Coronavirus impact on health care workers

Coronavirus impact on health care workers

New at ten -- alabama is almost 4-months into its battle against coronavirus.

And tonight -- the state is on the brink of 50-thousand cases.

So -- we wanted to see how the staff at some of our local hospitals are handling the surge in cases... waay 31's will robinson-smith is live outside huntsville hospital.

He spoke with doctors and nurses in madison and limestone counties about how things have changed these past few months... and how you can help.

Just today, the alabama department of public health says there have been more than 67-hundred coronavirus hospitalizations so far.

Folks i spoke with say, they're doing what they can, but you at home can do more to help them.

After months of facing the pandemic, the medical staff at facilities like athens-limestone hospital say they feel better about facing the virus now than they did in the early days.

James root, icu technician, athens-limestone hospital we are less scared than we were, we are more knowledgeable now, but we still are taking the precautions that we need to and treating them with the most excellent care we can provide.

Icu tech james root and registered nurse meg pickle took a brief pause from their 12-hour shift to share their experiences at the hospital.

Pickle is dressed in part of her coronavirus personal protective equipment nicknamed "the bunny suit."

Meg pickle, registered nurse, athens-limestone hospital i pretty much get in this if i'm going to be working with covid patients.

I wear this all day, i don't leave the unit and this is what we all wear along with gloves and the n-95 mask.

At huntsville hospital's main campus, doctor sherrie squyres says over the past few months, she and her coworkers gained an appreciation for just how contagious the virus is, the various ways it can develop in patients and the importance of both preparation and prevention: like wearing masks in public.

Dr. sherrie squyres, medical director, huntsville hospital emergency department masking and distancing and just using common sense can eradicate this thing and yet, it's still out there prevalent.

Dr. squyres was part of the medical team that crafted madison county's mask ordinance.

She says they had hoped creating a mandate wouldn't be necessary.

Dr. sherrie squyres, medical director, huntsville hospital emergency department but more and more, what we were seeing was despite efforts to encourage people, it was still not being done out there as widely out there as we hoped that it would be.

So what we hope to do is put more pressure on people to do this and educate them in a more stern way.

And with the amount of work they're doing to make sure patients recover from the virus, folks like root wish people were doing more to help them.

James root, icu technician, athens-limestone hospital it is frustrating, yes, just to see the people not taking it seriously or thinking that this is something that has blown over already or wearing their mask incorrectly.

Dr. squyres adds that while the huntsville hospital system was very proactive about getting ppe, she and others in the medical field are still concerned for their own safety as they continue to confront the virus day after day.

Dr. sherrie squyres, medical director, huntsville hospital emergency department we are concerned that if a lot of our colleagues get infected, that that will deplete our resources at the hospital.

And so we're all trying to take care of each other.

And it's not just their physical health they're protecting, but their mental and emotional health as well.

James root, icu technician, athens-limestone hospital we really lift each other up and so when somebody's having a bad day, we really try to go above and beyond to make up for that weakness, which isn't a weakness.

It's human, you know?

Root says they have appreciated the signs of thanks like parades but the best way you can thank medical workers is by doing what you can to slow the spread and not give them as many coronavirus patients to treat.

Reporting live at huntsville hospital, will robinson-smith, waay 31 news.

Thanks, will.

Hospital staff also say they're taking extra precautions to keep those who come to the hospital safe.

They want to remind anyone that needs go to the hospital for non-coronavirus reasons