MADISON, Wis. — It’s hard to imagine the challenges that COVID-19 has presented to the frontline workers who come into contact with it every day.
But for UW Health respiratory therapist Becky Sturdevant, she knows that the COVID unit is where she’s needed.
“If I can help out somebody else, that’s what I want to do,” Sturdevant said. “It’s stressful. It’s not normal work these days. So many days we don’t feel like we are making any progress with these patients. We just see them declining and declining.”
Seeing the struggles all around her day in and day out is hard enough for her, but Sturdevant faces another challenge that weighs heavily on her shoulders.
Sturdevant’s mom, Bonnie Gerner, died after a two-week battle with COVID-19. She was 75 years old.
“She just embodied what we should do in life and how we should treat others and always giving back,” she said.
Gerner was admitted to SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital on May 27. She died two weeks later on June 14. Sturdevant was assisting patients in the COVID unit at UW Health while her mom battled the virus.
“I begged if I could bring my own N95 if I could come and see her just to hold her hand,” Sturdevant said. “She would call and say how scared she was and she tried to hide that a lot. She didn’t want us to know how she was struggling. Knowing she was there alone for two weeks when she’s such a social body and loves her family and her friends, that was hard to know.”
Sturdevant said she and several other family members held a small funeral at her mom’s church, while anyone else who wished to attend, stayed in their cars in the parking lot and broadcast the service over the radio.
Sturdevant went back to work two weeks later, continuing to help others fight the same virus that took her mom’s life. Sturdevant said she met a patient who gave her an opportunity to do the one thing she never got to do with her mom before she died.
“She totally reminded me of my mother so I sat in there and held her hand until she passed,” Sturdevant said. “Some days I try not to think about it. I use my drive home to process it in my mind so I’m there in the moment with my family.”
Sturdevant continues to fight to save the lives of total strangers, carrying on the drive to help people the same way her mom did.
“This is where I need to be,” Sturdevant said. “This is what I need to do. Help others. Make sure you’re doing your part. Just be kind to people. There’s so much anger about all this. We are all frustrated. None of us want to be going through any of this. Just be thoughtful and kind to one another. Let’s help each other out and get through this together.”
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