Snow and ice have wreaked havoc on the South, especially Texas. Millions have been left without power for more than 24 hours, and with temperatures well below freezing, some have gone to extreme measures to stay warm.
While most are figuring out how to keep the cold air from seeping inside their homes, many essential workers had to find a way to get to work. With the roads still covered in snow, driving was not a possibility.
“I packed a bag and I headed out and I started walking,” Brooke Wilson, a labor and delivery nurse with St. David’s Women’s Center of Texas in North Austin said.
Wilson was one of several nurses who chose to make the trek to work in the snow.
Amy Belknap, an oncology nurse manager at a medical center in Austin, also walked to work. Her commute was about a mile.
“I started a little bit before the sun rose, so there was nobody out. And it was actually the roads, like no one had driven on them yet. So, the snow is really pretty. It was really peaceful,” she said.
The two nurses echoed each other, saying that patients don’t wait to get sick and babies don’t wait to be born.
No matter the weather, someone will always need to be taken care of, and they will be there.
“Hospitals never shut down. They’re 24/7. So, even whenever you have crazy weather and unique situations, people still need your care,” Belknap said. “And so, I really felt like I needed to get in for them and needed to get in for the nurses that were on the floor and needing some breaks.”
“I didn’t want to let them down. I didn’t want people to be spread thin. That’s not safe for patients. It’s not safe for us,” Wilson said.
These nurses are heroes! They deserve to be recognized for their dedication to keeping people safe and healthy.
Share this post on Facebook to recognize Brooke, Amy, and all the other nurses and doctors who braved the weather to make it into work to take care of their patients.
