• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
MENUMENU
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • FlaglerLive Board of Directors
    • Comment Policy
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Values
    • Privacy Policy
  • Live Calendar
  • Submit Obituary
  • Submit an Event
  • Support FlaglerLive
  • Advertise on FlaglerLive (386) 503-3808
  • Search Results

FlaglerLive

No Bull, no Fluff, No Smudges

MENUMENU
  • Flagler
    • Flagler County Commission
    • Beverly Beach
    • Economic Development Council
    • Flagler History
    • Mondex/Daytona North
    • The Hammock
    • Tourist Development Council
  • Palm Coast
    • Palm Coast City Council
    • Palm Coast Crime
  • Bunnell
    • Bunnell City Commission
    • Bunnell Crime
  • Flagler Beach
    • Flagler Beach City Commission
    • Flagler Beach Crime
  • Cops/Courts
    • Circuit & County Court
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • Federal Courts
    • Flagler 911
    • Fire House
    • Flagler County Sheriff
    • Flagler Jail Bookings
    • Traffic Accidents
  • Rights & Liberties
    • Fourth Amendment
    • First Amendment
    • Privacy
    • Second Amendment
    • Seventh Amendment
    • Sixth Amendment
    • Sunshine Law
    • Third Amendment
    • Religion & Beliefs
    • Human Rights
    • Immigration
    • Labor Rights
    • 14th Amendment
    • Civil Rights
  • Schools
    • Adult Education
    • Belle Terre Elementary
    • Buddy Taylor Middle
    • Bunnell Elementary
    • Charter Schools
    • Daytona State College
    • Flagler County School Board
    • Flagler Palm Coast High School
    • Higher Education
    • Imagine School
    • Indian Trails Middle
    • Matanzas High School
    • Old Kings Elementary
    • Rymfire Elementary
    • Stetson University
    • Wadsworth Elementary
    • University of Florida/Florida State
  • Economy
    • Jobs & Unemployment
    • Business & Economy
    • Development & Sprawl
    • Leisure & Tourism
    • Local Business
    • Local Media
    • Real Estate & Development
    • Taxes
  • Commentary
    • The Conversation
    • Pierre Tristam
    • Diane Roberts
    • Guest Columns
    • Byblos
    • Editor's Blog
  • Culture
    • African American Cultural Society
    • Arts in Palm Coast & Flagler
    • Books
    • City Repertory Theatre
    • Flagler Auditorium
    • Flagler Playhouse
    • Flagler Youth Orchestra
    • Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
    • Palm Coast Arts Foundation
    • Special Events
  • Elections 2024
    • Amendments and Referendums
    • Presidential Election
    • Campaign Finance
    • City Elections
    • Congressional
    • Constitutionals
    • Courts
    • Governor
    • Polls
    • Voting Rights
  • Florida
    • Federal Politics
    • Florida History
    • Florida Legislature
    • Florida Legislature
    • Ron DeSantis
  • Health & Society
    • Flagler County Health Department
    • Ask the Doctor Column
    • Health Care
    • Health Care Business
    • Covid-19
    • Children and Families
    • Medicaid and Medicare
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Violence
  • All Else
    • Daily Briefing
    • Americana
    • Obituaries
    • News Briefs
    • Weather and Climate
    • Wildlife

An Emergency Room Nurse Pleads from the Darkness of Covid’s Front Lines: ‘Start Supporting, Stop Fighting’

August 31, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

Megan Dunaway, the assistant nursing manager at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare's Northeast Emergency Center. (Facebook)
Megan Dunaway, the assistant nursing manager at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare’s Northeast Emergency Center. (Facebook)

In “The Plague Year,” his recently published account of “American in the time of Covid,” Lawrence Wright describes the way the staff at Bellevue Hospital in New York was overwhelmed by the surge of patients in the spring of 2020, waylaying doctors and nurses who were used to seeing death all the time, but not at that pace. They “knew instinctively how to click into emergency mode,” Wright wrote. “Before Covid, that might last thirty or forty minutes–say, with a patient who has a heart attack. If there is a bus wreck or a mass casualty event, emergency mode could last all day. But with Covid, it was day after day for weeks on end. Emotions were deferred, but they clawed deep scars.”




Sunday morning, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare posted on its Facebook page words that could and have applied to any hospital anywhere in Florida, including in Palm Coast: “Numbers alone will never tell the full story of what’s happening within our walls right now. This pandemic is devastating – for our patients, our colleagues, their families.” The post then introduces Megan Dunaway, a registered nurse and an Assistant Nurse Manager in the hospital’s Emergency Center – Northeast, “working on the frontlines of this fight,” and what she wrote. Dunaway’s full account of “deep scars” Wright referred to follows. 

I’m posting this in honor of my staff in the ER who are working relentlessly, and seeing horrific outcomes, in honor of both of my daughters who are currently sick with Covid (doing ok, they are not experiencing what I have seen in other children in our ER fighting this), and in honor of all of my patients I have lost over these past few weeks – as this is laying heavy on my heart.

I hope you read it, I hope you share it, I hope you restrain from commenting negatively. Controversy is the last thing I want from this share. I simply hope you start supporting, stop fighting, and start thinking before coming to the ER, “is this an emergency?”

To my patients I have lost: I can only hope I brought you a little comfort in your final hours. I hope you believed me when I looked you in the eyes and said, “I’ve got you,” when I knew damn well Covid is bigger than anything we have for you.

To all of the wives and husbands and children I separated at our ER doors as their loved one checked in: “I’m sorry, Covid patients cannot have a visitor.” I’m so sorry I took away precious time and last moments away from you.




To my daughters: I’m sorry you have seen me red faced and tear stained every day when I get home and I have no way to explain to you, because you don’t deserve to know the darkness. And now, watching you sick from this virus, I’m sorry I did not do a better job at protecting you.

To my staff, my family at TMH: You all are HEROES. Every single one of you. You are the light in my darkness and I will continue to show up every day with you, as you show up every day for me.

To the Tallahassee Community: Instead of googling and arguing about what may or may not be real, here are actual events, witnessed by this 1 tiny nurse, in this 1 tiny ER in this 1 tiny town. In the past 10 shifts, I have personally taken care of at MINIMUM 1 critical patient with Covid per shift, all to have died. Daily. From Covid. Unvaccinated. Young. No underlying illness. There are no beds in our hospital Covid units or ICUs (though daily we work tirelessly to make space). I am caring for these patients for hours/days in our ER, in addition to emergencies walking in. I get to know them in their darkest hour, their families, then finally, I get a bed for them at the hospital, I hug them goodbye. I have had to stop checking up on them the next day, because my heart cannot handle hearing one more time, that none of them made it. This is my reality. Which means this is YOUR reality. You live right here in Tallahassee with me. This is YOUR community. This is not google researched. These are not skewed facts. This is my actual account. Right here in Tallahassee. We, as a community, are in crisis.

Stop fighting over what is real or not. Stop fighting over whether you should get the vaccine or not. Stop fighting over whether to wear a mask or not. I can only share with you my experience. In the meantime, we, in the ER, will continue to have our doors open and care for you in your emergency as best we can. I just hope we can sustain and support your need.




PLEASE extend grace to our staff. We are working so hard, and we are tired. When you yell at us, when you treat us like we are not a human being, it is infuriating, as one of my major roles is to protect my staff. If you are not being seen quick enough to your expectation, please take comfort in the fact it means you will not be dying today. I cannot say that to the person I brought back in front of you. We are doing the best we can. We are bringing you back based on your acuity.

In addition, we cannot let your loved ones in and out of our doors out of protection for YOU AND for US. Extend some grace.

We are not a Covid-19 testing center. We are an emergency center. Covid patients are overflowing and let us not forget everyone else coming in with emergency needs NOT related to Covid. People are still having heart attacks and strokes. People are still getting cancer. People are still having non-Covid emergencies.

I have been a nurse for 18 years, most of it ICU and Emergency Nursing, so by the nature of the beast, I have seen some things I would wish on no one.

But this, by far, is the most horrific thing I have ever experienced.

Let’s come together as a community and support each other.

May we get through this TOGETHER,

Megan

Support FlaglerLive's End of Year Fundraiser
Thank you readers for getting us to--and past--our year-end fund-raising goal yet again. It’s a bracing way to mark our 15th year at FlaglerLive. Our donors are just a fraction of the 25,000 readers who seek us out for the best-reported, most timely, trustworthy, and independent local news site anywhere, without paywall. FlaglerLive is free. Fighting misinformation and keeping democracy in the sunshine 365/7/24 isn’t free. Take a brief moment, become a champion of fearless, enlightening journalism. Any amount helps. We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit news organization. Donations are tax deductible.  
You may donate openly or anonymously.
We like Zeffy (no fees), but if you prefer to use PayPal, click here.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. djwhite077 says

    August 31, 2021 at 9:56 am

    Wow!

  2. herewegoagain . says

    August 31, 2021 at 10:04 am

    VERY WELL STATED .. (from a retired RN who is very Blessed & Thankful to be retired for many years)

    World Peace . Health and Happiness to All
    Spread Happiness & Kindness IN 2021
    There is a S H O R T A G E of both …

  3. DJT#45 says

    August 31, 2021 at 10:22 am

    Megan, your message is falling on deaf ears. If after 18 months these people have not learned anything, there is little or no hope for them. We should ship them off to Trump Tower and let them die in my lobby as I’m the cause for their deaths.

  4. Kat says

    August 31, 2021 at 10:49 am

    Thank you, Megan, for your heartfelt essay; my arms are virtually going around you. My strongest wish is that this reaches the people that need to see it.

  5. Lynda says

    August 31, 2021 at 11:05 am

    I am a retired RN and I thank my lucky stars thatI am retired.
    There is no way that I could do what this remarkable nurse is doing.
    I am sad to say that I’m not sure I could care for and risk my life for patients who scorn science and the dedicated people trying to save their worthless lives.
    Wake up please and just use the damn mask and get that lifesaving shot in the arm!

  6. Mark says

    August 31, 2021 at 11:17 am

    Stay Home! Wear masks when outside your home. Essential workers only!

  7. Ld says

    August 31, 2021 at 1:21 pm

    Grateful for your work and heartfelt testimony. Praying for your daughters to heal soon.

  8. Mythoughts says

    August 31, 2021 at 1:27 pm

    God Bless you, your family and your staff for all the sacrifies you make each and everyday.
    I witness people that just think this is all a lie, I witness people in public not wearing masks, and when I see them my first thought is how ignorant can you be for yourself and others.
    I hope you can send this to the Governor of Florida maybe then it will sink in, how serious this virus is.

    Once again God Bless you and stay well.

  9. Gary R says

    August 31, 2021 at 6:46 pm

    Why are there nurses who refuse to get vaccinated? What do they know that we don’t.

  10. Harry says

    September 1, 2021 at 6:22 pm

    More people need to voice their concerns to our governor. He apparently , like Trump, thinks this will all go away. The health of the nation and world are at stake, this is NOT political. Stop thinking how this will affect someone’s election.

  11. Ray W. says

    September 1, 2021 at 9:14 pm

    Gary R. already lost this argument the other day. Perhaps, he should consider that the nurses who refuse to get vaccinated know nothing at all.

  12. Gary R says

    September 2, 2021 at 2:19 pm

    Nurses know more then you and I since we are not in the medical field. By the way I wasn’t making an argument I just want to know why.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Conner Bosch law attorneys lawyers offices palm coast flagler county
  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Primary Sidebar

  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Recent Comments

  • Mital Saraiya on Metronet Contractor Punctures Flagler Beach Water Main for 2nd Time in 24 Hours, Again Affecting City’s Water
  • Pogo on Flagler Beach Will Consider Selling Ocean Palm Golf Club to Leaseholder, With Conditional Milestones
  • Keep Flagler Beautiful on Without a Single Question, Bunnell Board Approves Rezoning of Nearly 1,900 Acres to Industrial, Outraging Residents
  • Fun outdoors on Flagler Beach Will Consider Selling Ocean Palm Golf Club to Leaseholder, With Conditional Milestones
  • Believer on Flagler Beach Will Consider Selling Ocean Palm Golf Club to Leaseholder, With Conditional Milestones
  • John on Without a Single Question, Bunnell Board Approves Rezoning of Nearly 1,900 Acres to Industrial, Outraging Residents
  • billcampionmemo@yahoo.com on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, May 9, 2025
  • BillC on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, May 9, 2025
  • Robert Moore on Without a Single Question, Bunnell Board Approves Rezoning of Nearly 1,900 Acres to Industrial, Outraging Residents
  • Pogo on Without a Single Question, Bunnell Board Approves Rezoning of Nearly 1,900 Acres to Industrial, Outraging Residents
  • Pogo on Tariffs, Trade Wars and the Great Depression’s Lessons
  • Pogo on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, May 9, 2025
  • Shanti on Without a Single Question, Bunnell Board Approves Rezoning of Nearly 1,900 Acres to Industrial, Outraging Residents
  • Jane Gentile-Youd on Without a Single Question, Bunnell Board Approves Rezoning of Nearly 1,900 Acres to Industrial, Outraging Residents
  • People suck on Without a Single Question, Bunnell Board Approves Rezoning of Nearly 1,900 Acres to Industrial, Outraging Residents
  • Bob on Without a Single Question, Bunnell Board Approves Rezoning of Nearly 1,900 Acres to Industrial, Outraging Residents

Log in