Alison Sullivan
A woman named Savanna who posts on TikTok under the handle @thaticunurse has been trying to wake people to the realities of ending up in the hospital with COVID-19.
Savanna is currently working in New York City, and her job is treating patients who get put on ventilators. While some of them recover and breathe on their own again, many never wake up.
On TikTok, Savanna recently posted a POV of what one of her patients see just before they’re sedated for the treatment.
She told BuzzFeed in an interview, “I decided to post this video…to educate families that have loved ones who have gone through this recently, and to educate people who still choose to not mask or follow social distancing guidelines.”
“I also filmed it to let people know that we are still here, and still really care for their loved ones while they are in the hospital,” she said. “We spend our whole day with this one life, trying to save them, forming bonds with them, and it breaks our heart for them to have to go through this alone.”
In the video, Savanna talks to the camera and tells the “patient” that their labs didn’t look very good.
“We’re going to have to put you on a ventilator,” she says. “It’s gonna be okay, it’s gonna be all right.”
She then asks the patient if they’d like her to get family on the phone for a FaceTime, then explains what’s going to happen.
“I’m going to give you some nice medication so you can go to sleep,” she says. “You’re not gonna feel any of it. And the doctors are going to put a tube down your throat to help you breathe. But you’re going to be asleep so you won’t feel any of it, okay. Don’t worry, I’m going to be right here with you the entire time.”
Savanna told BuzzFeed that being an ICU nurse is often managing the “delicate balance of trying to run someone’s body for them” when they can’t, which is what a ventilator is doing. That job has gotten a lot harder since the pandemic.
“The pandemic has turned an already tough job into something that — for many nurses and healthcare workers — would be considered a nightmare,” she explained. “We were asked to risk our lives to come in and take care of the nation’s sick — a call many of us have proudly answered — knowing that every day we come to work, we are opening ourselves to exposure and infection.”
She says many ICU nurses are working much longer hours to fill the gaps of ICU nurses who can no longer do it.
“And it has left many of us traumatized from the sadness and death that we have seen on such a high level during the pandemic,” she said. She added that she’s seen people of all ages die from COVID, not just the elderly.
“I hope people take away that healthcare workers are here to help them,” she says of her TikToks. “But at the same time, they need to understand that what may seem like a simple choice to not wear a mask on the subway could end a life and devastate a family. Small choices right now have big consequences.”
If you have any choice in the matter, make it a choice to avoid seeing Savanna in a hospital anytime soon.