Imaris Vera cried after leaving her job amid coronavirus crisis as she revealed her reason to DailyMailTV.
The 30-year-old registered nurse walked out of the ICU unit at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Illinois when she arrived only to find out there were not enough masks for staff.
Vera, who was treating patients with coronavirus, said that her manager denied her request to wear her own personal protective equipment.
Vera lives with her sister, Sabrina, who has a rare blood disease. If she contracted coronavirus, it will put her sister’s life at risk. That’s why she decided to walk out of the hospital and put her family first.
“I quit my job today, I wanted to work and I was assigned to a COVID patient on an ICU unit that has been converted to a designated COVID unit, none of the nurses are wearing masks, not even surgical masks in the hallways when they’re giving reports to each other,” she said.
“I had my own N95 mask, I told my manager I understand we’re short on supplies but let me protect myself, let me feel safe. I have family I have to come home to and the way things are looking this isn’t gonna get any better.”
She added: “Americans are not prepared and nurses are not being protected.”
Her video quickly went viral and received more than 80,000 views.
In an interview with DailyMailTV, Vera said: “I know I am needed and I do want to help, but I feel like it’s at the cost of my life or my family’s lives and that is unacceptable.
“We wouldn’t send our soldiers into biological warfare without gas masks or into a gunfight with knives. In the same way, medical workers should be properly protected.”
She continued: “If there is a shortage of PPE equipment and we’re waiting on more supplies and if I’m willing to use my own supplies from home, I shouldn’t be penalized. I shouldn’t have to worry about choosing between my job and my life or the life of my loved ones.”
Speaking about the day she went back to work after some time off: “When I showed up I thought that every nurse would have on at least a mask while being on the COVID designated unit or in the hospital at all.
“But no one had any masks on. I came with my own N95 (respirator) mask from home and requested that I keep it on for the duration of my shifts so that I felt that I was protected.
“Each of the nurses were given a single N95 mask that was later placed in a brown paper bag to be stored outside of the COVID patient’s room and reused. But I felt that that posed a risk of contamination for the nurses and any staff members going into the room.
“I asked about the risk and our safety and I was told that we didn’t have sufficient PPE. I could tell from the look in my manager’s eyes that she felt kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“And I told her, I understand, you know, there’s a shortage with PPE and it’s nationwide, so I am not asking for anything extra. I’m just asking to be able to use my own mask and keep it on so I feel safe.
“But I was told that they’re (the CDC) not allowing nurses to wear any (of their own) masks in the hallways or on the units.”
Her manager understands her decision and even gave her time to think about it again.
“I would have to say to anyone that has this idea that my decision came only from a place of fear, you’re absolutely incorrect,” she told her followers. “It came from a place of uncertainty, but also from a place of just pure vulnerability.”
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Replaced!