When Madison Eads got a call from the Kentucky Department for Public Health, she only had 24 hours to prepare herself before heading to the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak.
“I just tried to see everybody in my family before I left, to see my friends...I just try not to overthink it. This is what you signed up for,” said Eads. “Honestly, I was pretty excited to leave. I was excited to go and get this chance to help people.”
Eads, a sophomore nursing student at Campbellsville University, knew getting the call was a possibility after filling out a survey sent by the department and listening in on a conference call led by Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack.
It was a part of the state’s effort to send volunteers to nursing homes hit hard by coronavirus outbreaks, which has sent at least 20 medical and nursing students to west Kentucky nursing homes so far -- Eads among them.
When she drove two hours from her home in Hodgenville, Kentucky, to the Hopkins County nursing home on April 16, the need for help was apparent.
“The virus was actually spreading so much there that they had staff out with the virus, and they had other staff that weren't working because they didn't want to be involved with the virus. They had several staff members who were over 60, that they just took a leave because they didn't want to take the risk,” Eads said. “All of the staff and other workers at the facility were absolutely thrilled to see us and to have our help.”
Eads said she didn’t want to disclose the specific nursing home where she volunteered to protect the privacy of those working and living there. The Courier-Journal reports two nursing homes in the county have COVID-19 cases, one seeing dozens of cases among residents and staff with at least 15 resident deaths.
Eads worked seven days at the home, her time spent passing out meals to residents, helping residents take showers, and aiding nursing home staff when help was needed.
Eads wasn’t alone at the nursing home, working alongside a pharmacology student and another medical student from across the state. For the residents, Eads said the help was more than appreciated.
“Most of them were questioning like, ‘I've not seen you. Who are you?’ And whenever we told them ‘we're a volunteer. We're here to help during all this,’ you could just see on their face, it changed their entire facial expression,” Eads said. “Almost every single one of them were like, ‘We are so thankful for your help, I can't even imagine doing what you're doing.’”
Meanwhile, she was trying to balance her volunteer work with her studies. At night, she would go back to the Baymont Inn where she was staying to catch up on homework. Her professors and dean at the Campbellsville University School of Nursing were very accommodating given the circumstances, she said.
At times, Eads said seeing the challenges and suffering the virus caused, up close, was hard to bear, especially as she got to know the residents there.
“There's not very many cases where I'm from, and so going and being in a facility where there's over 20 cases...you've got hallways of people with this virus,” Eads said. “You had residents that progressively got worse each and every day. And that was really hard to see, because you could see, whenever you first got there they were talking to you...they were not confused. They were totally carrying out an entire conversation with you, so thankful for you being there. And by the time you left, they were like barely hanging on, and it was really hard to watch that progression.”
But even with the struggles she saw, putting her own health and those close to her at risk, she said she would volunteer again without a doubt. She received a coronavirus test -- with a negative result -- at the end of her stint at the nursing home, and she’s now self-quarantining away from her family in her LaRue County home.
“I would encourage anyone who ever has the opportunity to volunteer for something to do it, because it was probably one of the best experiences of my life,” Eads said. “I've not gotten another phone call, but I have informed the Kentucky Department for Public Health that if a crisis came up again and they actually needed extra hands, I know for sure me and my day-shift team, the three of us that work together, we all three would go do it again in a heartbeat.”
