CLEVELAND — Throughout the pandemic, the Northeast Ohio community has relied on several local doctors to bring the facts to the forefront while informing the public of ever-changing news.
Many 3News viewers will recognize University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital Pediatric Infectious disease expert, Dr. Amy Edwards, as one of the experts who made constant appearances on WKYC shows. Dr. Edwards has made it her mission to treat patients while informing the community at the same time.
Fast forward to March 2022 as Dr. Edwards allowed 3News into her home in order to peel back the curtain on what the last two years have been like for her once the doctor coat comes off.
Dr. Edwards shared stories of her children, her work-life balance, and her fears. She took us back to March 2020 calling it, “stressful, very stressful we were living pretty far out…about an hour away from the hospital at the time, I have two kids.”
At that time, Dr. Edwards said hospital staff was panicking, parents of children were panicking, and she started working 14 hour days in order to find ways to stop the virus among staff, while helping the sickest of children.
“Kids were sick. There was a kid who was the exact same age as my daughter…and I might cry…who got really sick, it was terrifying. Every time you see someone who is your kids age, it kills you, and you talk to these moms and they are like help my kid…and I’m like I want to,” said Dr. Edwards. “This child had the same birth month as my daughter and was same age and she had blonde hair like my daughter and sometimes it just gets you in your gut.”
Dr. Edwards told 3News' Laura Caso that there were times when she doubted her ability to continue pushing through the heaviness of the pandemic. “The end of the first week after my kids' daycare closed, I think I got home on a Friday night, really late at night. I hadn’t seen them most of that week. I remember thinking, I don’t know if I can keep doing this.”
However, she continued pushing forward and ultimately moved closer to the hospital. Meanwhile, her children’s grandparents moved in, and Dr. Edwards worked day in and day out while her family stayed safe at home. “For essentially four months, my husband and kids never left our house. They got a lot of outside time though.”
Her kids are now very accepting of mommy being gone.
“During the omicron surge that we just had very recently, I was working very long hours and gone a lot and one morning I was here [in the kitchen] when my kids woke up and I was actually here at breakfast and my son said, 'Mom what are you doing here?' And I thought, 'well, I’m supposed to be here, I’m Mom.'”
Dr. Edwards understands that everyone in this community doesn’t agree with her and she’s had her fair share of hate mail, as she calls it.
“I always want [those who disagree with me] to come spend a day with me, come see it, come hang on with the ward, come watch this kid struggle to breathe or be put on a ventilator.”
She understands what it’s like to be a pediatrician and a parent in the pandemic. It’s been two years, and she’s still doing it. “I wouldn’t trade my job for anything and being a doctor is a very fundamental part of me, part of my core.”
Dr. Edwards took all the precautions throughout the last two years and neither she, nor her family, were diagnosed with COVID-19. Dr. Edwards says she practices what she preaches, including vaccinations, hand washing and masking.
More Faces of COVID with Laura Caso: