We're going on close to 2 months apart from my son.
For background, I am a Flight Paramedic for a HEMS service in North Texas. My girlfriend of two years who lives with us is a HEMS Flight Nurse at a different service. We have both been flying intubated COVID patients, and are now treating everyone as positive. We also both have to trudge in and out of ER's ICU's and COVID wards every time we transport a patient. Also, transporting these patients in a helicopter is an infection control nightmare for a number of reasons. I've made the argument that these patients should only be transported bye ground, but you can guess what our company had to say about that.
My son has Cystic Fibrosis, and while not technically immunocompromised, the nature of his disease requires us to treat him as such, and he is also at a huge risk for respiratory complications. We made the decision that it would be best to quarantine him with my father and his significant other, who are retired and working at home respectively.
It has been a huge emotional stress on both of us. We try to FaceTime or visit through the window on their back porch every day, but it's still hard. Our local children's hospital (where I worked for years and still know quite a bit of their staff) is starting to see an uptick in the Multisystem Inflammatory Disorder in pediatric patients, so we have decided to wait and see if there will be a second wave after re-opening. We all expect for there to be.
I can understand the arguments for opening back up, but the fact remains that neither of us have a CHOICE to stay home. I am risking exposure every day to try and fly these patients out of rural areas with very little medical resource (and yes, we are flying intubated COVID positive patients out of small rural hospitals).
As of now we are keeping the situation as it is. It's stressful not knowing when he can come home.
For background, I am a Flight Paramedic for a HEMS service in North Texas. My girlfriend of two years who lives with us is a HEMS Flight Nurse at a different service. We have both been flying intubated COVID patients, and are now treating everyone as positive. We also both have to trudge in and out of ER's ICU's and COVID wards every time we transport a patient. Also, transporting these patients in a helicopter is an infection control nightmare for a number of reasons. I've made the argument that these patients should only be transported bye ground, but you can guess what our company had to say about that.
My son has Cystic Fibrosis, and while not technically immunocompromised, the nature of his disease requires us to treat him as such, and he is also at a huge risk for respiratory complications. We made the decision that it would be best to quarantine him with my father and his significant other, who are retired and working at home respectively.
It has been a huge emotional stress on both of us. We try to FaceTime or visit through the window on their back porch every day, but it's still hard. Our local children's hospital (where I worked for years and still know quite a bit of their staff) is starting to see an uptick in the Multisystem Inflammatory Disorder in pediatric patients, so we have decided to wait and see if there will be a second wave after re-opening. We all expect for there to be.
I can understand the arguments for opening back up, but the fact remains that neither of us have a CHOICE to stay home. I am risking exposure every day to try and fly these patients out of rural areas with very little medical resource (and yes, we are flying intubated COVID positive patients out of small rural hospitals).
As of now we are keeping the situation as it is. It's stressful not knowing when he can come home.