Thank You to Our Heroes!
Robin Krinsky, Clinical nurse
Mount Sinai Hospital
Today we want to honor the Robin Krinsky, 60, a Clinical nurse at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She has been a nurse for 37 years. Here is her story as reported by AARP.
"I have been a nurse since the beginning of AIDS crisis in the early 1980s. That was nothing compared to this. The rise of the coronavirus has been so rapid, so vicious. There is a lot of stress. But I didn't get into nursing for the glamour.
My husband is a nurse, too. Our son works in a hospital as an administrative assistant. We do the social distance thing ... even in a Manhattan apartment. I partly cope with humor; it has got me through life. I just hope it lasts.
Everyone on the front line is exposed to the virus — the pregnant nurse, the nurse with an underlying condition, the older nurse, the healthy nurse. Everybody is on the ledge. My duties used to be logical and organized — nothing unusual, certainly nothing catastrophic. Now it's hectic. I describe it as organized chaos. I don't know what I am going to walk into. Everything is ominous. I just want to make sure my patients are breathing. This is the new normal.
The worst part of my day is this: Every day, we find out how many patients are coronavirus-positive, those who died, those on ventilators. We find out how many nurses are virus-positive, or who are quarantined because they are symptomatic. Every day, those numbers rise. I have not been tested for the virus. We don't have enough tests in New York for all health-care personnel.
I don't care about the consequences. I will not stop doing what I love to do. Nurses are leaders. We are a special breed. During disasters— and the coronavirus is the ultimate disaster — we don't walk away. But I am scared every day."
Thank you to Robin for your commitment, dedication, and compassion for your patients and communities.
If you have a story and pictures of a front line nurse you would like us to highlight on our website and social media, please email them to us at info@helphopehonor.org.
