Courage Born of Caring: Robert Merriwether, RN

Subject

Robert Merriwether; Charlotte; Registered Nurse

Description

He woke up alone in a hotel room in NYC with a fever of 99.2 degrees. Not a big ugly deal — under normal circumstances. But on that spring day in 2020, normal circumstances were mere memories. Robert Merriwether had left family and home behind in Charlotte to serve as a registered nurse at the Henry J. Carter Hospital, a long-term care facility in Harlem. His assignment had been caring for COVID patients on ventilators. He was not only serving at the epicenter of COVID in the US, he was serving at a time when the death toll there reached its peak. Given the anything-but-normal circumstances, he was forced to acknowledge the reality that he may have contracted COVID. “Is this it?” he asked himself. “I came up here to help, and now I might need help.”  

Mr. Merriwether had willingly left home to help those who most needed help — he signed up for a 21-day-straight stint of 12-hour workdays in a hospital full of highly susceptible and COVID-positive patients. It was a life-and-death decision that he and his wife, Shania Merriwether, made together. They were well aware of the risks, but firm in their conviction that standing in the gap for others in great need was more important than personal safety and family concerns. “It was difficult to just sit back and watch the problem when we knew I could be a part of the solution. If the tables were turned, wouldn’t we want someone to come? The only thing that made us different from the beautiful patients up there was a diagnosis… Because my wife was my strong anchor, I could run to the battlefield, not from it. I felt very lucky, because not every health care professional who went to NYC had support from home. My wife believed in and supported what I was doing, no matter the outcome.”  

Creator

Teresa K. Cain, author; Mimi Curlee, researcher; and Sabrina Robinson, photographer 

Source

https://digitalbranch.cmlibrary.org/engage-2020/courage-born-of-caring-robert-merriwether-rn/

Publisher

digitalbranch.cmlibrary.org

File