By Sally Haase.
If you know Maureen Singer, you know her to be an enthusiastic and energetic woman. If you know Maureen you also know her engaging smile and infectious laugh. We know her over the years from her involvement in nursery school to school activities to H-K sports. Or, you may know her as an Emergency Room nurse at Middlesex Health, formerly Middlesex Memorial Hospital. Today, Maureen is on the front lines of the Covid-19 virus in the ER.
Maureen wanted to be a teacher but took some time after high school to be a nanny and work on a horse farm. But then she enlisted in the Air National Guard. Her training was in nursing services as a Military Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) whose role is essentially a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). She spent a month after 9/11 in Saudi Arabia supporting our pilots. Back in the states she was assigned to the Bradley Air National Guard base in East Granby and completed her RN degree at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.
Maureen has been an ER nurse at Middlesex for sixteen years. She works the grave yard shift (11pm – 7am) because it allows her to spend more time with her children and support their after school activities. Until coronavirus showed up, her most difficult patients were cardiac arrests, overdoses and sepsis. Mass casualties and pandemics might be something you train for but never expect to experience.
When warnings of the estimated infection rate of COVID-19 virus were revealed by the CDC, the hospital and staff prepared for the worst. Maureen recalls that it “was weird” and reminded her of September 11, 2001. She was working at Danbury Hospital when the towers came down. Since Danbury is only 45 minutes from Wall Street, they expected the overflow of patients would be arriving soon. Then, nothing happened. We all know why. Yet, this time it was a number of days before patient number one showed up (and on her shift). And they have not stopped coming.
I asked her about the procedure of admitting COVID-19 patients. When you enter the ER at Middlesex, the registration desk is enclosed with Plexiglass. Everyone who enters the hospital is asked to wear a mask. There are two triage rooms off the waiting room. One is used for possible COVID-19 patients and the other for non-COVID medical issues. A triage nurse is assigned to each room. A respiratory nurse assesses the potential COVID patient and the severity of his symptoms. This patient is then escorted down a separate hallway to a sectioned- off area in the ER for COVID patients. Ambulances arriving with possible COVID patients wait in a designated area for the COVID triage nurse’s assessment.
The COVID-19 patient may be isolated in a room with negative pressure – a room where the air pressure in the isolation room is lower than that outside the room. The HVAC return vents along with openings in the ceiling are blocked. Air enters the room under the door and is not recycled inside the hospital.
All testing of these patients are performed in the COVID room except CT scans. This time-consuming procedure involves many staff members suiting up and providing a “clean path” to minimize the threat for the CT scan. There are two COVID-19 tests; the rapid test takes 2 hours and the standard, more accurate test, takes 2 days.
After assessing and stabilizing the patient which may include treating blood pressure, identifying respiratory needs, heart and kidney functions, or even intubating them, the patient is moved to the COVID floors. At Middlesex the COVID-19 patients are vented on the ICU/CCU (Intensive Care Unit/Critical Care Unit) floor. Two other floors accept non-vented patients.
Maureen calls the ICU/CCU floor “ground zero.” Here nurses with highly specialized skill sets care for COVID-19 patients and others in another isolated area for non-COVID patient. These nurses are her heroes. They are in an area of highly infected patients throughout their shift. Here a team of skilled nurses and technicians constantly attend to each patient. It must be physically and emotionally exhausting. Because visitors are not allowed on the floor except for bereavement visits, ICU nurses often become their family.
So what is Maureen’s day like? While some of the staff arrive at work and change their clothes, Maureen wears her scrubs and mask when she enters the hospital. On arrival she is given her assignment, either COVID-19 or non-COVID-19. An isolation cart provides the PPE (personal protection equipment): gowns, masks, gloves, face shields, and caps. All are needed for COVID-19 patients and are changed throughout her shift. She sees fewer patients now but they require more care.
Here, her heroes (as well on the COVID floor) are the cleaning staff, called environmentalists at Middlesex. The environmentalists are the ones constantly cleaning the “dirty” rooms and constantly touching possibly infected surfaces. She refers to them as life savers. Additionally, she highly respects the EMTs who enter homes and transport patients not knowing what exposure they face.
At the end of her shift, Maureen leaves her COVID patients knowing that she will probably not see them again or have knowledge of their outcomes, yet comforted that the COVID floor nurses are the best.
Maureen drives home in her “dirty” scrubs. In the garage her bathrobe and slippers are waiting for her. She heads for the shower and her clothes go into the washing machine. Her car, which is reserved for her alone, is disinfected. Now, she hopes to lead a “normal” life. The Singers don’t watch the news on TV, but rather they read online, to avoid the constant updates on the pandemic. The family then spends time together. Their lives have slowed down but she says, “Our lives are good.” They already have had many evening bon fires making S’mores and just hanging out.
Does she take vitamins or supplements to protect herself from the virus? No. She just eats a healthy diet, gets plenty of rest and spends time outside. She does miss seeing friends.
The community, she says, has remarkably pulled together – making masks, taking care of each other and showing their support of the frontline workers with hearts on their lawns. On Nurses Day, a mother, who she hadn’t seen since her kids were in nursery school, left flowers in her driveway. Her kids wonder why she is getting all this attention; she’s just Mom!
If you know Maureen, you know she puts herself to the side and cares about people. She worries about long term health problems for survivors, about small businesses and people without jobs. Looking forward, she thinks the state should reopen smartly.
