Paramedics rushed another critical COVID-19 patient into the emergency room, and Chicago nurse Cynthia Riemer felt her adrenaline kick in. “Your heart starts racing,” she said. “You're thinking, 'How quickly and safely can we get them intubated?' Because if we don't, in the next five or 10 minutes, they could stop breathing.
You're thinking: 'What's my next step? Do we need more help?' The more people in the room, the more exposed, so staff stand outside the glass door and you say, ‘Hey, get me this!
Hey, get me that!’” Her protective gear: a hospital-supplied yellow gown, foot covers and an N95 mask — plus, from Home Depot, a welder’s mask, which she says "helps conserve what we have.” Riemer is 41, a few years younger than a New Orleans