Statements from Nurses Experiencing COVID-19 Pandemic
In the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic, a group of American nurses have shared their harrowing experiences working in U.S. hospitals. Ken McCarthy's book, "What the Nurses Saw," offers a compelling insight into these accounts, featuring interviews with nurses who worked on the frontlines during this challenging time.
One of the nurses interviewed, Erin Marie Olszewski, was posted to a large public hospital in New York. She observed doctors and nurses following harmful protocols, with intubation to breathing machines being primary treatment. Olszewski also claimed that she was paid $10,000 weekly by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) while staying in a luxury hotel during the pandemic, despite having no work assigned.
Kimberley Overton, a nurse in Nashville, shared her experience of being told not to spend time near patients' beds during the pandemic to reduce the spread of the virus. This policy, she believed, was unnecessary cruelty, as patients were deliberately isolated, deprived of nutrition and water, and communication was impossible with nurses covered head-to-toe in PPE.
Another whistleblower, Nicole Sirotek, observed that institutional power was rarely needed to ensure nurses' compliance with the Covid-19 regime, as the nursing staff policed themselves.
The book provides a compendium of bedside experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic and highlights the dangers of abandoning professional and moral standards. It also raises ethical concerns about the treatment of patients and the profit incentive in American hospitals during the pandemic, leading to high payments for concluded cases (i.e. deaths).
Remdesivir, declared by Anthony Fauci as the 'drug of choice' for Covid-19 sufferers, was often administered and caused kidney failure. To sedate intubated Covid-19 patients, high doses of fentanyl were administered. A breathing test on Covid-19 patients after a day on the ventilator typically resulted in failure due to the respiratory suppressant effect of fentanyl.
In addition, the use of PEEP (positive end-expiratory pressure) settings for ventilators was set unusually high, potentially causing damage to patients' lungs. The nurse who worked at the local intensive care unit during Covid-19 believed that the disease was distinct from usual respiratory infections and positively-tested patients admitted to her unit frequently suffered from asthmatic attacks.
The vaccination rates in the U.S. confirmed a political divide regarding Covid-19. Amidst these challenges, some nurses, like Kevin Corbett, warned of the 'Nazification' of the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic. The motto for future pandemics, according to these nurses, should be 'stay out of hospital' due to the ethical concerns raised during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York ordered 30,000 ventilators during the pandemic. However, the accounts shared by the nurses in McCarthy's book paint a starkly different picture of the reality faced by patients in American hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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