WATCH: Tina Libbee, registered nurse at MRH, describes her professional experience working with patients in our COVID-19 unit for the past year and a half. She explains why she believes the vaccine works and provides words of encouragement for her neighbors who may still be undecided.

No matter how much she gives and cares for her patients, Tina Libbee feels like it’s never enough.

This is how many healthcare workers who have worked through the past year and a half of the pandemic feel; however, Libbee said it hurts differently when the people she’s caring for are her friends and neighbors.

“I have these visions in my head of everyone on a ventilator, and that’s what is showed on the news, but patients are so sick before they get to that point that you just feel like you can’t do enough,” she said. “They cough, they can’t breathe, they’re on so much oxygen and they have no contact with their family. You want to be with them 24/7 when you’re working with them, and you just can’t.”

Libbee is a registered nurse on the med/surg floor at Memorial Regional Health and has worked in our COVID-19 unit since the pandemic started. There are several things she and her co-workers have learned since then, which include:

• If not treated immediately, COVID-19 can cause blood clots.
• You don’t need to experience every single symptom to have COVID-19.
• The medications that healthcare workers use to treat COVID-19 patients work, and some people can experience miraculous turnarounds from them.
• And lastly, this spike in cases is much different than the first spike the community experienced last fall and winter.

“It’s emotional,” Libbee said. “Seeing a patient become that ill and have to be away from their family is truly heartbreaking. You just feel like you can’t do enough. But that’s why we come to work. It’s why we connect with our patients, so they can feel comfortable enough to tell us anything. If they recover, they’re always so thankful, and that always fills my heart.”

Vaccinated vs. unvaccinated patients

The Delta variant is currently the predominant variant of the coronavirus in the U.S., and Libbee said she and her co-workers noticed an apparent shift in symptoms and the demographic of patients when it began to impact the Moffat County community.

“More people come in with blood clots as their first indication of COVID,” she explained. “They have more of a continuous cough and can’t catch their breath. You could just tell it was a different variation.”

Libbee said patients who are vaccinated do not experience as severe of illness as those who are not vaccinated. Some patients never regain their ability to breathe on their own and must be on oxygen for the rest of their lives — including individuals with ages ranging from their mid-20s to 40s.

“I feel that the vaccine actually does help,” Libbee said. “In my experience, here in our community, those who are vaccinated can still get sick, but it’s for less duration and they recover more quickly.”

“We’ve had to send a lot of people who are unvaccinated to a higher level of care because we can no longer meet their respiratory needs here,” she continued. “I want the community to know this is real, and it is something that needs to be considered very seriously for your health.”

With flu season around the corner, Libbee said healthcare workers are worried about the possibility of a twindemic, since patients can fall ill with both COVID-19 and the flu. That makes it twice as hard for the patient’s body to fight off either virus, or could overwhelm healthcare systems even more.

“Seeing a patient become that ill and have to be away from their family is truly heartbreaking. You just feel like you can’t do enough.”
— Tina Libbee

“Whatever is in the coronavirus really targets the lungs, compared to influenza,” she said. “Your body can’t fight COVID on its own in the same way that it can with the flu, especially if you have COPD, asthma or other lung issues. There is a difference in the recovery time as well.”

Words of encouragement

Libbee received her COVID-19 vaccine early on and has not gotten sick with either variant. She never had concerns about the vaccine because she has had many vaccines throughout her lifetime.

“I have always had faith in vaccines,” she said. “I’ve been in the healthcare realm for 25 years, and I’ve seen the good that vaccines can do, like eradicating polio and other childhood diseases. I’ve also seen the effects of COVID-19, and if you get the vaccine, it’s just another fighting chance.”

Libbee is grateful for the protection the vaccine has provided her with, and she hopes others in the community will opt to protect themselves as well, if they haven’t already.

“I know it is a personal decision, but COVID is very real, and it is devastating to families,” she said. “Here at the hospital, we do the best we can to take care of all of our patients. I would encourage our community to get their vaccine and support their local hospital. We do everything we can to keep you safe and healthy.”