Covid 19 coronavirus: nurse shares brutal before and after photo

A nurse has shared two comparison photos in an attempt to raise awareness of the brutal cost that working on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic has taken for her and other healthcare professionals.

Kathryn, who works as an ICU nurse in Tennessee, shared a photo on Twitter of two photos of her taken eight months apart.

The first photo was taken in April after graduating from nursing school. In this picture, she is smiling and fresh-faced.

The second photo was taken while she was at work last week and shows Kathryn no longer smiling, with dark circles under her eyes and marks on her face from PPE.

The nurse captioned the photo: “How it started … How it goes.”

In a follow-up post, Kathryn explained that she loved being a nurse, but entering the workforce amid the coronavirus pandemic was a big learning curve.

“I wasn’t exactly expecting to be a new nurse in the middle of a highly politicized pandemic, but life comes to you fast and even in a pandemic, there is nothing else I want to do. Caring for the sickest of the sick is an honor and I value my patients, “he wrote.

“It is devastating to see people die when those deaths were preventable and it is even more devastating when you see them die the same way, over and over again. It is devastating that basic common sense and decency have become politicized.”

He went on to say that Covid-19 is a “brutal disease” that he would not wish on his worst enemy.

“Please understand that you are not only protecting yourself, you are protecting the people around you,” wrote Kathryn.

The photo quickly went viral, with more than 972,000 likes and more than 88,500 shares.

The post was filled with thousands of comments, many of which thanked Kathryn for her service and drew attention to the impact she has on frontline workers.

“The human cost of being a nurse working through a rampant pandemic is written on your face. Thank you for your patient care. Please take care of yourself. It is such an impossible time for you and your colleagues. If I could give you strength I would.” one person wrote.

“Thank you for what you do. Thank you for caring, for sacrificing yourself, for putting yourself at risk to help others. Thank you for being a compassionate human being,” said another.

One person added: “It is terribly sad that we have found out how unwilling many of our citizens are willing to do for others when it matters. Sure, they will wave the flag, bring potluck dinners, and do patriotic parades. But they still won. put on a stinky mask. “

Kathryn’s post inspired other medical professionals to share their own before and after photos.

Kathryn told CTVNews that most people don’t see the true reality of the Covid-19 crisis and thought it could shed some light on the daily struggles of healthcare workers.

“I’m just talking about the physical effects of wearing all that PPE (personal protective equipment) for so long,” he said.

“We are dehydrated all the time because we sweat a lot and because with the masks on, you cannot drink until you get up from the floor or go to the break room to remove the mask and drink.”

Kathryn also had a message for people who are not taking the pandemic seriously.

“There is no definitive treatment for this disease yet, so seeing my patients, these people that I care for, suffer so intensely and then I see other people acting like that isn’t happening, or like they can’t make that happen. It happens to someone. Otherwise, it’s infuriating, “he said.