Lee Health nurse thanks community for support, asks people to stay safe at home

From the moment nurse Yanan Wheeler wakes up through her entire 12-hour shift at Health Park, until the moment she gets to go home and see her three boys, coronavirus is on her mind.

“I get out of my car, I leave my shoes in the car until the next time I go in, then I come around here and, I feel bad for my neighbors, but I strip right here,” she said. “It is serious.”

Just a moment after days of working, Wheeler got to relax and let her mind wander.

“I was actually rocking my two-year-old to sleep that afternoon and I was sitting in his room after I got him to sleep listening to his baby lullaby and it just hit me all of a sudden,” she said.

She took to social media in a lengthy post, pouring her heart out and thanking the community for all of the kindness they have shown her.

“They are not only supporting us with food, I have received numerous phone calls, like I’ve mentioned, just to tell us how much they appreciate us,” Wheeler said.

But more importantly, she is asking everyone to stay home so that she can keep doing her part to protect you.

“I really hope people take it seriously. Just because it hasn’t happened to you or your loved ones yet does not mean that it does not exist,” she said. “Bottom line is we have to make sure we are protecting ourselves in order to care for others.”

Wheeler tells us Lee Health is doing their part to make her feel protected.

“They have been supporting us with the PPEs that we need so if anybody out in the community has extra ones, I’m sure Lee Health has reached out and we have received so many positive feedbacks or donations,” she said.

But she says she fears they will need more gear soon. “I think that that’s one essential step that really could get us to think about ‘Do we really need to go out?’”

She says it really comes down to you: the community.

“We got to think of it as ‘it’s not about myself but rather the whole community’ because at some point if we all think that way we can flatten the curve. We can maybe prevent my loved ones or your loved ones from being admitted to the hospital,” she said.