I hardly slept the weekend before I left. I kept thinking, What am I doing?
Tess Bradley, as told to Ashley Edwards WalkerI’d just landed at LaGuardia Airport in New York City and was on my way to baggage claim when I heard the woman’s voice. She’d sought me out because I was wearing navy blue scrub pants. When I said yes, she said, “Oh my gosh, me too. Let’s go together!” I got that feeling we all had as a kid, when you'd show up to a birthday party or a dance alone and finally spotted a friend. Relief.
I was the happiest I’d ever been before to upending my life to volunteer in the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. I was a psychiatric nurse who’d just moved from Michigan to join my fiancé in Louisville, KY after dating long-distance for two years. Our wedding was supposed to be in June and I was all set to start a doctoral nursing program in the fall, so spring was going to be a time to catch my breath. Then, COVID-19 happened.
That first shift, on April 15, was absolute insanity. After putting on PPE—a N95 mask, a surgical mask on top to help the N95 last longer, an isolation gown, gloves and shoe covers, if you can find them—you just go into survival mode and start doing what needs to be done, which is hard in a makeshift hospital. We had one vitals cart—somethingneeds access to. We knew our patients couldn’t wait for hours while we wasted time tracking it down, so we designated one nurse as the vitals person.
The best day of my 21-day service was when my favorite patient got discharged. When you work the night shift, you almost never get to see your patients walk out the door. But there was one man in his fifties with whom I’d formed a real bond. He’d been really sick, and with us for about a week. There were a couple times where I was literally with him all night—and he liked his room hot, so I was sweating and even dizzy but still trying to do whatever it took to help him feel better.
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