PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) - Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula is one of thousands across the U.S. that has seen COVID-19 patients come through its doors.
The last two months have changed the way the hospital operates as new protocols help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Patients check in outside with healthcare workers in head-to-toe protection equipment behind a plastic barrier. They are screened with a thermal camera to check their temperatures.
But one thing that hasn’t changed is the people taking care of patients who come through the hospital doors - doctors, nurses and other health professionals who have dedicated their lives to helping others.
Jackson County has the highest number of cases on the Mississippi Coast - nearly double the cases in Harrison County - with many requiring inpatient care at the Pascagoula hospital.
The Sun Herald visited the hospital in early April, as coronavirus cases rose, and spoke with workers on the front lines of the pandemic.
‘SOMETHING OUT OF A MOVIE’
Christy Pierce has been an intensive care unit nurse for more than 14 years. The new coronavirus is unlike anything she’s seen before.
She’s from Hurley, Mississippi, and has worked at Singing River Hospital for her entire career. She said being close to her hometown is special, and she sometimes gets calls from people there asking for medical advice.
A global outbreak of a new virus isn’t something she ever thought would affect the Coast.
“It’s like something out of a movie, not something would happen in South Mississippi,” Pierce said. “Maybe something like this in New York City. You wouldn’t expect something like this in Pascagoula.”
Ocean Springs native Katelyn Bishop has been with Singing River for two years as an ICU nurse and works alongside Pierce. There was “never a plan B” for her career, Bishop said. She knew early on she wanted to be a nurse.
She’s thankful she had two years of nursing under her belt when the coronavirus first came to South Mississippi.
As cases started appearing in Jackson County, the hospital had to quickly adjust to accommodate positive patients.
“When we first started, it was kind of chaos trying to figure out what we were going to do,” Bishop said.
Staff had to properly isolate patients in negative-pressure rooms and learn how to check the room’s status to ensure the airflow would keep staff from being exposed. The lower air pressure traps potentially harmful particles by preventing the air from leaving the space.
Proper use was essential as the ICU’s nurses’ station is surrounded by eight of the negative-pressure rooms used by COVID-19 patients.
“I wanted to wear my N-95 mask all day, I didn’t want to take it off,” Bishop said. “I did that for a while, but it’s impossible to keep that on all day.”
She said her coworkers help her get through the long days.
“Our spirit is what is going to get us through this,” Bishop said. “If we lose that, we lose everything.”
‘THEY GET SICK FAST’
The ICU is where the sickest patients are monitored. Pierce said she’s seen the progression of the virus take turns quickly.
“When our patients are getting sick, they get sick fast,” she said. “We have to get the doctor at the bedside and get ready to intubate. It’s different now than six months ago when we just got the equipment we needed and went in to do what we had to do.”
Now, Pierce said that doctors wear hazmat suits that circulate air to help them focus on patients during intubation, where a tube is put down a patient’s throat to put them on a ventilator. Everything has to be ready to shut the door and perform it bedside. If anything happens while inside, the team inside and outside the room has to be on the same page to act quickly.
“This is a team effort even more so than before,” Pierce said. “If I’m in the room and need something, I need it quick. We are very dependent on each other right now.”
A few floors up is the COVID wing that’s known as a “hot” unit, where positive patients are first admitted and are showing symptoms such as shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.
Registered nurse Tereeta Roberts works in that wing and knows how fast situations can change when it comes to COVID-19 patients.
“The thing is it changes so quickly. We’re taking care of patients who are talking to us, but they’re short of breath,” Roberts said.
“An hour or so later they’re really in distress and we have to quickly get them to the ICU. When we send one off, it seems like there’s another one that needs to be admitted.”
Families can’t visit their loved ones in the hospital, even when they become critical in the ICU. Bishop said she tries to keep in touch with families by phone to help give them peace of mind.
“It’s hard to imagine having a loved one in the ICU under these circumstances. The unknowing of what’s going on and if they’ll make it out.” Bishop said. “I try to talk to the families as much as I can. I tell them to call me anytime. I want them to know we’re doing everything we can.”
PROTECTING THE HOMEFRONT
Pierce has added additional precautions before and after her shifts at Singing River.
“My COVID shoes never leave my car,” Pierce said. “I make sure I’m clean before I leave to go to my house. I’m fortunate enough to have an apartment behind my house. I clean up, I Lysol everything I touch, even my car. I try to do everything I can.”
Pierce has two very special reasons why she takes those new precautions - her young son and daughter at home.
“It’s scary to think I could take something home,” she said.
Her voice broke at the thought and tears welled in her eyes. The mother said she takes every step she can to protect her family.
Pierce said she knows many healthcare workers who have completely separated themselves from their families and young children while they care for positive patients. She said, for her, being separated from her family for an extended period would be worse.
“This isn’t going away, this is going to be here,” Pierce said. “Right now I’m being protected, I have my N-95, gowns, clean gloves. I’m just praying that it doesn’t go home to them. I don’t kiss on them.. things like that. They know I love them.”
HEALTHCARE WORKERS ‘JUST DOING THEIR JOB’
As the nation fights the spread of the new coronavirus, healthcare workers, first responders and essential workers have been hailed as heroes fighting on the frontlines of a global outbreak.
“We don’t know when this will end,” Bishop said. “It’s amazing to have people understand what we’re going through when they can’t see what’s happening on the inside that they can’t see. It’s hard. Their support means so much.”
Displays of support have included hand-held signs in front of hospitals, prayers in parking lots, and even military flyovers of Coast hospitals. Many in their own communities have shown support in their own ways.
“The local nail salon in Hurley game me some masks left over, a girl left them on my back porch,” Pierce said. That was just one of many gestures she’s witnessed since March. She’s had everything from cards sent to being offered a free bottle of wine or pizza on a Friday night.
“I’m just doing my job,” Pierce said.
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