Page 3 - The Wayne Dispatch

Her Passion Is Calling

Wayne nurse Monique Morris battled COVID-19—and won.

And she’s still fighting…for her patients.

By Courtney Conover
After enduring three full days of
intense body aches—which had
grown progressively worse, Wayne
resident Monique Morris, 38, called
her husband, Darryl, during her
commute home from work.
“I told him to open the back door,”
remembers Morris. “When I got out
of my car, I physically crawled into
the house, made my way to the
shower, and then to bed. My body
hurt so bad…my bones were hurt-
ing.”
Morris says that’s when she knew
it—whatever it was—was bad.
Morris is a nurse who usually
rises at 5 a.m.—so getting up early
was nothing new. But when she
awoke two hours earlier than that,
sat up, and struggled to breathe, she
knew she was in trouble.
And that’s when she knew it was
COVID-19.
A trip to the emergency room at
Beaumont Hospital here in Wayne
proved her correct: A CT (computed
tomography) scan revealed Morris
indeed had COVID-19 pneumonia.
She was then given therapeutics (in-
cluding steroids, an inhaler, etc.) and RN Monique Morris at work at Henry Ford Hospital.
advised to rest and recover at home.
But when Morris found that, 24 well what the statistics were: 80 per- Although Morris had successfully would go on to suffer two miscar-
hours later, her condition was wors- cent of patients who were intubated beat COVID-19, a new set of chal- riages, citing that her body just
ening and her oxygen levels were de- never came off the ventilator. “I was lenges were on the horizon. Having wasn’t yet strong enough for preg-
creasing, she decided to head back dead-set against it. It took seven staff lost 30 pounds during her two-week nancy. “I will take care of you,” Dar-
to the hospital—this time to her members to hold me down,” Morris tenure in the hospital, she returned ryl told Morris.
workplace, Detroit’s Henry Ford Hos- remembers. home severely weaker: She couldn’t And he did.
pital, where she was admitted imme- Morris spent nine uncomfortable walk, many fine motor tasks—like Morris and her husband’s love
diately. days on a ventilator and during that opening a jar—proved impossible, story has the makings of a modern-
“There was just so much that we time, the downward spiral ensued. and even talking was laborious. And day Lifetime movie—it’s just that
didn’t know about this virus back Her kidneys started to shutdown then there was the near-crippling idyllic. After initially meeting in high
then,” recalls Morris, a diabetic, who and other organs began to fail as she anxiety. Explains Morris, “One day in school back in 1999, the two lost
failed to exhibit many of the tell-tale laid in a state of medically induced the ICU equals eight days of recov- touch but reconnected in 2017
symptoms, such as a high fever, that paralysis. Her condition improved ery.” through mutual friends on social
have since become synonymous with only after her caregivers proned And Morris’ journey of healing media. In August 2019, the two mar-
COVID-19. her—an act that Morris describes as was just beginning. ried quietly in the living room of
Initially, Morris was able to face- being “wrapped like a burrito and She underwent twice-weekly their Wayne home amid the company
time her husband from her hospital turned over onto my stomach,” physical therapy sessions amid Dar- of a handful of relatives and close
bed. But things continued to get which allowed her lungs to expand. ryl’s unyielding around-the-clock friends. The addition of Beau, an
worse, fast. Suddenly, there was talk Through it all, Morris recalls her support. A proud Army veteran who adorable Yorkipoo (a Toy Poodle and
of what Morris had deemed the un- time hospitalized as one that was se- served three tours in Iraq, he took Yorkshire Terrier mix) whom the
thinkable: She fought like all get out verely lonesome. “Even the machines off six months from his job at the couple acquired on Valentine’s Day
to avoid being put on a ventilator. that kept me alive were out in the post office to be there for her every
After all, being a nurse, she knew full hallway,” she says. step of the way. In that time, Morris See Passion, page 4
The Wayne Dispatch · May 2021 · 3