BOSTON (WHDH) - Two Boston Medical Center nurses who are longtime friends teamed up to help keep their patients connected with their loved ones during the coronavirus pandemic.
Katlyn Campbell and Casey Hertello met about eight years ago at orientation and have remained friends through weddings, vacations, and even pregnancy — their sons born just three months apart.
They have shared many happy memories together and now are enduring an experience like no other, treating patients on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.
As intensive care nurses, they don’t just provide medical attention, but also the support that families just cannot offer right now with no visitor policies in place at many hospitals.
“I think it takes a huge emotional toll on us to sometimes be the only person with someone at the end of their life. Knowing that you’re the only one there,” Campbell said.
“It’s hard for all of us to see that nobody has any emotional support around,” Hertellos said. “These patients are so, so sick and they’re just in there alone.”
These nurses took their concerns and turned them into an idea that would bring a little bit of home to their patients.
Campbell posted a message on Facebook asking for a photo printer and the response to the simple request was overwhelming.
“Family, friends, and then like distant friends of friends of friends donate ink, photo paper you name it,” she said.
The lonely hospital rooms are now filled with grandchildren, spouses, and memories of happier times.
Campbell and Hertello have printed hundreds of photos and hang them in their patients’ rooms.
The familiar faces bring comfort in this time of great uncertainty.
“Her eyes bugged out, I mean she’s on a breathing tube, and her eyes bugged out and she was just giddy looking through them and pointing, “Campbell said of one patient.
The nurses said that with family absent, the pictures help them learn more about their patients
“Through the pictures, I am able to learn about family members or trips they like to take, and being able to talk about that to the patients brings them some comfort and you see the dynamics change, they get a little perkier,” Campbell said.
Campbell and Hertello have just recently returned to work after exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms and they said that while they worry about bringing it home to their families, they would not have things any other way.
“A lot of people are like, ‘How could you do that?’ ‘You guys must be so stressed.’ ‘Don’t you wish you did something else?’ and I feel like it’s the opposite. We’re all picking up extra shifts. We’re working a ton. Like, we want to be here. We want to help,” Hertello said.
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