Chicago nurse provoked into a fight by train passenger who blamed all health workers for coronavirus pandemic
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: A nurse was provoked into a brawl by a man on the Chicago Transit Authority Red Line after the passenger started ranting about health workers being the root of the problem during the coronavirus pandemic. The violent exchange was recorded by Witness Katrice Hardaway on her cellphone. The footage begins with a man wearing a black shirt standing over the male nurse, who was wearing a mask and sitting in a carriage. The man was seen ranting at the nurse as he held all health care workers as well as the nurse personally responsible for the spread of the virus. The man refused to leave the nurse alone, who eventually got up from his seat and started fighting with the passenger as other occupants of the train were astonished to observe such a sight. As the men struggled with each other, one woman can be heard shouting, "There's fighting on this train!" While others intervened after some time, trying to break up the fight, Hardaway hit the train's panic button.
You can see the video here.
Hardaway claimed that that the man who insulted the nurse was asked to leave the health worker alone a number of times but he refused to budge. The instigator also refused to get off the train when the train arrived at a stop. Instead, it was the nurse who departed with Hardaway following close by. The nurse will be filing charges against the man, who still remains at large. Hardaway has handed the footage over to the police. “Fighting through this pandemic for us, and he shouldn’t have to go through that on his way to work,” Hardaway told Chicago's WBBM-TV.
The incident occurred days after a Texas hospital's nurses described the pitiful condition of a makeshift Covid-19 unit where they claimed oxygen tanks are split between two patients while corpses are kept in non-air-conditioned rooms as ants crawl over them. According to reports, the unit about which the nurses have blown the whistle is at the Doctors Hospital Renaissance (DHR) in Hidalgo County, Edinburg, Texas. It was made earlier this year to treat coronavirus patients.
Texas is reportedly one of the worst affected states in the US with more than four thousand deaths. On July 22, alone, the state recorded over 100 deaths. And since morgues are out of capacity due to spike in deaths, the bodies are now kept in refrigerated trucks. The nurses at DHR said lockdown in March and April was successful as it helped in stopping the spread of the deadly virus. However, since the lockdown has been ceased the cases have spiked rapidly. The appalling condition of the hospital was not directly shared by its nurses as they fear they will lose the job.
The claims made by the nurses stated that heavy, old-fashioned oxygen tanks are being split between two patients, which are not sufficient for any of them. They also alleged that their “backs and bodies” are not able to tolerate the weight of those tanks, which they have to constantly switch out while working at full speed. One staff member even claimed that a nurse was appointed to look after 117 patients and 17 ventilators by themselves. While others said they are not given PPE like gowns, which they claim are limited to one per day.