Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Dr. John Eisenach sorts through his personal protective gear as he packs for California on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021.
To start 2021, Sara Kollman, a top nurse administrator with Kaiser Permanente based in Colorado, found herself in a place she wouldn’t have imagined a year ago: working as an ICU nurse in a hospital in southern California.
“Never in my 30 years have I walked through the ICU and seen so many people that aren't expected to live, that are on their bellies to help oxygenate their lungs and they're just very, very, very ill,” she said.
It’s been exhausting, emotional duty. She describes meeting a mother and her daughter, a similar age to her own, coming in for a final farewell for another family member.