‘All for It’: Home Health Care Worker Sees Hope for Safety, Normalcy with Vaccines
Blues Perspectives
| 2 min read
Health care professionals have faced unprecedented challenges with COVID-19 as the critical services they provide cannot cease, even during a global pandemic. Many have risked their own health and safety to continue providing care to patients in various settings. “The medical profession overcomes with that, right?” reflects Sheba Kumar, a frontline health care professional.
Kumar, who lives in Macomb, Michigan, is a physical therapist who provides care for patients in their homes. She’s seen first-hand the effects of COVID-19 in her patients. With her children and grandchildren at home, she took every precaution possible. Every time she returned from visiting a patient, she followed a strict routine of removing her protective equipment and clothes, keeping them outside and disinfecting anything and everything. Despite stringently following the safety guidelines provided by the CDC, Kumar was still concerned with protecting herself and her family when she would return from seeing patients. “It was hard, but it was necessary to do it -- to protect my family and the sick people I was treating.” When the vaccines became available, she was “all for it.” As one of the first to receive a vaccine in December, she did it to, “protect the people I work with and my family. It’s an extra layer of protection that gives me so much hope the community can regain normalcy.” “Since I’ve seen first-hand in the people I treat, even young people, with COVID-19 have such a hard time, breathing, walking and losing independence, I strongly suggest everyone consider the vaccine.” More from MIBluesPerspectives:
- Perspective: Pandemic Solidifies Love for Nursing
- ‘They Had to Rely on the Medical Field’: Pandemic Echoes Polio Epidemic for Silent, Baby Boomer Generations
- Daughter Hopes to Reconnect with Aging Parents Post-Vaccine
Photo credit: Ridofranz
