Apr 21, 2020
Heroes on the front line: Iris Montijo
During Emergency Preparedness Month, Coverage salutes the Massachusetts nurses who bring compassion and bravery to their job every day
Around the world, health care providers are on the front line of the battle against the coronavirus.
Many are struggling not only to treat a disease with no known treatment, one to which no human has natural immunity. They are also facing an unprecedented global shortage of the masks, gowns and gloves known as personal protective equipment, due to international manufacturing shortfalls in the face of the pandemic. That equipment is essential to preventing health care workers from getting infected themselves and from passing the virus to patients and to their own family members.
Doctors and nurses and physician assistants and other health care workers sign up to work long hours, nights and weeks, away from their families. But never in our lifetime have they been asked to put their own health and their loved ones’ health at such risk.
At Coverage, we are giving Massachusetts doctors, nurses, PAs and NPs a chance to speak to you, our readers, in their own words. We asked that they share their simplest, most urgent messages as they fight this new virus with no vaccine and no cure, a virus vulnerable only to our common human bravery, ingenuity and compassion.
I have found the courage and motivation to continue to work because I have seen others in our profession rise to the occasion and consistently honor the oath we took to serve the sick and society’s most vulnerable. I have been inspired by the selflessness and bravery that our profession has shown by throwing itself into the fire in order to save the lives of others. I have found the will to continue fighting because I know that our collective efforts will allow our nation and global community to defeat this virus and bring back a sense of normalcy to everyone’s lives.
- Iris Montijo, pediatric NP
Codman Square Health Center
More in the "Heroes on the front line" series:
Virginia Caples
Infection prevention nurse,
Cambridge Health Alliance
Dr. Harry Schrager
Infectious disease physician,
Newton-Wellesley Hospital
Sean Sullivan
ER nurse manager,
Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital
Dr. Jessica Isom
Psychiatrist,
Codman Square Health Center
Dr. Kavita Babu
Dept. of Emergency Medicine, UMass Memorial
Dr. Adam Lurie
Newton-Wellesley Hospital