Alisa Greene hugs her children before departing from John Glenn Columbus International Airport for New York City to help during the coronavirus pandemic. Greene worked in Brooklyn, New York for three weeks. (Photo submitted)
Alisa Greene is a Marysville resident, mother, wife and hospice nurse, but she set all of that aside to go to the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak to provide a helping hand.
She has no ties to the people of New York City, but she decided to go anyway, all at the request of a friend that Greene used to work with at Riverside Methodist Hospital.
“At first I was like ‘no way, it is too far, it is too dangerous, I don’t want to leave my family,’” Greene said. “But after I thought about it, I thought, I am trained for this.”
Greene has experience as an ICU nurse where she gave ventilator treatments, before becoming an end-of-life caregiver.
So she went. She said goodbye to her husband and two boys not knowing what was going to be facing her in New York.
“It is hard to explain to a five-year old why you are leaving,” she added, but Greene went anyways.
She headed to Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center in Brooklyn, New York. It didn’t take long for her to see just how bad the outbreak is. She worked in critical trauma where the ‘sickest of the sick’ in the emergency room go for treatment.
“My first 10 days there we were at double capacity every night,” Greene said. “Everyone that walked through the doors was positive for COVID-19.”
So this meant long hours for the registered nurse. Greene’s contract was for three weeks where she worked 12-hour shifts every night. Life for those three weeks consisted of waking up, eating and getting as much hydration as possible before catching a chartered bus to the hospital.
“You work your tail off while you are there,” Greene said.
There were no breaks, no time to have a meal or get a drink. The lines of people extended into the halls were patients laid on gurneys waiting to be seen, Greene said.
“You can’t take your mask off to eat or drink for fear of getting sick,” she said. “I watched colleagues get sick while I was there from just taking it off to drink some water.”
Even the simplest of things like taking off her mask at the end of her shift had to be done with care.
“You have to take your gear off the right way so you don’t contaminant yourself and exhausted as you are, you have to wash your hands constantly.”
Everyday while there she was at risk of exposure, so Greene monitored herself closely.
“Whenever I was a little sore or hot, it would put me on edge,” Greene said.
Greene went to New York hoping to help restore people’s health, but she could not help them all. She lost six patients on her hardest shift, but she was able to use her hospice experience to help others through the dark time.
“My hospice background helped me choose the right words and give families the compassion and support they needed at a distance,” Greene said.
But she added it was difficult not being able to provide a human touch of holding a dying patients hand or hugging a loved one. This didn’t stop her from trying to provide a moment of piece.
“I put my cellphone in a biohazard bag and played some music to help them have some peace,” she said.
Once Greene’s contract was up she returned to her family in Marysville where she was quarantined for two weeks. But quarantine came with its own struggles.
“In the moment when things are crazy, you put your head down and deal the emotions later,” Greene said.
With little to do, the emotions came during her two-week lock down, she said.
Clearing quarantine, Greene returned to her work as an end-of-life nurse where she has a new appreciation for life.
“The one thing my experience reinforced over and over again is that life is so precious and tomorrow is absolutely not guaranteed,” she said.
Though Greene is thankful to have returned unharmed to her family she added that if she were called again she would head back to help others in need.