ICU Nurse Dedicates Video on Struggle of COVID Patients to 'All the People I Didn't Save'
An intensive care unit (ICU) nurse in Nashville has shared a video dedicated "[t]o all the people I didn't save." Makala Kuhr posted the video to Facebook last month with the accompanying text, "Thoughts from a nurse."
"They call us heroes, but aren't heroes supposed to save lives?" Kuhr, who is the narrator, says early on in the video. "I shared the most intimate moments in the most unintimate ways. So many loved ones would rather be in my place."
The video goes on to show snippets of footage seemingly taken from settings in the ICU, in which doctors and nurses who are wearing heavy protective gear help patients who are hooked up to ventilators. Kuhr's narration waxes philosophical about the emotional toll of her interactions with patients and the grim reality that death was often a relief to some stricken with the worst of COVID-19.
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Kuhr recently spoke about the video in an interview with CBS 42 News in Nashville about everything that inspired her to create the video.
"I really thought back to everything and every death that I've seen this year," the nurse explained. "And we had nine deaths in one day, and I remember just putting people in body bags, and a lot of people in body bags. Like one a day at one point."
Kuhr said that the idea of health care workers being "heroes" that runs through the video came to her one particular day when a patient died. The patient did not die from COVID-19, but nonetheless, their passing hit Kuhr in a way that made her reflect on the pandemic as a whole. This ultimately led to the creation of the video, which has received over 24,000 views.
"I don't feel like a hero; I feel like I'm doing my job, and I'm not doing it very well," Kuhr said.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Nashville's Davidson County has seen nearly 93,000 cases of COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic and 961 deaths. These are the second-highest numbers in the state behind Shelby County, where Memphis is located, which has seen over 104,000 cases and 1,736 deaths.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies Davidson County as having "high" levels of community transmission for COVID-19, as are most other counties in Tennessee. Roughly 48 percent of the county is fully vaccinated, with 54 percent having at least one dose. The county has also seen nearly 1,100 new cases in the last week, about 155 per 100,000 residents.
