Hospital Workers Hold COVID-19 Vigil: ‘This Virus Takes Everything Out Of You’

Debbi Bozeman stood at a podium in front of St. Mary Medical Center on Wednesday evening as tears welled up in her eyes and she struggled to describe how she had to tell her children that she had contracted the COVID-19 virus.

“This virus takes everything out of you … I can really understand why people don’t survive this,” said Bozeman, 64, of Lower Southampton. “I told my son that if things went south and that I needed to be intubated that I was going to sign a DNR [Do Not Resuscitate medical order] and that he was not going to interfere.”

Bozeman said these words to over 100 St. Mary nurses, colleagues, friends and family, who had all gathered Wednesday outside the Middletown Township hospital in remembrance of the patients lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bozeman, along with three other nurses who had contracted the virus, spoke about the extreme conditions they experienced while they rehabilitated from the virus.

Nurses walked in single file along the parking lot, holding hearts that they pushed into the ground as a memorial for those that were lost during the pandemic.

According to a hospital official, over 90 patients have died at St. Mary’s as a result of the virus, and at least 80 workers have contracted the virus.

As of Wednesday, there are over 1.5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States, with 23,405 new cases since Tuesday, and there are over 91,000 deaths in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Edward Crohe, 48, of Levittown, is one of the lucky ones. Crohe, a nurse at St. Mary’s, contracted the disease and is now recovering. He said his symptoms included a complete loss of energy, shortness of breath, and coughing that has persisted and that still causes him to vomit multiple times a day.

His condition was so bad that he had a discussion with a doctor and decided to put his affairs in order in case things had gone south.

“Fortunately, things turned around and I’m fortunate enough to be one of the people to survive this,” Crohe said. “The people working here are already aware of [this virus], and hopefully we can shed some light to others that this virus isn’t fake. This is real and it’s in our backyard.”

Steve Donahue recalls when the hospital first started treating patients and he was worried about getting his wife and kids sick. He reached out to extended family and they brought over an RV and parked it in Donahue’s driveway. This, he thought, was a way to keep a distant from his family between shifts at the hospital. Donahue said from then on it became second nature to spend most of his time in the RV. His wife would bring food out and he would stay away from her and the kids.

Unfortunately, even though he did everything he could to avoid it, Donahue still contracted the COVID-19 virus. He became sick with an initial fever that wouldn’t go away. He said at one point his fever maxed out at 105.9 degrees.

“I just sat there and I shook,” said Donahue, 41, of Levittown.

Donahue was admitted to the hospital and discharged twice. One day, while Donahue’s wife was checking up on him, she saw he looked worse than normal.

“I told her ‘I don’t feel good’ and she told me I needed to go to the hospital right now,” he said.

Donahue said there were points where he felt like he was going to die, and, on Wednesday evening, he thanked the nurses who stood in St. Mary’s parking lot.

“I can’t say enough for all of the nurses who took care of me – thank you. I will forever be indebted to them. This has been an ungodly journey… I don’t pray for this for anybody.” he said.

Lorraine Fletcher said she wasn’t worried about getting the virus as a health worker, but she feared of passing it along to her husband or her mother. Sadly, that’s exactly what happened. On April 9, she contracted the virus, two days later her husband had it and the day after that her mother had it. Fletcher’s mother is 89 years old and has dementia. When Fletcher’s mother contracted the virus, she began to stop eating and drinking liquids.

Fletcher feared her mother was going to die.

“And I thought ‘oh my god I gave it to her and now she’s going to go’ and when she left my house [to go to the hospital] I thought it was the last time I was going to see her,” said Fletcher, 63, of Levittown.

Fletcher’s mother is recovering and Fletcher returned to work this week. Her uncertainties about her and her family’s health have begun again, as she doesn’t know if she can contract the virus twice or if she could re-infect her family a second time.

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“I’ve been a nurse for 42 years, but this has been the most challenging moment I’ve ever known: mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually,” she said.

In the back of the crowd on Wednesday afternoon, Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick stood and listened to the horror stories that the pandemic has caused. He said he was honored to be surrounded by such brave workers.

“We love these people. They’re such special human beings who are coming to work in this dangerous environment every day,” Fitzpatrick said. “The fact that they can put themselves at risk and bring it home to their family – these are warriors and they’re just amazing people and I’m just honored to be here with them.”

After the event, some workers stood and talked, while others either made their way to the parking lot or back into the hospital. The hearts were placed back down on the cement for a repeat ceremony at 7:30 p.m.

Debbi Bozeman weaved her way through the hearts on the ground.

She was a lucky one.

Bozeman joked that while she was in quarantine she had to stare at the same dust bunnies gathering in her home. She said she would be tending to them this weekend. Above all else, Bozeman was thankful for her coworkers and for the tireless work they’ve been doing since the beginning of the pandemic.

“It’s amazing. People… people are amazing. The nurses here have always kind of stuck together. These guys are awesome,” she said, as the tears were beginning to return.

Then, as she walked away, she gave a word of advice.

“Keep washing your hands, keep wearing masks and keep social distancing.”

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