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Medical professionals from Atlanta have volunteered to go to New York City as part of an emergency response team where the coronavirus outbreak is the largest in the nation. Cassie Marcelus, a nurse, is part of a team assigned to a hospital in the Bronx. She describes her experience to GPB News reporter Donna Lowry.
 

Tell us, you are just getting off work. Tell us a little bit about that, where you are and what you're doing.

So we're in New York City and I'm a part of the emergency response team. I'm working through a company by the name of Crucial Staffing. Basically the state of New York needs help and so that's who we work for. We work for the state of New York and we've come from all over. There are a lot of people that came from the South, a lot of people that came from Atlanta to help out here. It's kind of like a pandemic within a pandemic. I've never seen anything like it.

Let's talk about your location. First of all, you left, what, almost four or five days ago?

Yes, I found out about it on Wednesday. They wanted me to come on Thursday. I was like, "That's a bit too soon." So I was on the plane on Friday morning at 6 a.m. and I was in the hospital Saturday morning at 7 a.m. 

Tell me what a typical day looks like for you. And I know you've been recording it on Facebook, Facebook Live. So tell us how that what that looks like.

Yes. So we have roll call in the mornings at 5:45 for the morning shift. That's where they tell you where you're going to be because we're at hospitals all over New York. Not only are we in hospitals, we're in prisons, we're in clinics. A lot of us are doing drive-thru swabbing. So we're all over it in New York.

I understand there is a makeshift hospital that's been put up now. They're thinking about staffing the convention center because hospitals are full of other hospitals' patients. And that's basically what's going on. I was assigned to the night shift. That's why I'm getting off. I was assigned to the night shift and we show up at 5:45. We're bussed to the different locations. And I go over that a lot in my Facebook Lives as well because people want to know, well, what does it really look like? Not just what they see on the media. Like what is it like day to day for you? We're up at 5:45 p.m. We have police escort the bussing system. And they transport you to the different hospitals. The name of mine is North Central Bronx. It is a small 232-bed hospital, but what it is, is that the patients from all the other hospitals are ending up coming to this hospital because the other hospitals are running out of room. So last night— typically it was a nursery. All this time has been a nursery. So they turned this nursery into a makeshift triage center for patients that were coming from a hospital in Queens. So we ended up having 10 COVID patients in the nursery.

Let's talk a little bit about—and you describe it in your Facebook Live— exactly what you have to do to be safe. It involves even something at the hotel where you're staying, with your feet and your shoes.

Yes. So when we come back from work, we're expected to come straight in and go straight to our rooms. We're not to go anywhere else. We're to go straight to our rooms, but before that, they have a system there. I think it's ultraviolet light. And so we stand on top of these things— I call them the foot cleaners— and we stand on top of those for a certain amount of time that clicks you and tells you when it goes off. And so is decontaminates your feet so that you can continue to walk and go to the elevators, come up to the room, expected to take a shower right away, don't go anywhere else in the hotel.

Are you allowed to even get together? I think you're probably just exhausted, aren't you?

Yes. We are. A typical day with the transport to and from our work stations is 14 to 15 hours long. And that's every day. We're expected to work 21 days in a row before we're able to have a day off. 

Wow. Let's talk about the PPEs. That's been a real concern with people. Do you have them? 

I do. We do. I'm very proud to say that. I know that we've heard horror stories and those stories are, in fact, real. But I think because of those stories, they've executed and got us the supplies that we needed. I've never been without. I've always had my N95 mask. It's right here and this is one that I use, I'll use it again, but I don't have to. If I get to the hospital and I want another one, I can get it and then I use it and put another mask on top of that. So I'll use my n95 closest to my face and then I'll put another mask on top of that one and then you see I cover my head anyway just because, all the way down to my ears. Then I'll put another disposable cover on top of my head. And then we have the gowns. We have the eye shields, goggles. They have several different styles and then we go up and then we have shoe covers. Even if you're in a high, high, high-risk area like ICUs and PACUs, they have paper scrubs as well. You can just take those off at the end of your shift and throw them away.

How do you feel about doing this? I know you've been a part of the mobile care team, the emergency response team for a while. What is this like compared to what you've done in the past? 

It's like nothing I've ever seen because of the way it touches your heart. I mean, I've been a nurse for 29 years, so I've done a gamut of things in the field of nursing, from ER to ICU to Burn Unit. You know, I've worked at our beloved Grady. So, the word on the street is if you're a Grady nurse, you could do anything. And that's true.

But this is the separation. Like, for instance, these people were were shipped over from Queens because there was nowhere else to go. And a lot of their families didn't even know where they were. They had no clue. Their cell phones are gone or they're not charged or they're just incapacitated to the point to they can't talk anyway. And so, you know, you got families frantic calling. They didn't even know their loved ones [were gone] and they've been gone for hours or for days. Husbands and wives are showing up and they're not able to be in the room together and they both have COVID. 

Or you have us where we can't go back to our families. That even when I get my two days off, I won't be —even if New York lets me out and I'm able to come home to Atlanta, then I'll just be at my place because I won't be able to go anywhere. I'll have to self-quarantine. And that's OK, because I'd rather have everybody else safe than for me to experience any kind of joy during this time.

So you feel pretty safe with what you're wearing and what you're doing. And you told me your heart is a mess.

Definitely. Most definitely. I am. I'm gainfully employed. I still work. And I decided to take a leave of absence from my job. I wanted to come here. I don't know what that means for me back home, but it just really doesn't matter because I had to follow my heart. Doors were open. I got the call on a Wednesday about the opportunity. They were like, "Can you come tomorrow?" I was like, "No, I can't come tomorrow." So I was here on Friday and everything just lined up. It was what they said it was. As far as you're here, we have great accommodations. I feel safe. We have security around the clock. We have food. Starbucks shows up in the mornings with danishes and coffee every single morning. And then they have food around 5 p.m. for the night shift because we're not able to get out a lot. So we use a lot of delivery services and that's fine. But just to know that people are going the extra mile to do other things, to make it as comfortable as we can. It's not perfect. It's not an ideal situation. But that's what you signed up for. And most of the time, that's what a nurse's heart is all about. You just get the job done. 

And you'll be there 21 days?

At least. 

A final question about what you're doing. What are you seeing in terms of how sick the patients are that you're treating? 

Very. Literally before your eyes. Not to get too technical about it, but last night, I had patients that ranged from age of 30 to 81. And I had six patients in a room that was maybe 10 feet by 15 feet— like the size of a small baby nursery. They're on stretchers. There's no pillows because they run out of supplies and those considered luxuries. We're in the mode where we're trying to save your life and nothing else matters. So everything is makeshift. We have to makeshift the supply station, makeshift a clean area and a dirty area so as to keep the flow of traffic going. And literally right before your eyes, they could come in. Everybody comes in with pneumonia-type symptoms. So that's why all of the protective gear is so important. Everybody's coughing, everybody's sick, everybody has some kind of sputum going on. And the sad part about it is if you come in and you're swabbed because we think you [have] COVID —so we're ruling out that you [have] COVID— well, you're still in a room with everybody else who [has] COVID. So nine times out of 10, even if you're not, you're gonna be. And there's nothing that we can do to help that.

You're the care person. You said their families aren't around. So you are the next best thing, making them feel comfortable. I'm sure they're sad. They're scared. Talk about that a little bit.

So we do a lot of praying. We do a lot of praying both with the patients, with ourselves and nurses on our bus. On the way over, we say prayers. We quote scriptures on our bus every single day over from our bus drivers all the way to every single solitary staff. And there's orients here. Nurse practitioners are here. They are getting extended rights now. We really want to mention that because this is really big. They've been kind of held back from that. But they're extending their rights so that they're able to do more with their practice because doctors are short. So all the nurse practitioners are having to step in. So we have a mixture here. 

And so we pray a lot. We laugh a lot. Laughter is good. You know, we make jokes. We try to do something to lighten our burden outside of our patients— of course, we wouldn't laugh in front of them. We do a lot of speaking to the families and we encourage them [by saying], "Hey, now that you know it, call us back. If you wake up in the middle of the night, we're here. We're up. Call us back if you get to thinking about it. I can let you know how he is." This is not a situation where they can talk on the phone. A couple of them have had their phones and were able to charge them and let them Facetime. 

It just breaks your heart to see the tears because it's like "I just want to put eyes on and just let me see my loved one." I have a 22-year-old who is away at college that I couldn't imagine being separated from him, not knowing where he is and or how he is, even if they're not able to do anything about it. You go to the hospital to visit your loved one when they're ill. So just seeing them means all the world. So those are small things we can do. And my thing is, I tell them— especially if I see them going bad— I'll get in their ear and I'm like, "Mr. So-and-so, you fight. You got this. You fight it. If you can't breathe, you take the next breath. If you're struggling, you still take the next breath. Your family is home. They're waiting on you. They're dependent on you. You got this. You get up out of this. This is not the worst we've seen." So we do a lot of that directly in the ear, talking. And some of them, all they can do is just nod their head and lets them know that "I hear you and I'm still in here, even in the midst of being in an acute situation." So it's really intense. 

So you're the nurse here, the counselor, you're the family member. All of those things. 

Yes and you know what? That's no different from what nurses do. We do this every day, all day. We are the ones that see you when you come into the world and so many times, we're the ones to be holding your hand when you leave.

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