The COVID-19 pandemic is showing us all just how much nurses do each and every day. Almost one month ago, 50 nurses from Cayuga Medical Center went to the frontlines of the pandemic in New York City.
"I've been down here for almost four weeks and I still can't believe what I'm seeing and I can't believe what I'm doing," said Julie Niederhofer.
Nurses of all backgrounds, rolled up their sleeves and received two days of ICU COVID-19 nurse training.
"I didn't recognize how it could affect people so young, so old, different backgrounds, different ethnicities, all different cultures are affected by this and that's scary. This doesn't just affect one population it affects us all," said Sierra Meads.
“Unfortunately, not many of the patients that I care for get to go home. And they don’t get to see their families again. I realized that in that moment that I wasn't just here to help the nurses I was here to love and care for the patients," said Taylor Butler.
Butler is one of the 50 nurses sent to work at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
“I have washed and braided the hair of patients who have tangled messes. I’ve gotten to rub their feet and their hands and their backs. I've held their hands while they pass away. And loving people is why we came into healthcare and being here has been a great reminder of that," said Butler.
The nurses, who return to Tompkins County on Thursday, are also caring for the families that can’t come near their sick loved ones.
“How to provide a new level of support for folks that are alone and are experiencing COVID, they've learned new ways to connect patients to their families using technology as well," said LouAnne Giangreco, the System Chief Medical Officer at Cayuga Medical Center.
“Some of the biggest heart opening moments that I got to be part of was holding an iPad or an iPhone for someone while their loved ones got to see them for the first time in a really long time," said Amy Galton, one of the nurses who volunteered to go to NYC.
One of Galton’s patients was in comfort care, and she helped him make a call to his sick wife. She wasn’t awake, but their children held an iPad up to her bedside.
“And to be able to sit there next to him as he said goodbye to his wife as she’s dying, actively dying. [It] is such a gift to be present and to hold his hand, and he died two days later. That’s the hardest and the best moment," said Galton.
These nurses said they want their friends at home to know they’re making a difference.
“And we might not be working miracles and we might not be sending everybody home but we are giving everybody love and care and attention," said Butler.
“Keeping people alive, and quality of life, and comfortableness, you know taking pain away both physical and emotional is a huge part of nursing," said Galton.
The nurses from Cayuga bonded with their colleagues on the frontlines in New York City to do all they could for their patients, while risking thier own lives.
"To meet nurses from Cayuga Medical Center, who I've never worked with and now we have a bond, that's a lifelong bond and they're family to me," said Niederhofers.