Health care workers worry about exposing families to coronavirus

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Nurses and health care workers are on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic and ready to battle even with a lot of obstacles and unknowns. However, a lurking concern for any doctor or nurse is bringing the virus home with them.

"She is on the frontlines and those frontlines are coming home to our house," said Aaron Blyth, whose wife is a nurse.

It is the new reality that families of health care workers have to come to grips with. For two families in south Minneapolis, there have been some new protocols put in place.

"This weekend, she slept in her own bed because we were a little bit concerned about some of the exposure she had over the last week of work," said Blyth.

"Anxious, tense, people are afraid and it’s not just nurses," added registered nurse Melanie Timpano. "All of us frontline staff."

"I’m scared, kind of comes in waves," said ER nurse Cliff Willmeng.

Cliff Willmeng and Melanie Timpano are both nurses at different hospitals in St. Paul. They are in a fight that is bad now and expected to get worse.

"I think I’m more worried about our health care’s capacity to deal with so many people getting sick all at the same time," said Timpano.

They tell us they are doing the best they can with what they say is a lack of protective gear.

"This is inadequate gear and we know we’re going to get sick," said Willmeng. "We know we’re going to keep coming to work until we are symptomatic."

One thing they are working to control is what they bring home.

"I’ve implemented a new strategy," said Timpano. "I’ll just be dressing in yoga pants and a t-shirt to work and taking my clean scrubs with me; changing at work, changing out of my scrubs at work."

Whatever they can do to keep everyone healthy and stay in the fight.

"If we go down then whose going to provide care to other people," said Timpano.