Parkland nurses describe life in the ICU in the first weeks of treating COVID-19 patients

Metro columnist Sharon Grigsby writes:

When Otto Madrigal finishes his 12-hour shift working among COVID-19 patients in a Parkland Memorial Hospital ICU, he trades his mask and surgical scrubs for the clothes he wore into work that day. When he gets home, he leaves his shoes in the garage, puts his clothes straight into the wash and heads for the shower — just as he has done every workday since he joined the hospital as a bedside nurse four years ago.

This virus is novel and deadly, the therapies that will prevent or cure it are yet unknown. Nevertheless, Madrigal said, caring for infected patients means using the same skills, the same knowledge, the same drilled-in procedures and the same human compassion with which he and other nurses greet every gravely ill patient.

Situations like this are "what I’ve been trained for," he said. "It’s why we do what we do."