Bronx politician becomes nurse to save patients with COVID-19

The Bronx lawmaker, who used to work as a nurse in one of the medical centers, decided to return to her previous job to save people infected with coronavirus. This publication reports New York Post.

Call for help

Karines Reyes has been a nurse since 2014 at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. In 2018, she ran for the New York State Assembly from the Democratic Party, won the election and completely switched to political activity. In January 2019, Reyes was re-elected to the Assembly from the 87th District in New York.

She recently received a call from former colleagues at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and said that they are in despair because they cannot cope with the huge number of patients with COVID-19. Then Reyes knew she had to help them. “When you become a nurse, you take an oath to help people,” the 36-year-old MP explained her decision to return to her previous job.

Therefore, on March 28, Reyes, who is still considered a nurse and can at any time take up her duties, returned to her old job. For the past two weekends, she has helped staff save the lives of patients with COVID-19.

However, her main work also requires time and effort. So last week, she had to return to Albany before dawn in order to manage to vote for the state budget. Then she returned to the Bronx again to work on the weekend as a nurse.

Too many deaths

Karinz described the nightmarish conditions while working in medical surgery departments and said she was stunned at how quickly patients suffering from the virus deteriorated. “This is unlike anything I've ever seen,” Reyes said.

On the morning of April 5, a patient came to her - an “elderly gentleman,” as she described him. The man was transferred from the emergency room. “He talked, talked ... By 2-3 o'clock in the afternoon he had to be intubated (intubation - insertion of a tube into the trachea to connect to the ventilator .– Ed.). Then he went into cardiac arrest and died, ”Reyes said.

When asked how many patients died, she simply answered: “Too many.”

Karinz said that ventilators in Montefiore ran out on March 27, and nurses had to learn how to use new portable respirators, which were promptly delivered. “So many people suffer from respiratory problems. We need to intubate them right now, "she noted, adding that" that's the difference between life and death. "

Full power operation

Reyes noted that the hospital operates “at full capacity” and treats patients with coronavirus exclusively on most floors. Even in waiting areas, hospital beds were installed after they were converted into medical rooms.

She added that the hospital was forced to “loosen protocols” on how to prevent infections, and nurses and doctors are asked to “do what we usually don’t do.” But, “this is not the hospital’s fault,” Reyes emphasized: “This is the situation they are facing.”

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Note that Reyes returned to the hospital amid a call to retired medical workers to return and join the fight against COVID-19. At this very time, state medical workers are forced to save the lives of a huge number of patients with coronavirus in the face of a lack of personal protective equipment and the risk of contracting themselves.