One Frontline Worker’s Life in the Trenches During the Pandemic

By Tori Taylor

Sleepless nights full of fear and anxiety. Working countless hours without proper safety equipment, the worry in the back of the mind about possibly giving this virus to someone. This was the daily life of Shannon Weaver for so long during the pandemic.

Weaver works as an occupational therapist at the skilled nursing facility, SNF, that is a part of the healthcare center at the La Posada retirement community. The 49-year-old Palm Beach Gardens resident has worked with various elderly patients throughout the pandemic. Though in the very beginning everything was put at a standstill at the healthcare center not taking anyone sick or previously sick with COVID-19 since no one knew how long they were contagious.

When the SNF floor opened at the healthcare center there were plastic wall barriers put in place, only taking Medicare patients, who are primarily 65 and older. Weaver spoke about the sleepless nights she had caused by the fear she felt about spreading the virus to her family or other people in her life. There also was the issue of the lack of masks. The SNF floor had “mask Monday” when the safe got cracked open about every two weeks to give out new masks.

Weaver recalled a time when she was working with a patient in the beginning of the pandemic when they had to crack open the locked supply just for her. The patient she was seeing had very contagious diarrhea and her mask kept sliding down. “So I accidentally adjusted my mask with my gloved hands contaminating it. They had to give me a new mask from the locked up supply when we didn’t have extra to spare.”

The doctors and nurses had to keep the same mask for about two weeks which would become rather weathered. “We learned to hang our masks in our cars to give the masks new life,” Weaver said since the masks began to smell from having been used for so long. Though thankfully people did start to make masks and donate them for the doctors and nurses to use.

Weaver talked about how back in March she got sick and she couldn’t come in to work. From home she had to do televisits with a doctor, though it was only allergies she had to wait at home for a few days to be sure. The healthcare center took any visible symptoms very seriously since the doctors and nurses were taking care of patients 65 and older.

Unfortunately, Weaver also spoke about how she knew six people who had died at the healthcare center. Many of the patients got the coronavirus from visitors. Weaver said there was this one patient that got the virus from a family member who was banned from the healthcare center. They came into contact with them at a doctor’s appointment outside of the center. This patient ended up giving COVID-19 to multiple people.

There were even some within her family that got COVID-19 including her children. Her son ended up getting the virus from his soccer team and inevitably gave it to his older sister. Weaver’s father also ended up getting it and for weeks he apparently wouldn’t say just how sick he was even though it got to the point where he was at the hospital.

Things began to settle down as the national guard came to La Posada and gave the staff and patients of the SNF floor some of the first vaccines available. The vaccines were distributed through three stations from a couple of nurses. Weaver, who was tenth in line, remembered how cold the shot was and that it actually quite hurt. The local news was even filming this experience, which she said was put on their Facebook page.

Currently a majority of the SNF rehabilitation staff has been vaccinated as well as a majority of the patients. Though for a while only about 43% of staff at La Posada as a whole were vaccinated. Weaver had said that about two weeks ago there was an email sent by the corporate office saying that if you weren’t vaccinated by August first you would be let go, unless you couldn’t get it because of religious or medical reasons. The corporate office wanted the staff to get vaccinated since La Posada is a retirement community and those in that age range are vulnerable to the virus. Though in Florida businesses aren’t allowed to do that but since the company is from California they could because their companies are allowed to tell their employees to get the vaccine. Although some were opposed, Weaver understood the push to get vaccinated since the community revolves around the elderly. She said now there are a good number of the staff that have had the vaccine.

All the patients seen are still tested before being admitted though since the introduction of the vaccines the SNF floor now only sees patients that have had COVID in the past and are still recovering. The staff still have to wear masks and also get tested weekly. Weaver said she also hasn’t seen any active coronavirus patients in a while, which is a great thing. “I definitely feel more at ease at work and slowly returning to normal.”