by Jenna Timmons ’21

Even though most of us are focused on how Covid-19 is impacting our lives, we should be aware and grateful for the frontline workers with all the challenges they face. 

Shannon Gaasch is a Nurse Practitioner working in the trauma Intensive Care Unit, and traditionally sees patients who suffered accidents. Kristopher Gaasch is a firefighter, and something people might not realize is that firefighters take both fire and emergency medical service calls. They both work in inner-city Baltimore. As if both of these jobs are not hard enough, Kristopher and Shannon are married and have an 11 month-old son. Since the large uptick of coronavirus cases in the United States, their lives have changed drastically. 

Prior to Covid-19, Shannon’s day started at 6:30 in the morning. She would arrive and be briefed on all the patients in her unit. She would then, “spend the next 2 hours reviewing the patient’s medical record, assess and develop a new plan for the day to present on morning rounds with the medical team.” She would write orders, care for the patients, and take phone calls, then go home for the day at 5:00-6:00 pm. 

Nowadays, Shannon arrives at the same time, but “it’s definitely a different environment on the unit; it’s more tense, chaotic and you can see the stress amongst the nurses.” Instead of taking care of just trauma patients, she is now monitoring for coronavirus. They treat every patient as if they have Covid-19.  In order to do this she uses iPads to evaluate/communicate with patients. All hospital staff must wear PPE at all times, yet they have to reuse these masks from patient to patient because there are not enough for single use. The masks, hand sanitizers, and Clorox wipes are locked up, so workers have to ask for permission to use them. In addition, no visitors are allowed in, with few exceptions. She also works in “the BioContainment Unit (BCU) … this is a specific unit that was opened up to take only coronavirus positive patients … the sickest patients in the entire hospital.” In order to enter the BCU she needs to be covered from head to toe. 

As for her spouse Kristopher, before Coronavirus his day usually started off fairly relaxed. They would, “try to make breakfast or use the gym if we [had] any downtime.” He works at one of the busier firehouses so it did not take too long until he got his first call. Most of their time is spent taking calls out on the street or doing building inspections, community events, and smoke detector installations. Between calls they take care of equipment, train, and maintain the apparatus of the firehouse. His shifts are twenty-four hours long with very little downtime. During the pandemic, all the firefighters come into work with medical gloves and masks, and they must stay six feet apart from each other. They have to decontaminate all the gear and apparatus when switching shifts. In addition, “the vast majority of extra activities that [they] normally did between calls (building inspections and community events) have been limited.”

In addition to Shannon and Kristopher’s work life changing drastically, their family life has been altered. They both worry about catching coronavirus and passing it on to their son. In addition, their parents cannot see their grandson, and are missing out on his first steps, first words, and other milestones. Shannon has “multiple coworkers who sent their kids to live with other family members,” but she could not imagine not seeing her baby for months. They have a joint google calendar to manage parenting and working. Shannon said, “many days when we are off together we are both very tired.” Kristopher added that, “life has been much more isolated.”

Both Shannon and Kristopher are sacrificing family life and free time to do their duty and save lives. Their story is a window into what all frontline workers are going through. We must be very thankful for all frontline workers and support them in any way we can, which includes social distancing, washing your hands, and self-quarantining.