the validity of covid? How is this possible? Misinformation is literally killing people in mass, I think to myself. 5/
— Ashley in the OR😷 (@TheBlondeRN) November 16, 2020
Ashley decided to break one of her rules as a nurse. She told him about the other patients she had worked with that day.
“To be honest this is my last shift. You’re the only patient of 25 that has been able to speak to me today or is even aware I’m here.” He’s surprised but doubtful and asks if other people are doing as well as him. I tell him I’ve never seen so many people SO very sick. 7/
— Ashley in the OR😷 (@TheBlondeRN) November 16, 2020
It seems that Ashley’s honesty shocked the patient and changed his attitude.
His tone changes, he seems to have understood the gravity of what I’m saying. He apologizes. I cry. The hot tears roll down my face from under my glasses, onto my mask, my respirator, from under my face shield and onto my gown. I apologize for tearing up and compose myself 9/
— Ashley in the OR😷 (@TheBlondeRN) November 16, 2020
When Ashley was able to transfer the patient to the lower level care unit, he had the opportunity to get a glimpse of the other patients on the ICU floor, and it seems that reality fully sunk in.
He says one more thing, “Thank you for telling me what you told me. Thank you for being a good nurse and about me. I saw a lot of the other ones when you were wheeling me out of ICU. It’s much more than a flu, I was mistaken.” 11/
— Ashley in the OR😷 (@TheBlondeRN) November 16, 2020
Ashley’s honesty completely changed the way her last patient thought about COVID-19, and he promised to share his new understanding of the seriousness of the virus if he recovered and made it out of the hospital.
I thanked him and I told him I hope he has a complete recovery. I hope he can heal. “I will tell everyone that denies how bad this is about my experiences,” he says. I will too, Sir. I will too./end
— Ashley in the OR😷 (@TheBlondeRN) November 16, 2020
Many people have responded to Ashely’s Twitter thread thanking her for her honesty and for sharing this heartbreaking story.