Wife refused to visit dying husband to save masks for the medical professionals

The Coronavirus is bringing the best out of people in the worst situations. One such heartbreaking story was recounted by a nurse to PEOPLE. Blaire Guidry, an ICU nurse has been moved to tears by the selfless gesture of the wife of one of the patients she was treating for Coronavirus. The woman decided not to visit her dying husband as she worried that her repeated visits would cause a shortage of an already dwindling supply of medical equipment. Health professionals have reported an extreme shortage of supplies already with trade experts stating that the pandemic has been politicized by the President, in the process risking millions of lives, reported NBC News.

The 26-year-old nurse, who works at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans said that the woman's husband was her first Coronavirus patient. "He was in his 70s and not doing well. His wife called me every day and said that she didn’t know what to do with herself — she was just sitting there at home, crying," Guidry said. "He passed away." The number of Coronavirus cases has been surging in New Orleans, and according to a report by The New York Times, it may have been due to Mardi Gras, the week-long celebration that takes all around the city. "I think it all boils down to Mardi Gras," said Dr. F. Brobson Lutz Jr., a former health director of New Orleans and a specialist in infectious disease. "The greatest free party in the world was a perfect incubator at the perfect time."

The ICU at Ochsner Medical Center is full of coronavirus patients with equipment in short supply, Guidry said. Moreover, the frontline workers are being asked to reuse their medical gear including the N95 masks and protective gowns. "She could have come — if it’s the end of life and we’re turning off machines, the spouse and immediate children are allowed," Guidry stated. "But she knew she would have to be masked if she came, and she didn’t want to take away a mask, knowing how much we need that equipment." This deeply touched the nurse who is used to looking after patients and not the other way round. "I’m not a crier," she said adding, "It was just so selfless it made me cry."

“Our unit has the highest mortality rate in the hospital. But this seems like a different kind of death — just sad and emotionally exhausting," she said and added that she has been crying every day. "Patients not being able to have any family with them is very, very hard, because we take care of the families too. Now they can only call us, crying." Guidry also contributed a piece on nurses during the COVID-19 crisis this year in The Advocate, talking about how the meaning of 'The Year of The Nurse' has a new meaning now. The World Health Organization had declared 2020 as 'The Year of the Nurse.'

"If you would’ve asked me in January what 'The Year of the Nurse' meant to me, I would have said, 'It means a year to celebrate how healthcare in nursing has transformed over the last 200 years,'" Guidry wrote. "But, if you were to ask me today what 'The Year of the Nurse' meant to me, I’d probably start crying because now I’m left speechless." She went on to write, "We couldn’t have predicted that one day we’d be consoling family members at the bedside and the next day having to hear tearful family member’s voices on the phone asking us when this will end and if they’ll ever see their loved ones again, because of federal and local visitation guidelines." But she assured that nurses were "all strong and called to this profession by something greater."