A nurse on the coronavirus frontlines has moved out of the home she shares with her husband and three children in order to better protect them from exposure to coronavirus.
Jay Short, a hospital healthcare assistant in North East England, penned an emotional post to Facebook earlier this month that announced she was making the dramatic choice to move out of her home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“This has been the hardest decision I have ever had to make, I don’t want to leave them but that is me being selfish,” the 32-year-old wrote on Facebook, according to the Daily Mail. “I am absolutely heartbroken.”
Short made the decision to better protect her partner, her two young sons and her infant daughter, who has experienced multiple chest infections since she was born last year.
“I am leaving my family, my young children, so I can go to work and care for others,” she wrote. “I will risk my health facing this virus head-on but I will not be risking anyone else’s.”
Short included a heartbreaking picture that showed her looking back at her family through a window, unable to hug or touch them until the coronavirus outbreak is over.
“This is how I get to see them now, through a window for a few minutes of the day,” Short wrote in her Facebook post. “Due to the number of confirmed cases and symptomatic colleagues, this will be the relationship I will have with my babies for the next few months.”
RELATED: Florida Nurse Forced to Live Apart from Family During Coronavirus Outbreak: ‘You Get Lonely’
Short told Daily Mail that the situation became more precarious for her when staff at her hospital became sick with the virus.
“That meant it was not just the patients who it was affecting now, it was staff too — and I knew I couldn’t bring it home to my family,” she told the outlet. “Other nurses are going home to their children because they don’t have any other choice, but I didn’t want to take that risk.”
With an uncertain future ahead of her, Short asked people to take coronavirus seriously, and to abide by social distancing rules, to get the disease under control.
“I am literally begging you, stay home! Please just listen to the rules and follow guidelines! This is not a holiday!” she wrote on Facebook. “This is killing people! Do not wait for it to kill someone you love before you realize that you could have prevented it.”
RELATED VIDEO: Frontline Healthcare Workers Stand Up to Lockdown Protesters in Colorado
“My life is upside down without my babies, but I am making this sacrifice for the greater good,” Short added. “To protect the people I love the most and care for people who need it.”
Coronavirus is highly contagious and can spread through air molecules from sneezing or coughing, or on surfaces, where it can live for around 24 to 72 hours, depending on the material.
Health organizations around the world recommend staying indoors as much as possible, avoiding large groups and staying six feet apart from other people to help slow the spread of the deadly disease.
“I am asking for help, I want to be home with my children, in my own home where I can bath them, cuddle them, kiss them,” Short wrote.” But I can’t do that until this ends and it will only end when the public starts attention to what is going on in the world.”
As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments. PEOPLE has partnered with GoFundMe to raise money for the COVID-19 Relief Fund, a GoFundMe.org fundraiser to support everything from frontline responders to families in need, as well as organizations helping communities. For more information or to donate, click here.
from PEOPLE.com https://ift.tt/3alkeMZ
No comments:
Post a Comment