NEW YORK — Most of us are trying to avoid any place where we could be infected with the coronavirus. However, for over 20 Cleveland Clinic healthcare workers, they did just the opposite and went to help where they were needed most.
“I don’t know if I should say this, but I did not tell my parents that I was coming here until I got here,” says nurse Lindsey Fascione. “I was afraid that they would try to stop me.”
Lindsey isn’t used to keeping things from her parents, but as most parents do, they know their daughter and are glad she’s helping out.
“When I told them, they were like, ‘we’re so proud of you and we just want you to do what you love and to help people,’” says Fascione.
It’s no surprise to anyone that knows her, that Lindsey is 1 of about 25 Cleveland Clinic healthcare workers that boarded a plane to New York last Friday. They left to volunteer to help COVID-19 patients for a month in one of the hardest hit cities in the world. In fact, Lindsey didn’t think twice about it.
“It was kind of a no-brainer for me,” says Fascione. “I felt awful that they needed help and they didn’t have the right amount of help. Everybody is a COVID nurse now. We’re all family and we all need to help each other.”
Lindsey feels grateful to be in a position to help and says compared to New York, Cleveland should feel grateful as well.
Lindsay says, “I would say there are actually more people out on the streets in Ohio than there are in New York City, which is crazy to think about. Ohio is very lucky. Cleveland is very lucky that our Governor shut things down so fast. They do not understand how lucky they are, New York is very sick right now.
However, if there is a silver lining, she says we’ll be better prepared for future outbreaks and diseases because of all this. She’s also hoping that everyone will stop for a minute and learn to appreciate what they have.
“We will be so much more appreciative of life when this is over,” says Fascione.