Twelve doctors at her hospital and the chief executive were sickened with the coronavirus. A colleague had died. Patients as young as 19 were being placed on ventilators.
But Michele Acito, the director of nursing at Holy Name Medical Center, in the hardest-hit town in New Jersey’s hardest-hit county, felt like she was holding up.
Then her mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law arrived.
The disease that has crippled New York City is now enveloping New Jersey’s densely packed cities and suburbs. The state’s governor said on Friday that New Jersey was about a week behind New York, where scenes of panicked doctors have gripped the nation.
Hospitals in the state are scrambling to convert cafeterias and pediatric wings into intensive care units. Ventilators are running low. One in three nursing homes has at least one resident with the virus.
12 doctors and the chief executive of the New Jersey hospital where Michele Acito works contracted the coronavirus. A colleague died. Ms. Acito was still holding it together, then her mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law became ill. https://t.co/oCtC5cKCpy
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 5, 2020