Day 7 – My second day in the ER Jessica Bussert  |  Founder & CEO Thursday, April 16th

My day started on a somber tone.  After arriving at the hospital and attending the staff huddle, I headed out to my station to get report.  As I entered the unit I noticed a number of the local staff all gathered together, some crying, some hugging one another.  It was obviously a private moment and I didn’t feel comfortable interjecting myself into their grief.  I got to my workstation and found the nurse who was going off shift.  Like myself, she was another traveler visiting Brooklyn to help out with COVID-19.

After she gave me report she leaned in, lowered her voice, and shared with me the details of the morning’s tragedy.  Without going into any personal details, she shared that over the evening a well-loved local surgeon had passed from the virus.  As the day’s staff arrived the news spread quickly and many were overcome by their grief.  Unfortunately, this was not the first time that they had suffered through a COVID death.

I sat there in silence for a moment and thought about the surgeon’s personal sacrifice.  I offered up a silent prayer and thought about that passage from the Book of John.  “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

I’m going to end today’s entry with that important meditation.  I’ll tell more about my own day in a subsequent post, but for now I don’t want to take away from thoughts of the doctor.