Honoring the new American heroes
For years now, a tradition has taken hold in our culture and society when we recognize members of the armed services with a “thanks for your service” greeting.
The practice has been formalized at professional sporting events when a member of the armed services is announced and recognized on the field for the crowd to cheer.
And that’s as it should be. With no draft in place and individuals volunteering for military service that can take them to far and dangerous corners of the globe, it’s only fitting that we honor those who serve.
America is now witnessing a new class of heroes who are risking their own lives to save the lives of others, and we should find very visible and public ways of honoring those who are on the frontlines of a new and different kind of war for which America has little experience.
Many of these heroes signed up for medical or nursing school without giving much thought to how their work as a health care provider might change in the midst of a pandemic. Certainly, they were intent on healing the sick and teaching patients preventive care to avoid illness and disease. But few could predict they might find themselves on a field of battle where the patient and the disease he or she carried could be a direct threat to their lives or the lives of their family members to whom they return home after work.
As reports of the heroics of nurses, doctors and other medical personnel fill the airwaves, America and its communities should find ways to recognize these new American heroes. A group of nurses in Atlanta boarded a plane and headed for New York City to offer their nursing talents to COVID-19 patients. One nurse said that almost all of the patients she was treating were fighting for their lives with the disease. There is no way to underestimate the courage it took for those nurses to leave their families and head into the line of coronavirus fire that could leave them very sick or dead.
Profiles in courage are replicated every day in health care facilities and hospitals across the nation. Health care workers face the uncertainty of contracting the coronavirus every time they report for work, often resulting in physical and emotional exhaustion at the very least. There is simply no way to know whether every single precaution health care workers are required to take will work perfectly. One slight misstep with protective clothing, for example, could pass the virus on to the most vigilant nurse, doctor or health care aide. Nothing is foolproof with a disease as insidious as COVID-19.
Some health care workers are obviously more at risk than others. Emergency room physicians are clearly at or near the top of that list as their facilities are usually the first place a patient showing symptoms will appear. But let’s not forget that life goes on in the typical medical office, and patients walking in off the street to deal with medical issues that can’t wait for coronavirus to recede can carry the infection, even if not showing any symptoms. So aside from non-elective surgery, the medical community is on high alert as they meet patients close up and personal without the advantage of social distancing.
Doctors and nurses are not the only ones in their offices who work without the benefit of social distancing. Without perfect information about where people with whom they come into contact have been in recent weeks and what they might have contracted, they live with an uncertainty that can have deadly results. Those sitting at the front desk registering patients, those office workers in doctors’ offices, the volunteers in hospitals who add so much value to the patient experience, they all chance the risk of someone passing the disease on to them.
Employees of businesses and services deemed essential who show up to serve customers also deserve a “thanks for your service.” Grocery store employees, delivery drivers, truck drivers, pilots and flight attendants, law enforcers, waiters at restaurants carrying take-out to curbside, the list goes on.
As our nation and communities recover from the emergency measures now in place across America, it will be time for our public officials to consider how to honor those who have given so much, often putting their own lives at risk to treat patients or play a vital role in the supply chain that keeps food on our tables and other necessities of life within reach.
There is no way of knowing when professional sports will resume normal play. Nor do we know when large gatherings like rock concerts or symphonies will re-emerge. But when they do, it’s time to make room on the field or on the stage for our new American heroes. I hope they find health care workers like those nurses from Atlanta who put their own lives at risk to help others in need. I hope they find those emergency room doctors and nurses who risk their lives to serve others.
Aside from the more official recognition America and its communities will use to honor our most recent heroes, we can all take a few seconds to thank anyone we encounter who was there for us during these trying times.
To all who serve us, thanks for your service.