The COVID-19 pandemic thrust healthcare workers into the spotlight and as a society, we have become acutely aware of their vital role. While attention typically focuses on doctors and nurses, there are hosts of essential workers within a hospital who stand on the frontlines to guard patients against sickness. With a novel disease that primarily affects the lungs, respiratory therapists and technicians are among the most crucial workers in the COVID-19 battle. Yet due to the nature of the current pandemic, they can be exposed to some of the sickest patients.
Two months into her new job as a respiratory technician at Fairfield Medical Center in Lancaster, Ohio, Ashley Lawson had already been quarantined twice. Lawson, however, wouldn’t change a thing about her career path. “It feels like my mission to help others,” she said.
Lawson began working as a respiratory technician before graduating from Washington State College of Ohio’s Respiratory Therapy program last month. As a technician, she performs a wide variety of diagnostic testing and treatments under supervision. After passing the state board licensure exam, Lawson will be promoted to a Respiratory Therapist. Respiratory Therapists help diagnose and treat a wide variety of respiratory difficulties. Their expertise lies in assessing blood gases, assisting with intubations and bronchoscopies, and specializing in ventilator management.
Despite the two close calls, Lawson was spared a positive diagnosis, yet her first quarantine will forever be etched in her mind. The experience brought home the reality of dangers faced by frontline workers and led to her first-ever separation from her family. Though on paper her quarantine lasted only a week, the days stretched by seemingly endlessly as the longest and loneliest of her life. “It was awful,” described Lawson. She spent her days alone, praying she would show no symptoms.
Lawson said surviving the ordeal was only possible because she has such a strong support system, and she was especially grateful for the meals left outside the basement door by her mother and mother-in-law. However, it was the interruption of her children’s bedtime routine that she found the hardest to take. That is when even the door’s thickness, which separated her from her family, seemed unfathomably large. While she understood it served to guard her loved ones from potential harm, her arms physically ached with her desire to hug her babies – nine-year-old Nate and seven-year-old Ava. It was especially difficult for her small children to understand.
Each evening, the doorway that was so loathed during the day, served as the beloved spot where everyone gathered to exchange goodnights and I love yous. They leaned in tight, trying to get as close as possible to the wooden barrier, and listened intently as mommy read them a bedtime story. Though Lawson poured love into every word she read, it did nothing to quicken the week’s end or fill the void left by missed snuggles and kisses. “It was heartbreaking,” Lawson recalled.
Despite the strife that isolation brought, Lawson, said she believes a career in respiratory therapy is her calling. “I have zero regrets,” she declared. “When I entered the field, I was scared about COVID-19, but truth be told, I feel God has put me where I belong at the time I am supposed to be.”
