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Nurses on the frontline: Canada should recognise its fallen heroes of SARS
Linda West
Health Care Teacher; Consultant, Winnipeg, Canada
Article Text
Caring for patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) places nurses, physicians and other health care providers in harm's way. At least 15 health care providers have died from SARS worldwide since March 2003, demonstrating a real risk to the front lines of our health care systems. Canada has now lost two nurses to this fight.
Mrs Nelia Laroza, a nurse at North York General Hospital became Ontario, and Canada's, first health care worker to die of SARS. When her death was made public, nurses across Toronto wept. They wept again when they turned out in large numbers to say goodbye to an unassuming, down-to-earth nurse who was 'always smiling and saying, 'Hi Honey'.' The nurses understood the need to mark the death of one who lost her life working on the front line of our health system, protecting us from an invisible enemy.
The second nurse was Mrs Tecla Lin, who had cared for other medical personnel at West Park Healthcare Centre, where they were transferred after contracting SARS at Scarborough Grace Hospital.
Dying in the line of duty
No flags were flown at half-mast in Manitoba. Nursing leadership from across Canada did not attend their funerals. Why? To me, Mrs Nelia Laroza and Mrs Tecla Lin are national heroes. They became heroes protecting Canadians, by helping to contain and eliminate this threat to our health and economy. In my search for an answer, the Canadian Nurses Association replied that we did not have the same traditions as police, firefighters and army personnel in mourning those who die in the line of duty.
SARS
Early symptoms of SARS include influenza-like symptoms such as fever, headache, sore throat, dry cough, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing. In some cases these symptoms are followed by atypical pneumonia, which can progress, to acute respiratory distress (requiring mechanical ventilation) and occasionally death. SARS is spread by droplets from infected people, and is thus contagious in health care settings.
Caring for patients with SARS is a high-risk assignment for health workers; infection during intubations, necessary when a patient needs the help of a ventilator to breath, has occurred. Treating SARS patients has been physically and emotionally draining for nurses. Wearing gowns, gloves, and eye protection for suspected cases has created an uncomfortable distance between nurses and their patients. SARS also forced nurses to work overtime as colleagues became sick or quarantined.
Family at risk
Mrs Laroza's career placed her family in harm's way. Mrs Laroza and her husband have two children. Her 15-year-old son Kenneth was quarantined with symptoms of SARS in spite of Mrs Laroza following safety procedures. It is reported that the guilt Nelia Laroza bore for making her son ill was great, taking energy away from her own fight for life.
Mrs Tecla Lin's family lost both her and her husband leaving two adult children without parents.
The future
Antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, AIDS and SARS are hallmarks of a world where we are again susceptible to bacteria and viruses. Global travel facilitates the rapid spread of such diseases.
Mrs Laroza and Mrs Tecla Lin are not the first health care workers, or the first nurses whose death demonstrates that dedication takes one beyond the call of duty – and they will not be the last.
Canada needs to salute lives cut tragically short when brave people battle the enemy and face grave risks on our behalf. The lowering of flags is a deep-rooted tradition whereby we bestow an honour and express a collective sense of sorrow. The act of lowering the Canadian flag is a dramatic visual statement that speaks to the sense of loss that is shared by all our citizens. Those who protect us from microscopic enemies are national heroes; national gems and we need to grieve them, nationally.
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