Throughout this issue, you’ll find articles about the coronavirus crisis and the ways that people in Norfolk are responding, whether they are working at patients’ bedsides, keeping grocery store shelves stocked, cooking meals to enliven the family’s day, sewing masks to give to their neighbors or keeping their children safe, happy and productive. But first we wanted to let people speak tell their experiences in their own words. 

The following stories were collected by Jude Mead and the Norfolk Now editors. Some have been edited for length. We want to thank everyone, especially our health-care workers but all the members of our community who are finding a way to make the best of a very bad situation. 

David is a registered respiratory therapist at a local hospital and is involved with the direct care of critical Covid-19 patients. 

Basically what I do is respiratory and cardiac issues on a regular basis. Now I work full-time with Covid-19 patients on ventilators. Fortunately, at my hospital we are not lacking in ventilators. Part of my job is to make adjustments regularly to help with oxygenation of the patient. Our workload has increased, but we have adequate staff to handle it. We also have enough personal protective equipment (PPE) though we do reuse the N-95 masks. We wear a surgical mask on top of the N-95. Besides the mask, I wear a shield, hairnet, gown and gloves. These are changed between patients. When I come home I have a safety system in place to protect my family and myself.

We have to stop giving Covid-19 a place to go. Be sure to wash your hands, don’t touch your face, and practice social distancing. It is also important to wear a mask when outside. You want to protect others as well as yourself. A mask catches most of the moisture of a sneeze or cough and those tiny particles that may escape do not go nearly as far.

Holly Durstin is a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA). Her job is to administer anesthesia and other medications and to monitor those patients. She works for the New York Presbyterian Hospital in Bronxville, N.Y., and lives in Norfolk.  

As a health-care provider, I directly work with patients. As a CRNA, I work very closely with them. My main specialty skill as a CRNA is airway management. We are the health-care providers who intubate patients (insert breathing tubes) when they need to be placed on a ventilator. We are six inches from a patient’s face during this time. All I can say is that it is a war zone and this virus is an uncontrollable beast. It is senseless with no rhyme or reason to who or how it affects people. To most of us, it is this unknown that is scary. As a professional, as a parent, and as part of this community, I can not say it enough: wash your hands, practice social distancing, and if you feel sick then stay home until you are better. We can get a hold on this if we are responsible. Be safe.

Matt Ludwig is chief of the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department.

The fire department membership is of course upset at having to cancel our annual Road Race and open house due to the pandemic but understand the need. The funds raised from this event go to support scholarships for Norfolk students. We’re hoping to return to our normal annual event schedule by the Weekend in Norfolk festivities in August, of course pending the approval of the governor and CDC. The department is running at 100 percent and is taking all the additional safety precautions, both for ourselves and for the citizens of Norfolk.  We all have masks that we wear if we can’t maintain social distancing, whether we show up at a car accident or at your house for an alarm—for our comfort and protection and yours. We want to help flatten the curve and bring an end to this virus just as much as everyone else. We are working closely with Norfolk’s Office of Emergency Management and the Selectman’s Office to acquire personal protective equipment to cover our needs so that we can safely do our job. We are always here to serve the community we care about and ready to respond when needed. 

Mary Bruey is a registered nurse at Geer Nursing Home in Canaan. She works primarily with a mixed dementia group. 

We took Covid-19 very seriously and shut down right away. Taking the steps early helped to keep most everyone safe. It is very difficult on our patients, though. They know what is going on, and not being able to visit with their family in person is hard. Those that do come in must stand on the other side of the glass window. They do still talk with their families on the phone though. They also use FaceTime and that helps. We are lucky to have enough staff, so we try our best to stay healthy. We practice social distancing and plenty of hand washing. As for equipment we do reuse our masks, and some other supplies are hard to reorder. But the residents should be commended. They are holding up so well.

Suzanne Hinman is a registered nurse at the Cancer Care Center in Torrington. 

Patients who need their IV chemotherapy are still coming to the clinic, but we have extended the hours to spread patients out to provide some distancing. Our physicians are also doing video conferencing with follow-up patients, instead of having them come in. We screen everyone at the door, and do not let anyone come in if they have a temperature or any symptoms of Covid, as our chemotherapy patients are very vulnerable. Most of my work is now doing telephone triage and trying to reassure elderly, isolated patients. I have been trying to call patients ahead of time to do some of their assessment so that if they just need to come in for an injection we can get them in and out quickly. This is hard for them. Some want to talk, like this 90-year-old man who lives by himself and must come in regularly for a shot. I used to be able to chat with him for a while, but now I have to get him out as soon as possible and with little contact. We have started making a list of elderly patients who live alone, that we can call on a regular basis to check in, as they aren’t coming to the clinic.

One piece of advice I’d offer is for people to learn about appropriate use of gloves, and how to take them off. It’s defeating the purpose to wear gloves for an extended period of time, while using your phone, touching your face, etc. Better to wash your hands frequently. And disinfect your phone frequently too!

Kitty Hickcox is chief of the Norfolk Ambulance, and a science teacher at Indian Mountain School.

Life is much different now than it was a few months ago. Members of the ambulance used to be able to work in teams to assist a person in need of help. In the new world, we now wear more PPE than we are used to, and a single EMT enters a person’s home and determines if they are presumptive for Covid-19. We do this to minimize the risk of exposure to our crew. If a person can walk to the ambulance, we walk them out, and a single person rides with them, but if they need more help, then others don full PPE and go in to assist. The donning and doffing of PPE and decontaminating the ambulance have turned a call, which used to take us an average of two hours, into a three- or three-and-a-half hour commitment. Members of the ambulance also have had to train and retrain how to wear and decontaminate PPE.

As a science teacher, I mourn for the school year that is lost, the dances and graduations that won’t happen. I hope that once the world is itself again, there will be opportunities for those children who missed out on those events to be celebrated in some other way. I will look forward to celebrating them all.

Nancy McGrath is the postmaster at the Norfolk Post Office.

People who have been coming in have been great, very respectful of the virus and its dangers. People who came up from New York were careful to quarantine for 14 days before coming into the post office, and the Postal Service has been super about our safety. We were able to install Plexiglas shields, and we have gloves, masks and hand sanitizer. The Postal Service has made sure that we have all the supplies we need to do our job.

Aileen Hester is a physical therapist who works at Litchfield Woods in Torrington; she is also an emergency medical responder for the Norfolk Ambulance.

Unless you are seeing it firsthand, you are not going to be able to grasp the severity of the virus. I am a physical therapist, but the majority of my duties these days are helping other health care workers. I am doing now what has to be done to help our patients and other health care providers. I put in nine- to 11-hour days because we have been devastated with the coronavirus. It has hit us hard and an entire unit is dedicated to these patients. Before we can even enter the building we are checked for symptoms of Covid-19. We have our oxygen saturation level checked with a pulse oximeter. If it is below 90, we are sent home. But more important is our temperature. We have it checked twice a day. If it records at 100 degrees or higher, we will be sent home. We are taking no chances, especially because some people do not realize they are sick. There is no telling who may be a carrier.

To keep safe I wear goggles, gloves and a N-95 mask that I need to reuse. Norfolk Ambulance, fortunately, received an Ultraviolet Sanitizer on loan from Region 7. After work I drop my used mask in a brown paper bag then get it sanitized and place it in a clean bag for the next day. We are so grateful to Region 7 because this is another safety resource for us. Everything is changing so fast and we are not yet stable. People are still getting sick and the curve has not flattened.

Virginia Coleman-Prisco is an assistant professor at Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., and the mother of two children at Botelle School.

I’ve been doing online education for 20 years, and I feel everyone else is finally seeing what I’ve been doing all along. The kids get a little frustrated knowing their friends are around but they can’t see them. They’ll say, “Can’t we jump on so-and-so’s trampoline or go hang out at his house?” I have to say no. But my son had a birthday recently, and we held a virtual Zoom party for him with over 50 people. It was also the birthday of a sixth-grade girl at school, and we did what they call a birthday train. We lined up at Town Hall, all the parents and kids in cars—all keeping their social distance—with signs and balloons. Then we drove around to her street. Jon Barbagallo turned on his lights and siren. Everyone gave her their signs and balloons and wished her happy birthday. Then she joined my son’s Zoom party, where we had a cake with candles, and everybody sang.

One thing I have to mention is internet speed. Now that everyone is at home and the New Yorkers are here too, everyone is using the internet. I can’t work while my children are on Google Meet, or everything just crashes.

Tammy Barbagallo is a nurse at Hartford Hospital.

My current role is a nurse case coordinator. I help patients and their families make decisions about what type of care they may need after their hospital stay. I currently work in the Emergency Department and in what was supposed to be a new observation unit, but it was converted into an ICU for Covid-positive patients [patients who have tested positive for the virus], as the need for more critical care beds was needed. 

These patients are VERY ill.  In the ICU, almost all Covid-19 patients are intubated and on ventilators. It’s disheartening to hear people try to downplay this virus or say the media is hyping it up. They are not. We, as medical staff, are scared. Scared we could bring this virus home to our families. Scared that we could contract this virus and die. Scared that there is not enough PPE to go around (we are asked to use the same N95 until it is visibly dirty or falling apart).

In my role specifically it’s been challenging to refer patients to rehab centers, especially if they are Covid positive (though that will be changing as certain nursing homes are now being designated for positive patients). Many patients were remaining in the hospital while we searched state-wide for a facility to accept them. 

No visitors is another change. It’s sad for the patients but much needed. The hospital is using iPads for families to FaceTime so they may speak to their loved ones, often to say their goodbyes. It literally sucks and takes an emotional toll on everyone, but we continue to do our best for all our patients. This a job we all signed up for and most of us wouldn’t change a thing!  While we want all this to end and want life to return to “normal,” in order for that to happen we need people to stay home, wash their hands, and wear a mask if you MUST go out. Covid-19 is not something to be taken lightly. People of all ages are dying from this. 

Alicia Kirsch is a client care specialist at Roaring Brook Veterinary Hospital in Canton, Conn.

As a precaution, we are not having any clients enter the hospital, and as much as can be is done over the phone. We also are masked during any interaction with clients and in any situations where we can’t stay six feet apart in the hospital. It’s a fairly exhausting process for everyone but we’re grateful to be able to continue to care for our patients while trying to stay safe and healthy.

Gordon Anderson is a special education teacher and school board member in Litchfield County.

We teachers were all immediately thrown into the world of distance learning, which required a sudden, intense remodeling of instructional practice. Overnight, we were no longer able to provide face-to-face, individualized, or group instruction. We became completely dependent on technology to provide our students with any instruction at all. Distributing hard copies of learning packets became impossibly complex given the diversity of needs in our district.

Most of us face a steep learning curve, along with the parents of the students we serve. We are having to distill curriculum into an accessible sequence for parents who are facing an extraordinary set of circumstances. On average, we are spending three to four hours longer per day doing work related to our school expectations. At a recent meeting, I heard the question, “How much time, exactly, are teachers spending in face-to-face distance instruction?” In my district, as of today, the answer is no time at all. Instead, we are developing lesson plans, reviewing submitted work, contacting parents and families, completing vast amounts of paperwork, attending virtual professional development meetings, staff meetings, grade level meetings and team meetings so that we can attempt to provide students with the appropriate tools to continue learning. The state guidelines are in constant flux.

There are districts that are providing synchronous face-to-face instruction. Most of us would love that opportunity, but there are limitations here as well, since all students do not have the same access, and there can be challenges with confidentiality. 

It is exhausting and frustrating and stressful for all of us. Add to that the uncertainty of living through a pandemic, lack of social interaction, lack of childcare, employment and a plan for future support, and it’s clear why our parents are struggling. Teachers are juggling most of the same stressors.

We need to offer as much grace, positivity and compassion to each other as we can. There is no map. Let’s navigate this together.