Mike Wells: What we owe the health care workers

July 2nd, 2021 by admin

We find ourselves on the better end of COVID-19 these days, but with a pesky variant nipping at our heels.

While so many contributed to our successful virus efforts, the heroes in this time of challenge are the health care workers who walked the halls 24/7, who held the line for us all until the vaccines could be identified and brought to market. And we really should reflect on their extraordinary service and be especially grateful for their sacrifices.

Neither my wife nor I have any health care workers in our families, and none of us works for any health care institutions, either. But we do not have to, and neither do the rest of us, to recognize their courage and commitment.

Our country lost 600,000 citizens in little over a year, which is more than the service men and women who lost their lives in all the wars of this country in more than 120 years. We had 34 million cases in our country. Over 1 million patients were in North Carolina, over 98% of whom survived because of our dedicated health care workers.

Every one of us knows someone who was pulled away from death’s door because of these workers. They saved our close friends, acquaintances and family members, too. The personal sacrifices of the workers are too numerous to describe. But they are real. They are very real.

There are others, too, whom I have met in my work who speak deeply and reverently of health care workers who cared for their loved ones until their last breath. I have never held the hand of anyone as their life slipped away. But I have held the hand of a client who cried openly and deeply about the care a health care provider gave the love of their life for more than a half century, as they held their spouse’s hand until the end. I will tell you, it marks you.

Others serving on the front line saw family members gather around a hospital bed and watch the life of their loved one slip away. Many saw patients take their last breath. And there are health care workers, steeled in the past to see those who die in their presence, who have cried and cried in this pandemic, so deep was their pain.

What we all should admire most about these dedicated health care workers is that they do not want any recognition. It is not about them. It is about you and me when we are in harm’s way.

They do not want a parade or their name up in lights. But here is what they do want: They want us to see that this is about all of us. And we are not going to win this last lap if we do not. They will tell you plainly: Get the vaccine. Because it is for you and me and all of them, too.

Vaccines, unfortunately, have become so politicized these days. Some have sincere religious or health reasons not to get a vaccine, which we all should respect. Maybe you chose not to get a vaccine out of a sincere loyalty to a political party or figure, which is certainly your right. And it is a right for which we fought in 1776, and since then, too.

But for me, my loyalty is to these health care workers I know personally, with whom I worship in my body of faith, who live around the corner and who volunteer to coach my grandchildren or give them piano lessons. People with names and faces and families.

Please remember the core principle of all our religious faiths and our nation itself: It is not about you. It is about you and me. We the People. Not you. Or me. You and me.

This weekend we celebrate Independence Day. The day we, as a ragtag group of brave patriots, started to build the nation we all cherish. But we won’t be independent from this deadly pandemic unless we join, as we always have as a nation, to see it through.

At one local medical center, health care workers have named the bridge to the parking lots “Victory Lane.” Markers list the names of all patients who beat the virus, who walked away from death to life, because of the shared struggle.

Let’s honor these health care workers with the only thing they want for all of us: Get the vaccine. In the process we will walk our own victory lane together.

Tags: Law

Posted in: WS Journal Articles