OKLAHOMA CITY – A young woman who lives in a small Texas city a little over an hour south of Lawton and 30 minutes northwest of Wichita Falls recently penned a heartfelt post on Facebook in which she urged the public to remember nursing center patients during the coronavirus crisis. “Mass hysteria, toilet paper shortages, food shortages, closures... this is what has everyone everywhere in a panic,” wrote Machaela Witt of Electra, Texas.
“Do you know what has me in a panic? My building full of residents who cannot have any visitors whatsoever, my dementia families who are worried their parents will no longer remember who they are, my residents who cannot play bingo, or have church service, or even a meal in the dining room with their friends. An empty hallway, and isolation for the ones who depend every day on socialization and family interaction.”
Ms. Witt is the administrator at Evergreen Healthcare Center in Burkburnett, Texas. Electra is about 35 miles southwest of Burkburnett. Evergreen has 33 residents whose visits with relatives and friends are separated either by a window in the patient rooms or the glass entrance door to the residents’ hallway. A chair is stationed inside the door for the resident, and a bench has been placed outside the door for use by visiting guests. No personal contact is permitted, per dictate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Association in the dining room is forbidden. Only one resident per table is allowed at mealtimes, in order to maintain, “social distancing." Every person who enters the facility has to be screened. And all medical personnel, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and hospice workers, have to wear protective masks.
“All I ask is that you please remember the nursing homes and assisted living [centers] right now, because even though you might be running low on toilet paper, you can still go home to your family at the end of the day,” wrote Mrs. Witt, the mother of a 2-year-old daughter and wife of an Electra ag teacher.
Her post went viral, virtually overnight. She posted her comments on March 16, and by 9 p.m. March 19 the post had been “shared” 140,000 times and had generated 20,000 comments – which, incidentally, was an increase of 6,000 shares and 1,000 comments in just six hours – along with 93,000 “likes,” “loves” and “thumbs up." “I had no idea it would get that kind of response,” she said Thursday evening. “It took me completely by surprise. I was shocked!”