Local woman on COVID-19 front line ‘just started crying.’ Then she checked Facebook.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhy we are publishing this series
Even in the coronavirus crisis, Georgians are looking out for each other, helping their neighbors and working from the front lines of hospitals and grocery stores to keep us safe and fed.
Portraits of a Pandemic is a limited series that focuses on people in our community taking on the coronavirus in their own small yet meaningful ways. We hope these stories connect you with other Middle Georgians, and entertain you, challenge you or simply give you hope.
If someone you know is playing a part in combating COVID-19, no matter how small, help us share that story by emailing us at breaking@macon.com.
Jennifer McIntosh was on her way home from work when the tears flowed.
McIntosh, a respiratory therapist at a Macon hospital, has for more than a month now helped treat COVID-19 patients.
Many are on ventilators.
Many she isn’t sure even know she is there.
But she speaks to each one.
She says “Hi” and introduces herself and explains what she is doing.
In the early weeks of the novel coronavirus crisis, the stress of tending to patients whose lives hung in the balance and then going home to her husband and two sons — fearful of possibly transmitting germs to them — took a toll.
She was driving home after six back-to-back, all-day shifts, talking on the phone to her sister who lives outside Chicago, when her emotions spilled over.
”I just started crying. Just crying. Crying from the stress, crying from anger, crying from everything,” McIntosh, who works at Coliseum Medical Centers, said. “You know, just fear for myself, upset, worried for my patients and just having empathy for them.”
McIntosh, 45, had shown pictures of herself decked out her hospital safety garb to her sons in elementary school so they could have some idea how careful she and her colleagues must be.
She mentioned the photos to her sister while they talked.
”I want to see them,” her sister, Janice Olsen, said.
McIntosh sent the pictures.
The next day, McIntosh’s sister sent a text message: “Have you seen Facebook? Please don’t get mad.”
“What did you do?” McIntosh replied.
Soon she saw the photo and a tribute her sister had posted:
This is my sister, Jennifer Meyers McIntosh. She is a Respiratory Therapist at a hospital in Georgia. She called me on her way home from work last night after working 12 hour shifts, 6 days in a row and just started crying. She’s exhausted, physically and emotionally. She has been tending to the most critical patients with covid19. She was crying for herself, crying for the scared and alone patients and crying tears of anger that people will not listen and stay home. Please people! Stay home! ... I’m so proud of you, Jenny. You truly make a difference in many lives. Love you.
The post has since generated more than 100 shares and 100 comments.
”I started getting private messages,” McIntosh said, “from people I didn’t know, saying, ‘Thank you to you and all your colleagues for everything you’re doing, for keeping us safe, for taking care of our loved ones.’”
She even received a thank-you card by mail.
“Every time I opened up my Facebook,” McIntosh said, “I just sat and cried and cried. It’s bringing tears to my eyes now. It was unbelievable the outpouring of support.”
Olsen said, “I couldn’t believe it got that much attention. ... I didn’t ask her permission first so I thought she was gonna kill me.”
But after listening to her sister’s stress over the phone, Olsen felt she had to do something.
“Just knowing what she’s going through, knowing what the patients are going through. ... They’re alone, scared, dying. She’s worn out emotionally, physically,” Olsen said. “She cares a lot for her patients.”
McIntosh said much of the emotion that spilled out on the phone after work that day came when it seemed many were dismissing the seriousness of the pandemic.
“Like it was nothing,” she said. “And it’s upsetting when me and all of my colleagues are risking our lives, our families’ lives, every single day to go in and care for these people who need us.”