Families of health care workers are terrified they'll catch COVID-19. Your RV could help them.

Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY
·4 min read

A spontaneous idea by a Dallas-area woman for keeping her doctor husband quarantined from the rest of the family when he is off duty during the coronavirus crisis has blossomed into ad hoc, national volunteer service to match medical personnel with people willing to donate an RV or camper.

The idea, launched a week ago, is simple: Provide a cheap way for medical personnel to remain near their families without risking infecting them.

Emily Phillips tells USA TODAY that she was concerned when her husband, Jason , would return home in scrubs and medical gear after working with numerous patients daily as an emergency physician.

She said she was afraid he might inadvertently infect her, or her children, 8-year-old Landon, 5-year-old Ella, and 6-month-old Beau, who live in a large house on secluded acreage in Celina, north of Dallas.

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While her husband has so far not knowingly dealt with a coronavirus patients, he does work with emergency cases daily.

"I've been terrified," she said of her husband's arrival each evening.

"I'm looking at him, and I say, 'oh my god, he could easily be exposed to this virus,'" Phillips said. "It only takes one droplet to contaminate the family.”

She said her mother suggested they get a RV and park it on by the house, so he would be near his family without making closer contact.

An appeal on her Facebook page a week ago quickly turned up two local offers of RVs. By the time they brought one home, Craig Reese Brockman, a local doctor who supervises residents at Parkland Hospital, a major Dallas facility, had expressed interest in getting one. Emily and Jason gave up theirs and took a second one.

Dr. Jason Phillips, left, of Celina, Texas, and and Dr. Craig Reese Brockman,of Frisco, Texas, examine a donated RV that Brockman will use during the coronavirus crisis. Phillips's wife, Emily Phillips, started the volunteer project, "RVs for MD's" to donate RVS to doctors to alow them to self-quarantine from their families without having to go to hotels.

Emily Phillips then took the idea online on a Facebook page dubbed "RVs 4 MD's."

"Every doctor or nurse that we can self-quarantine, not in a hotel, we thought we could be saving thousands of lives," Phillips said. "Because if they expose their families, their families go to the grocery store, and all these other people catch it."

That's when everything exploded.

There are now 10 online administrators who work 24/7 trying to match RV donors with medical people looking for a camper.

"Wow, this is amazing," Alyssa Prescott wrote on the Facebook page. "My husband is an ER physician here in grapevine TX and I am worried sick about him and our family. We have five young children ... He is already seeing symptomatic patients daily right now and I worry around the clock about exposure for him and us. If there was an RV available in our area we would be thankful from the bottom of our hearts."

Phillips said the team was able to match up the Prescotts with an RV.

Julia Brandenburg, of Marysville, Calif. got involved by donating her RV. She thenvolunteered to work on the Facebook site as an administrator.

"I am just so happy to be able to do something for the medical community, and I wish I could do more!!" she said.

She said more than 1,400 people from around the country – from Sacramento to Houston to New York – have posted offer to donate or lend their RV.

Her one requirement: the whole process must be entirely free.

"No dollars are to be exchanged," she said. "It is completely and totally donations."

So far, they have matched RVs and doctors or nurses in Minneapolis, Little Rock; Lynchburg, Va.; Phoenix; Oklahoma City, and 5 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

"It's been unbelievable," she said.

Emily Phillips, her husband, Dr. Jason Phillips, and their 6-month-old son, Beau, at home in Celina, Texas. Emily became concerned about her doctor husband infecting the family, so she started a volunteer service for people to donate RVs to medical personnel so that they can stay near their families while off-duty without the danger of passing along the coronavirus.

Other appeals await a response: "Right now I have 1 in Sacramento.. 1 in Springfield Mo and 1 in Houston. Let me know if you know any docs there .. nurses etc," reads one posting. Says another: "We need an RV for Syracuse NY And south east Michigan ASAP".

Martin Tate, who lives near Houston, weighed in with an offer, saying he has two units just north of Houston: "I want to find a nurse or Dr that NEEDS them to keep them away from family and have their own space.."

All RVs and campers must be cleaned and disinfected first and meet requisite legal and insurance requirements, but that hasn't slowed the response, first reported by the local newspaper Culturemap Dallas.

The project, less than a week old, has been so successful that Phillips, who owns a software company, has been overwhelmed. The team working on the site spend all their time tediously trying to match RV donations with medical personnel in the area.

She said she is looking for someone who could it take over and manage the operation. She also hopes someone could develop a basic app – like Tinder – that would allow RV donors to swipe left and medical personnel in need of a camper to swipe right.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus good news, how to help: Donate RVs for healthcare workers