This is the 3rd and last of Carries Story.  As I write this she is now home, happily in the arms of her loving family beginning her 2 week quarantine.  She has allowed me to put her story in my blog, hoping to spread the story of the truths of Coronavirus and New York City.  Some people believe, some people don’t, some people are indifferent.  Unless you are around the misery and the devastation that it is causing to human life and family’s, it is hard to imagine.  So far their is no vaccine.  Hopefully their will be one soon.  But for now we are all in SHELTER IN PLACE……The goal is to slow the curve.  Bring it down…..Slow the disease so we don’t all end up like New York City..….They have been brought to their knees…….Listen to Mayor Cuomo….Listen to the doctors and nurses or any medical staff……….Theses are the truths

CarrieAnn
April 20 at 5:46 AM ·

When I came here I never thought I’d be riding this bus to the hospital a 22nd time. I decided over the weekend to stay longer. They wanted a two week minimum commitment, but we will see, the urge to fly home is strong.
Someone jumped off of our hotel a few days ago. I can’t get the image out of my head, or the sound. I don’t know why THATS what I can’t reconcile, with all I’ve absorbed since arriving in New York. Maybe because all day every day I see these people fighting to breathe, fighting to get high fevers down, fighting to live.. and then, this death was deliberate. Right off our hotel. A hotel full of people who are here to save lives.

CarrieAnn
April 20 at 8:37 AM ·

Any channel we turn on is covering corona, New York City, and who’s dying from it. You know what they’re not covering?..and won’t?..who’s dying from it in prison. Why do we care, they’re just criminals right?
It’s all we can do to provide masks and medical attention to law abiding people who aren’t incarcerated. They’re child molesters and murderers, thieves…that’s what we think when we hear the word prison, because prison is for the real bad ones. Ya, I get that, because I used to think that way too. Until, in the blink of an eye, someone I loved was in prison. We are taught prison is reserved for the hopeless, the waste of time, or those unable to repent.
But it’s not. There are first offenders, and marijuana sellers in our prisons, sentenced to decades. Some of you may wonder how that is even possible in our country of all men created equal, and innocent until proven guilty. Because it’s not like that, that’s how. The sentence you receive in this United States of America is a direct reflection of what legal representation you can afford.
Bad people? No… but bad choices. They are good souls, who had to learn some lessons the hardest way, young men who are funny, generous, with big hearts. They have dreams and fears and insecurities just like we do. Their need for acceptance, or sometimes success, was so strong that they paid for it with their freedom. They made mistakes, granted big ones, and they know it. They’re well into their sentences, just like hundreds- thousands- like them. They’re not asking for an easy out or a pardon, but how about SOAP? How about not bringing known covid positive patients who are actively sick, with a fever and cough, back into the open style housing with all other men. How about feeding them, having running water for them, and allowing them access to medical screenings. They aren’t demanding rights- they’re begging for HUMANITY. They are literally sitting there waiting to die. If conditions do not change, it will be inevitable that every single man or woman incarcerated with be covid positive, and it’s a roll of the dice if they survive it. Because nothing they can do to prevent it is in their power.
They can’t choose whether or not to go outside. They can’t choose whether or not to wear a mask, or social distance.
I do not think every crime is the same, and Im not asking you to either. But which of those truly deserve death as a punishment is not for us to decide, but only God.
They may not deserve their freedom back, but do they deserve to DIE?

 

CarrieAnn 
April 22 at 9:30 PM ·

It’s been days since I’ve posted and they’ve all been a blur. One day flows into the next, and the next, when all you do is work and sleep. Yesterday I booked my flight home and my heart is full of happiness and anxiousness. No conflict, no guilt. It can’t come soon enough.
More and more moms are covid positive– actually tipping the scales, more positive than negative now. And as time goes on, more and more frequently, on top of these depleting, never-ending, 14 hour days that break your heart and stress your body…I am contacted regularly by friends, acquaintances, and even coworkers..questioning the validity of what they see on tv, they want to know if the hospitals are empty.. or if the virus is even real. If I see one more post of “do any of my friends actually know someone who’s died of Covid”…NO?! CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY. You will.
There’s no way the media can report anything accurately- it’s all changing too fast. First only testing the symptomatic, then testing everyone, then throw positive antibodies in there. Will we ever have the real numbers…no.
We hear Fight Song overhead, and that tells us people are recovering-today only twice-but there are still more codes than songs played overhead. There are limited supplies at times, basics like IV pumps and shoe covers for the OR. There’s still a constant flow of bodies visible out that back window, and nurses are doing things that cause genuine ethical conflict because there isn’t a choice. So if you still think corona isn’t real and is just the government trying to scare us—turn off your fn tv and come spend a day in New York.
I’ve counted days for so long..but now it’s a countdown instead of up. Three days ♥️

CarrieAnn
April 23 at 9:46 AM ·

And there will be goodbye pics … starting now. It’s gonna take some getting used to not starting the day and ending the day with these girls..

CarrieAnn
April 23 at 10:48 AM ·

April 23 at 1:45 PM ·

😩💔 goodbye cake from the labor and delivery managers. Cue the tears.

CarrieAnn 
April 23 at 6:15 PM ·

Friendships forged in fire. Thank you both for being who you are, and scattering this experience with laughs and well timed hugs.

CarrieAnn
April 24 at 10:23 PM ·

Today was my 28th day working in New York City, and my last. I never imagined that I would come here and form the relationships, the bonds, that I have with these nurses Ive worked side-by-side with for so many days in a row.  I came to New York prepared to have thick skin, but it wasn’t necessary.
The things I have learned in the past month can’t be put into words on a Facebook page. The faces that I won’t forget, the heartbreak of all the deaths, and the celebration with every discharge home.
I’ve traveled a lot in my life, but going home has never felt so good. I am a different person than I was before March 27th when I came to New York, and Im thankful for that.
CarrieAnn Munson 
April 25 at 8:48 AM ·

CarrieAnn
April 25 at 8:48 AM ·

Goodbye New York ❤️

Carrie is now home after 28 days.  I know New York appreciates all she’s done.  All the medical workers that have come in from around the country have felt the love of the New Yorkers.  Their marquis’s were full of “Thank You’s”  The NYFD and NYPD showed them how much they cared.  So much love was given the workers.  Many have made life long friends.  They also have many memories that will be hard to process.  The cruelty that this disease has bestowed on family’s has been devastating.  Hopefully in time  New York City will be back to a hustling and bustling city it once was……

But The Memories and the Sorrow will never be forgotten….

“Thank You Carrie”