When the coronavirus hit the United States, Patricia Edwards’ determination to help patients became stronger than ever.
An intensive care unit nurse for three decades, she has worked the night shift her entire career, caring for the sickest patients in the hospital during the most difficult hours of the night. The resident of Greenville, South Carolina, knew that it was needed in the fight against the pandemic.
But what Edwards, 62, did not know is that the coronavirus would end up infecting her own home, killing her and her mother within a week.
Edwards is one of more than 670 frontline health workers who died of coronavirus, and his death on August 19 devastated his community, said Sherie Gamble, 45, his eldest daughter. Since Edwards died, his son and four daughters have been overwhelmed with online calls and tributes from colleagues, neighbors, friends and relatives of former patients whose lives she has touched – inspiring Gamble to create a scholarship in the name of his mother.
“My mom was everything to everyone,” said Gamble. “We knew how much she was loved, but we didn’t know that much.”
The Patricia “Nurse Pat” Nursing Scholarship Edwards will go to second and third year college students seeking a nursing degree. His goal is to bring more nurses into the field who embody Edwards’ caring nature, said Gamble.
“Nobody was a nurse like Mom,” said Gamble. “She was an old school nurse, as you would say. She still sponged her patients. She cared like no other nurse would.”
His patients and their families appreciated his tenderness: Over the years, Edwards received many cakes and other treats as gifts of thanks, said Gamble. And Edwards made sure that each patient felt they were in good hands. Gamble still remembers the deep connection that Edwards formed with an older patient, a few decades ago, who visited him from out of town when he became seriously ill; as he had no family in the area, Edwards assumed the role of surrogate relative, in addition to being a nurse, during the two weeks he spent in the intensive care unit.
“She took care of him like a daughter would.”
“She took care of him like a daughter would,” said Gamble. The man recovered and his family was so grateful to Edwards that they kept in touch with her. Later, Edwards invited them to a barbecue at her house with the children.
Despite years of working on the third shift – from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am – Edwards always gave his family time. When another daughter, Emily Holloway, was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2018, Edwards regularly made the 100-mile trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, to go with her for all chemotherapy treatments. She would stay over the weekend, preparing enough meals for Holloway and her children to eat during the week.
“She was there every step of the way,” said Holloway, 43, who has been in remission for just over a year.
Edwards’ mother Rosa Lee Finch Hellams, a cheerful and cunning 96-year-old woman, died of coronavirus in a different hospital on August 26, the day after the family buried Edwards. Hellams lived with Edwards, son of Gamble and Gamble, and greeted everyone who came in from their favorite chair in the living room, Holloway said.
“I think it’s a shame that the two of them spent together at the same time, but I believe that everything happens for a reason, because my mother, just as she took care of the community, she took care of her mother,” Holloway, a strategic account specialist in telecommunications, said .
Edwards’ family is not sure where she got the coronavirus. She was diagnosed on August 7 and was rushed to the hospital two days later with a high fever and falling oxygen levels.
It was at Edwards’ intensive care unit in Bon Secours St. Francis – Greenville, where she worked for the past 14 years, that she died. The team members who looked after her in her last days were her colleagues.
“They were suffering with us,” said Gamble. “They were extraordinary with her because she was one of them, and they knew the nurse she was.”
Born in Chicago on April 4, 1958, Patricia Lucille Hellams Edwards received her nursing degree from Greenville Technical College while raising her children. She spent 25 years at the Greenville Memorial Hospital System and two years as an itinerant nurse before starting to work for Bon Secours St. Francis – Greenville. In addition to her children, she leaves 13 grandchildren and a pair of triplets who are her godchildren.
In a statement to NBC News, Bon Secours St. Francis – Greenville extended his sympathy to Edwards’ family and friends.
“We pray that they feel surrounded by love and support at this time and always,” said the hospital.
“I want this scholarship to help those who go further in patient care.”
Gamble plans to hold an outdoor candlelight vigil for his mother. In the meantime, she is working out the details of the scholarship she created on August 27 in the name of her mother – something she believes she was called upon to do, especially as she has been struggling to find a new profession after being fired from a software company. few years ago. The grant raised only about $ 700 on Tuesday afternoon, but donors pledged to give more.
“I have been trying to find my purpose and I may have found it,” said Gamble. “Continuing my mother’s legacy.”
“She was a nurse who went above and beyond,” she added. “I want this scholarship to help those who go further in patient care.”