michelle%20and%20victoria%20full%20shot%201%20of%201-550?v=1

Sarasota Memorial's Frontline Heroes

SMH's Michelle Marshall and Vicki Morrison share their experiences on the frontlines of the pandemic

Article by Tony D'Souza

Photography by Victoria Dietz - Artistic Solutions

Originally published in Venice City Lifestyle

For the past year, Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s Michelle Marshall, an ICU nurse, and Vicki Morrison, a respiratory care therapist who works with ICU patients, have done what for the rest of us seems unimaginable: they’ve dressed carefully in PPE and spent 12-hour shift after 12-hour shift caring for the most critically ill Covid-19 patients. In the beginning, they were scared for their own health as so little was known about the disease. As the year progressed, they battled through three waves of new infections, caring for patients who ranged in age from 18 to beyond 90.

Michelle—mother to Cassidy, Lilly and Lloyd with her husband Lloyd—is part of the team who opened SMH’s first Covid critical care pod. Vicki—mother to Logan Morrison and Oliver with her husband Rob—uses all of her respiratory care training to get her patients to keep fighting. Michelle’s and Vicki’s patients are unable to have visitors because of the necessary safety restrictions put in place by hospitals across the country. These tireless heroes—because heroes are exactly what Michelle and Vicki are—and others like them at SMH, continue to step up and serve as stand-ins for the loved ones who in normal times would be at the patient’s bedside to offer comfort and support.

“It's been a roller coaster year, unlike anything else I've done in healthcare,” Vicki says. “The Covid patients are super sick and they are isolated because we can’t allow the virus to spread. If they're not intubated, we try to have them Facetime their families as much as possible. But they're alone in these rooms. You feel a need to constantly check on them, tell them not to give up hope. You really try to give them what they need emotionally, spiritually, whatever they need to fight.”

Like most frontline workers in Covid wards, both Michelle and Vicki pushed through moments of intense physical and emotional exhaustion. But Michelle and Vicki never broke and always went to work with a desire to help their patients however they could.

“Even when I didn’t want to go in, when you are a nurse caring for a patient, the love of caring, helping, and hopefully seeing your patient get better takes over,” Michelle says. “It’s been a very challenging time, but we’re going to keep fighting because we have the support of each other. You step up to the plate and you go in there because you are a nurse and that’s what you do. I know we are going to look back at this time and remember how determined and strong we were even when we were afraid.”

Venice Lifestyle thanks Michelle, Vicki, and all the frontlines heroes who have given so much of themselves this year. Thank you so very much!

Sarasota Memorial Hospital. 1700 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. 941.917.9000. SMH.com
 

  • victoria1%201%20of%201-300?v=1
  • michelle1%201%20of%201-300?v=1
  • michelle%20and%20victoria%20full%20shot%201%20of%201-300?v=1

Related Businesses

Related Articles