Healthcare workers gather support for Louisville nurse hospitalized with COVID

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Nurses around the country are feeling overwhelmed and emotionally drained because of COVID.

In Louisville, a group of nurses are dealing with the heartache of one their own who is fighting for her life.

Becky Fulks is a nurse at UofL Health Jewish Hospital. Over Fulks’ career, she has helped many patients, but now, she needs help herself as she fights COVID-19.

Fulks has been in the hospital battling COVID since September. Her case was so severe at one point, doctors didn’t think she was going to make it.

She’s not able to share her story because she’s still recovering, but her friends are.

“She’s hilarious,” nurse Lauren Hamilton said.

“Oh, Becky is awesome,” nurse Jill Magruder said. “She would joke with me as soon as I walked in the door.”

“We got close,” nurse Krystal Totten said. “We had nicknames for each other.”

Fulks was on a form of life support called ECHOMO, a machine that acts like her heart and lungs for months.

“If she didn’t have that she would have died,” Totten said.

Fulks also had to have a tracheotomy along with lots of other medical interventions and procedures.

Another troubling part of the story is that Fulks’ sister got COVID around the same time she did. While Becky was hospitalized, her sister in a different hospital died from COVID.

“Just real emotional,” Magruder said.

Fulks hasn’t had a chance to grieve. She’s been fighting every day to get home to her family.

Her friends said she’s doing better, and is in rehab now, but she’s still weak.

“She was in a bed for a majority of that time,” Totten said. “She was sedated for a majority of that time. Her muscles she has to build back up, which is a slow process. Just texting, she’s now getting the strength to text.”

Becky’s friends know she’s a fighter and will one day be back working alongside of them.

The nurses want others to know how hard they are working right now and that COVID is real, urging folks to take COVID seriously. Nurses said their jobs are so stressful and exhausting already, saying it hurts when people don’t take into consideration how deadly the virus can be.

If you would like to help Fulks on her road to recovery, click or tap here.

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