How angel of mercy helps COVID patients in their final hours
Royal Melbourne Hospital nurse Laura Keily holds coronavirus patients in their final moments. Alone, sometimes scared, they die knowing they are loved. After struggling through the horror of the virus herself, she has now returned to the frontline to care for our sickest patients.
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Through layers of plastic Laura Keily has hugged her patients as though they are her own family members, holding their hands as they take their final breath.
Tears fogging up her PPE has become an all too common issue for the 30-year-old nurse during the second COVID-19 wave.
She has felt the horror of her own breath failing too after contracting the illness.
Given the all-clear but still weak, Ms Keily on Friday stepped back into Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Nine West ward — the epicentre of Victoria’s COVID’19 battle — knowing how vital it is to be there for patients.
To families unable to be there for a final goodbye she is a saviour.
“They deserve all the care and support in the world,” Ms Keily said.
“I can’t tell you how many people I have hugged and cuddled like they are my own grandmother and cried.
“It is really hard crying under a mask and goggles that you are fogging up.”
Not only are the number and severity of patients unlike anything Ms Keily has experienced in her seven years on the infectious disease ward, they are also alone – aside from medical staff like her.
“(Normally) When patients come into hospital there is a conversation had and the families are present, they are understanding and they are there by the bedside holding their hands and telling you stories about the patient and giving you a sense of who they are.
“You feel privileged to be a part of it.
“But, in this (COVID-19), the patients are beyond petrified because all they hear in the world is ‘I am going to die and I can’t even see the nurses’ face underneath all of this’.”
Pressure began to mount on the dedicated COVID ward when coronavirus struck Flemington and North Melbourne public housing towers in the first days of July.
The influx of patients was like nothing Ms Keily and her colleagues had seen.
“We had so many young patients who were so unwell and from such an at-risk community,” she said.
“All day long patients were fine — then all of a sudden they can’t breathe, they have a fever, oxygen levels drop and then emergency teams come running.
“They are going to take them to ICU but then, the patient next door to them, the exact same thing happens.
“We had many days when concurrently we had that happening for four or five patients.
“The ICU would be saying ‘we only have two beds at the moment’ or ‘we only have enough staff to look after two of them, what are we going to do?’.”
On day six of an exhaustive stretch dealing with spiralling patient numbers, Ms Keily received a message from a colleague who had just tested positive herself.
Ms Keily said she began feeling achy, but put it down to constantly wearing PPE.
At work the next day the nurse underwent her own coronavirus test and was shocked when it came back positive.
Whisked away to a “Hotel for Heroes” Ms Keily was stuck in a room away from her partner Rohan and her cat Charlie — though she was not alone, having friends down the corridor to share the ordeal with on the phone.
“At the time it was very hard. Three of my colleagues were also in the hotel who tested positive over one weekend,” Ms Keily said.
“Knowing they were positive too meant it wasn’t anything we did wrong — if you are around something enough your risk increases no matter how careful you are.
“In the first seven days there were a few times I felt I wanted to call an ambulance. I was very short of breath and just so achy. Doing anything just made me feel like I had run a marathon.
“It was quite anxiety-producing because I have seen the worst.
“I know I am healthy and young, but we have lots of healthy and young patients.
“We have seen 30-year-olds — unfortunately even 30-year-old pregnant women — come to us.
“And we have healthcare workers as patients. We had an influx of healthcare workers just a week before I went off, so I was very anxious thinking ‘will I get to that level?’
“After day seven I still felt wiped out, but the breathing got better and I was able to shower and eat again.”
Cleared of coronavirus on August 3 Ms Keily was determined to return to work the very next day.
But, like so many of her patients, she has continued to suffer ongoing impacts that left her still too weak to work for most of last week.
On Friday she was back in the ward, determined to make a difference.
“I have colleagues who tested positive this week so we are short staffed and you want to be there helping everyone,” Ms Keily said.
“This is what I do, this is what I love to do and it is definitely not the time to be stepping away. I want to be there for my colleagues, my patients.
“In this time a lot of people feel like they are out of control and they can’t do anything to help — I can do something, I can have a bit of purpose.”
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