Email

Print

We got a harrowing insight on this from a Belizean American nurse, Ichelle Miller, wife of the world famous boxer, Jarrell Big Baby Miller. She works in a Brooklyn Hospital and described for us in a phone interview the terror she has seen unfold:..

Ishelle Miller, Belizean American Nurse in Brooklyn, New York
"Honestly, the hospital, and i think New York on a whole was not prepared for this whole Corona virus you know, everybody took it lightly and, right now the hospital is overcrowded. People are dying, constantly, you know?"

"And, ahm, even the doctors, I've spoke with a lot of the doctors, they, don't even know what else to do because people are dying at such a fast rate and they are running out of supplies, so they really just wish they had taken it more seriously from the beginning, like prevention. Self quarantine, you know just putting the whole city under lockdown would have stopped the spread form happening so quickly."

"I work on a floor where you know, normally, you may have one death a week, maybe. Right now, people are dying like 5 more more a day from this coronavirus."

"But, people are dying so quick and you know there's nothing the doctors could do because you know there's no one treatment that is working."

"I just want people to know that this is a big deal, the coronavirus is no joke, I am in the middle of it. The workers, the doctors, the nurses they're not coming to work because they are getting infected."

"People are dying so quick, they still don't have enough don't have enough bed to fit everybody. So the hospital is at a point where the morgue is overcrowded and they had to get a portable morgue to hold the bodies because people are dying so quickly."

"And for New York to not take it seriously, and be in the position it is now?"

"It should be an example for people to see this is no joke, there's people dying, there's people sick on the verge of death, everyday."

"But when they do die, they die alone because nobody is allowed to come visit them."

"They are not allowing anybody to come visit aby of the patients in the hospital. That's the New York state law - we had a patient - he was good, he seemed fine, yes he is infected with Coronavirus. Not showing any significant symptoms and they say okay they will send him home to self-quarantine. Within a couple hours the man just stop breathing and went into respiratory distress and dies and could not be brought back. That is how quick this disease could affect somebody."

"And what's even more harder is to see them die so lonely and there is nothing else you can do, but as the workers we don't even have enough equipment. You get one mask a day to wear. If you are smart enough you keep that for more than a day in case you come back and there is none."

"I went down to the emergency room of my hospital yesterday and when I tell, you, Jules, it is chaos. It is chaos where you can't even walk where there's so much people."

Jules Vasquez
"And you also know that it's not peaked yet. Next week when you go back to work, it might be worse."

Ishelle Miller
"It might be worse. And, you know, and I'm trying to prepare myself right now I'm tying to build my immune system, I am trying to drink some serosi, I am tying to drink some vitamin C, that's the only thing I could do because right now, even the doctors they're confused, they don't even know exactly what is working."

Jules Vasquez
"If something like this were to blow up in Belize, we would be in an unimaginable crisis."

Ishelle Miller
"I agree Jules because what i think too, Belizean don't have healthcare like America and a lotta Americans they have the healthcare going for them and they still dying! So imagine what this would do if this get to Belize and spread rapidly like it is now, in New York? Because between, I'm telling you Jules, from between last week to this week when I tel you the difference in the amount of people infected? The difference is there. 90% of my unit is corona-positive, last week it was 10%."

Jules Vasquez
"Explain to me how you are handling - how concerned are you when you come home? I believe you have kids."

Ishelle Miller
"I have my son. Well, right now my husband want me to quit. Because you know I have a pre-exisitng medical condition, I am asthmatic. My mother want me to quit because they're all scared for me, but at the end of the day, I said you know what, listen, this is the job, I love what I do and I want to be there to help people."

"So, the first thing is I have to protect myself. I wash my hands so much until my hands are peeling. When I get to my house, I take off everything outside. Put them in a bag, that's what all the workers are doing. Your shoes everything, you leave it outside, you don't even come inside with it."

"So it's a trying time, and at the end of the day i just want my Belizean people to know this is no joke, you know? This is a serious, serious thing, stay home, stay away from people."

Jules Vasquez
"Like you're living in a warzone."

Ishelle Miller
"It's a warzone, Jules, I tell you I haven't cried at my job, or like this, never, I tell, you yesterday I came home crying, I cried all the way home. It's a dark, dark time, it's a dark dark time."

Tomorrow, we'll have part two of that interview.