Bronx nurses protest 'frightening' conditions
Nurses protesting outside one hospital in New York City Thursday (April 2) say they're frightened for their lives.
They held up signs demanding more personal protective equipment - or PPE - at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.
Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez has been a nurse for three decades.
She voiced alarm at being forced to reuse face masks.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER NURSE, JUDY SHERIDAN-GONZALEZ, ON THE HOSPITAL ISSUING NURSES FACE MASKS, SAYING:
"They gave us one on Monday, one on Thursday. Turn in your old one, you'll get the new one. We said that's unacceptable. Now they're saying they're going to give us one a day, where normally we would use many in a day to take care of patients. They're talking about resterilizing them under procedures that are not scientifically proven to be effective."
With the U.S. facing a dire shortage of protective gear.
Federal and local health officials have advised healthcare workers to reuse and clean their disposable masks and gloves, rather than throw them away after each patient.
Sheridan-Gonzalez demanded the use of the U.S. Defense Production Act to push factories to churn out gear.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER NURSE, JUDY SHERIDAN-GONZALEZ, ON THE HOSPITAL ISSUING NURSES FACE MASKS, SAYING:
"This is outrageous that we have people coming and sewing things for us, sewing masks, sewing shields, making things out of plastics. This is what we're doing now? I mean, that would be like a soldier going to war and making a plastic gun to bring with him. This is what's happening. This is what we're doing. This is the situation. And the public needs to know because they have to demand that we get the things that we need so that we can take care of people."
Other nurses at the protest say terror over catching the virus is impacting their work.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER NURSE, JACQUI ANOM, SAYING:
"It's literally frightening when you walk in there and if you're spending half your brainpower worrying about if you're going to die, you're not concentrating on the patient because you're just worried about not dying as you go in there. And it's very difficult. And now the ratios are even getting more. I mean, management says they're going to one nurse to 10 patients. It's sheer absurdity. It's sheer absurdity."
(SOUNDBITE) (English) MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER NURSE, VICTORIA LANQUAH, SAYING:
"More people are getting sick. It may not be COVID, but it's the severity of how extreme we're working, just so that we can stay safe. So it is exhausting. It is terrifying. But there's nothing we can do right now."
As of Thursday, the coronavirus outbreak had killed nearly 1,400 New Yorkers.
