'Only the beginning': Sydney ICU nurse pens grim post
A Sydney healthcare worker has implored residents of Australia's largest city to take the virus seriously as she warned things are only going to get worse for frontline staff as case numbers continue to climb.
NSW Health reported 77 new cases of community-transmitted coronavirus on Sunday with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian saying she expects daily new cases to hit triple figures before things improve.
The woman, claiming to be an ICU nurse, wrote on Facebook that "Covid is not something to joke about”.
“After surviving the first wave last year – being separated from our friends and families – and wearing PPE (personal protective equipment) for up to 13 hours a day we’ve been asked to step up again," she wrote.
"A lot of us turned up to work and our unit went back into lockdown."
“Every day I go in to work watching people struggle to breathe. Assisting in putting patients on life support and hoping they survive your shift. This is not a joke.
“This is only the beginning for us.”
The post wet viral on the weekend after it was shared on multiple social media platforms. The nurse has since made her Facebook account private.
In the comments, many Facebook user applauded her for sharing the experience and praised healthcare workers.
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The nurse that added for anyone who didn't understand how “quickly and severely” the virus can make people sick, she said she has witnessed patients go from “alert and laughing” to “being so severely hypoxic they can’t remember who or where they are” in the space of 12 hours.
“Sometimes (patients) even become violent. My colleagues and I are putting ourselves at risk taking care of these patients every day,” she wrote.
“If people don’t start doing the right thing by staying at home and being vaccinated it will only get worse.
“Come and take a walk in our shoes. It’s not something to joke about.”
There are currently 52 Covid cases in NSW hospitals with 15 in the ICU and five requiring ventilation.
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NSW has been in lockdown for two weeks and is currently due to have restrictions eased on Friday.
But Ms Berejiklian on Sunday told reporters “it’s pretty plain to see” numbers are not “headed in the right direction”.
“As soon as we know or have a sense of where the data is going, we, of course, let the community know,” the premier said.
“But obviously, at this point in time, the contact tracers have uncovered a number of chains of transmission. Were it not for lockdown, it would have been hard to identify those.”
With AAP
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