“Mommy, don’t forget to take a shower when you come home!” says a high-pitched little voice. And, “Does everybody have their masks with them?” Not what most 5-year-old boys are reminding their parents and siblings.
But in the home which she shares with her husband, in-laws, and children, ages 5, 2 1/2 and 10 months, Suzana Oquendo, 33, a Charge Nurse at Capital Regional Medical Center, says everybody there is thinking safety. “COVID thoughts” are never far away.
And those thoughts extend to another house filled with family, that of Oquendo’s twin sister, Wendy Merlos.
Merlos, also 33, has a doctorate in Physical Therapy and works with out-patients at Capital Regional Medical Center Out-Patient Rehabilitation Services. Though her work involves therapy with individuals who come into the hospital’s Rehabilitation Services Department, Merlos has also taken on a new job that brings her into contact with the designated Capital Regional COVID-19 Unit. “I am a PPE Steward,” she says.
As part of her shift assisting patients with balance problems, she now is responsible for making sure each unit of the hospital is stocked with enough PPEs (masks, gowns, gloves, sanitizer) so that no hospital clinician is at risk as they care for inpatients. “I am constantly on call to bring whatever is needed,” she says. “I think once I must have covered eight miles in one day!”
Like her sister, Oquendo, who works on the designated COVID-19 Unit on the 8th floor, Merlos remembers those first months of March and April that were “frightening… when we didn’t know what we were dealing with. We have learned much since,” she says. “We immediately put into effect precautions for patients coming in for their rehab appointments… temperature checks, masks, sanitizers, and appropriate distancing, all dictated by the CDC’s advisories.”
Just as her sister, Suzana, who relies on her in-laws for child care, the twins’ parents are taking care of Wendy Merlos’ 3-year-old daughter. “Our parents are definitely concerned… two of their daughters working in a hospital during this time, and lots of little children around,” Merlos said. “My husband and I pulled our daughter out of day care and luckily, my parents are able to work from home to be with her.” Yet Merlos says she loves what she does. “I wish I could do more. I actually wish I were a nurse at this moment to become even more involved.”
Listening to her twin, RN Suzana Oquendo, one can hear the fatigue in her voice, along with the hint of an accent. “My sister and I were born here in Tallahassee, but our parents are from El Salvador, and our husbands are from there and Puerto Rico.” She says that most of her family were teachers, but from an early age, medicine called to her. “Some good advice I was given led me to nursing and its many options,” she says.
Today she works in the unit she describes as for cardiac and stroke patients. “After the ICU, and the PCU, would come our unit, the Medical Telemetry/Neuro Unit.” Oquendo says there she has seen many patients with pulmonary emboli (mobile clots) resulting from COVID. “And yes, I have sat at the bedsides of patients who have died from this virus, and comforted their families afterwards.”
Oquendo says that Capital Regional Medical Center has followed all the most up-to-date practices and is grateful that they never have run short of personal protective equipment. “In the beginning we were scared and nervous, with a mixture of emotions,” she says. But she feels privileged to be in a position to bring compassion to seriously ill patients. “I remember one woman who had been nonresponsive for 12 hours. But during a last video call, she heard her granddaughter’s voice, opened her eyes, and whispered something to her grandchildren. I was humbled to be beside her.”
Both sisters, who were always close, say they are even more grateful for each other in these days.
Almost like soldiers coming back from the front lines, they share a special knowledge and have seen things others can’t quite tap into. “We talk now more than we ever have,” says Suzana Oquendo. “There are so many at risk,” adds Wendy Merlos. “We’ve seen the struggle, the fear. And I am humbled…”
And a final message to the community from her sister: “We must all take precautions. I have seen whole families admitted together. It is so sad.”
And for nurses and the whole team…the doctors, nursing aides, housekeeping, ancillary services…all who work with COVID patients, she says: “STAY STRONG! We all thought this would be over soon… but it’s not. Find someone to talk to about the sadness. Find a buddy who will listen. And take care of yourselves.”
Good advice for everyone.
Contact Marina Brown at: mcdb100@comcast.net.
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September 08, 2020 at 02:42AM
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Twin health care providers bring compassion to Capital Regional Medical Center - Tallahassee Democrat
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