CHCS nurse shares COVID-19 experience

Karen Elliott is an infection control nurse. She knows how to prevent disease. She was an advocate for hand hygiene before COVID-19 was in the news. She helps others learn how to take precautions. So she’ll never catch COVID-19, right? Wrong. Elliott still doesn’t know how she contracted the virus, but she started have symptoms on October 1. After experiencing gradually worsening symptoms at home (cough, headache, body aches, fever, diarrhea, nausea, loss of taste, and “generally feeling awful”), she developed shortness of breath and blood oxygen saturation levels in the low 80s (normal readings are between 95 and 100). She visited the Emergency Room at Onaga Community Hospital in the early morning hours of October 8 and was transferred to the Stormont Vail ICU in Topeka. “I probably waited at least a day too long to go in,” Elliott said. She took to social media to share her experience. She wanted to help others see the realities of being