Schludt left Plant City eight weeks ago to treat COVID-19 patients in Brooklyn, New York.
Seeing the news about COVID-19’s effect on New York City had profound effects on nurses from all over the country, including here in Plant City. Nurses like Lexi Schludt have stepped up to travel to one of the hardest-hit regions in the United States and help out however they could.
“I was not getting enough sleep at night,” Schludt said. “I was coming home from work feeling defeated. They were really struggling in New York… I felt like my heart was pulling me here.”
So, for the last eight weeks, Schludt has been working at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in New York City. It was a giant step out of her comfort zone, but one she felt was necessary to take.
“It was very, very scary walking into a hospital where it felt like a war zone,” Schludt said. “Everybody was super welcoming, but in the sense they were thankful for someone to come in and help. The patient-to-staff ratio was awful. It was hard, but rewarding.”
According to Schludt, every floor of the hospital had been converted to treat COVID patients when she got there. Rooms that were not designed to treat ICU patients were being used for that purpose. All of her patients were fighting the virus and some were on “military-grade ventilators” the likes of which Schludt had never seen before.
A common sentiment among nurses like her who have traveled to New York City to work is that everything they already knew about nursing back home, everything they were taught, gets thrown out the window when you’re working with COVID patients.
“You learn every day as a nurse and you don’t do anything by the book when you’re first a nurse anyway, but I’ll never forget this experience,” Schludt said. “I’ve learned more in the last eight weeks than I have in the last year.”
She said one of the most jarring things about the experience was how fast it can develop within a patient. One man, for example, came to the ER “fully alert and oriented” despite having tested positive. That was two weeks ago. The man has since passed away.
“It’s so fast and nothing like I’ve ever seen before in nursing,” Schludt said. “We know about cancer, flu, stuff that’s already out there, but this is something you can’t describe.”
Nurses like Schludt focus on doing the best they can with the resources and knowledge they have. One critical aspect of the job is being there for patients who have no one else to be with them, whether because they don’t have any family or their families were not allowed in to visit them. The latter has since changed at her hospital: some family members are now allowed to visit so long as they wear N95 masks, but this only happens when the hospital determines a patient may not survive the night. But in milder cases, the nurses can become a patient’s link back to their own world outside.
“Being there with patients who can’t be there with loved ones, FaceTiming their family when they need it, it’s awesome to be able to do that for people and they were so thankful,” Schludt said. “We were doing our best to make sure they’re aware we’re right there with them, holding their hands and being the best nurses we can be.”
There have been positive moments in Schludt’s time at the hospital, though. She said things are starting to inch their way back to normal in a noticeable way now and that she’s starting to be able to treat patients who don’t have COVID. Many of her current COVID patients have been there for about as long as she has, and she has seen some patients make major turnarounds from the hospital bed.
“I saw a few COVID-positive patients who were intubated and unresponsive get to go home, which is amazing,” she said.
Schludt’s final shift at the hospital is Saturday, and then she’ll make the drive back home to Plant City to be reunited with her family. She’s leaving New York with a new outlook on life as well as a new outlook on nursing.
“I’ve learned to be thankful every day for what you have,” Schludt said. “That’s what I’m taking away from this. Today might be a bad day, but tomorrow could be better.”
Have you or someone you know left Plant City to treat COVID-19 cases in New York City or other heavily affected parts of the country? If so, the Plant City Observer would like to tell your story. Email Associate Editor Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
