A pregnant Brooklyn nurse burdened by the guilt of passing coronavirus to her household is being dragged again to work on the front-lines — towards her medical doctors’ recommendation and regardless of a nasty case of Publish Traumatic Stress Dysfunction, The Publish has realized.
“It’s scary not understanding the long run results that this virus might presumably have on my total well-being, my well being, my psychological well being,” Tamekia Melong, a 31-weeks-pregnant nurse at Wykoff Heights Medical Heart, informed The Publish. “It’s scary not understanding if I might get reinfected once more…and it’s scary if I handed it to the infant.”
The 37-year-old Baldwin, Lengthy Island girl began experiencing coronavirus signs two days into her March 9 medical depart for unrelated being pregnant issues, based on employees compensation declare information.
Lab exams from March 24 later confirmed that she had COVID-19, based on the declare paperwork.
“I used to be actually actually sick,” Melong, a registered nurse, informed The Publish.
Melong, who's pregnant along with her first little one, additionally needed to dwell with the burden that she unwittingly handed the virus alongside to different relations one in all whom wanted to be hospitalized.
“I felt responsible,” Melong stated of her household. “They find yourself getting contaminated as nicely when they're doing their finest to look after you.”
Throughout Melong’s two-week battle with the virus she skilled a cough, the chills, hassle respiratory, lack of listening to, scent and style and she or he didn’t really feel her child transfer for a full 24 hours at one level, the employees’ comp declare says.
Melong used all of her sick and trip days for the primary month, and now she isn’t getting paid.
“My office, they're refusing to take accountability they usually don’t have my again in any respect,” Melong stated.
Wyckoff Heights “didn't consider that she had contracted [COVID-19] on the hospital since she was on medical depart of absence already,” the employees’ comp papers say including that her final shift was on March 4.
Melong stated that whereas she didn’t personally are likely to the hospital’s first coronavirus case she was round residents who did and who later examined constructive.
Melong stated she and her household have since recovered from the virus and from what medical doctors can see the fetus is wholesome.
Nonetheless, “[t]right here isn't any approach of seeing if the virus has been transmitted to the fetus,” she stated.
In the meantime, the hospital needs her to work once more and informed her she is going to lose her medical insurance if she doesn’t return.
Her lawyer stated the hospital has denied her employees’ compensation declare which now have to be litigated.
Returning to work is out fo the query, based on her doctor, Dr. Charles Edwards Robins.
“I feel she completely mustn't return to work. She does have extreme signs of PTSD. She has been severely traumatized because of this COVID-19 factor,” the trauma psychotherapist informed The Publish.
“It has had super private results in her personal life,” Robins stated. “She thinks she is accountable now for the hardships of her household.”
The physician really helpful that she attend video remedy periods twice every week.
”There's a large distinction between being important and expendable,” stated Melong’s lawyer Jason Goldfarb of the Goldfarb Legislation Group. “You possibly can’t choose up a paper or watch the information with out listening to how a lot all people loves these important employees, similar to Tamekia.
“However then when it comes time to do the precise factor they're treating them as merely expendable.”
Wyckoff Heights president and CEO of Ramon Rodriguez informed The Publish that the hospital needs to assist Melong.
“We now have an entire distinction of opinion with respect to the info that she alludes to however we're completely satisfied to talk along with her and to speak and attempt to be useful in any approach we will.”
“We look ahead to attempting to assist her anyway we will that’s inside the contract that we've got with the New York State Nurses Affiliation,” Rodriguez stated including that he wasn’t conscious of her employees’ comp declare.
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