Lesson of the Day: ‘The Heartbreaking Last Texts of a Hospital Worker on the Front Lines’ - The New York Times

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Lesson Overview

Featured Article: “The Heartbreaking Last Texts of a Hospital Worker on the Front Lines” by Michael Rothfeld, Jesse Drucker and William K. Rashbaum

Healthcare workers — including doctors, nurses, technicians, orderlies, administrators, paramedics and E.M.T.s — are in the front lines in the battle to fight the coronavirus pandemic. They put themselves in harm’s way, often without the necessary equipment to protect themselves or the resources to treat many of their patients. To date, more than 9,000 health care workers have contracted the coronavirus and at least 27 have died from it.

In this lesson, you will learn about the life, courage and sacrifice of Madhvi Aya, a health care professional who died trying to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic. In a Going Further activity, you will consider ways in which we can all help and support health care workers.

Warm Up

Look closely at the illustration below.

What is this image saying? How does it relate to or comment on society or current events? Can you relate to it personally?

What is your opinion of its message?

Questions for Writing and Discussion

Read the featured article, then answer the following questions:

1. Who was Madhvi Aya? Describe her path to becoming a health care professional in Brooklyn? What kind of work did she specifically do?

2. What do Ms. Aya’s texts reveal about her relationship to her family?

3. How was Woodhull Medical Center, where she worked, affected by the pandemic? Why do front-line health care workers face a high risk of contracting the coronavirus?

4. What is your reaction to the article? What did this story reveal for you about the larger world?

5. Which line, quotation or text was most affecting, surprising or memorable? Explain why.

6. What is one question you have after reading the article?

7. The pandemic has exposed many of the strengths and weaknesses of our society. How does Ms. Aya’s story reveal both?

Going Further

Note to Teachers: The first two activities include photographs and videos with intense and disturbing images inside hospitals. Please preview them in advance to make sure they are appropriate for your students.

Choose one of the following three activities:

1.) Analyze and respond to a photograph of health care professionals fighting the pandemic.

Look at the images and captions in the photographic essay “The Epicenter: A week inside New York’s public hospitals.”

Choose one photograph from the article that you found particularly informative, affecting or memorable in telling the story of health care workers battling the coronavirus pandemic. Then, answer these questions from our partners at Visual Thinking Strategies:

• What’s going on in this picture?

• What do you see that makes you say that?

• What more can we find?

Then, dig a little deeper:

• What do you notice about the composition, colors, objects and people in the photograph?

• Why did this photograph stand out to you? What do you find interesting or moving about it?

• What could someone learn about the courage and the challenges facing health care professionals by viewing the photograph?

2.) Watch and respond to a video documenting health care workers on the front lines to keep Americans alive.

Watch the seven-minute video “Heartache in the Hot Zone: The Front Line Against Covid-19.” In it, the Times columnist Nicholas Kristof visits two New York City hospitals and witnesses the heavy toll on medical workers fighting to keep Americans alive.

Watch the film and then write about or discuss these questions adapted from our weekly Film Club feature:

• What moments in this film stood out for you? Why?

• Were there any surprises? Anything that challenged what you know — or thought you knew?

• How does this film add to your understanding, or change your perspective about the featured article you read?

• What messages, emotions or ideas will you take away from this film? Why?

• Mr. Kristof says, “These doctors and nurses are risking their lives and we’re failing them.” Do you agree?

3.) Consider ways that you can help and support health care workers.

In “How to Help the Helpers,” Nancy Wartik writes about ways we can all support health care professionals. Here are excerpts from four of her recommendations:

Follow the Rules

It’s the No. 1 plea of all health care providers and emergency workers: Maintain social distance if you go out. Otherwise stay home!

“It makes us all nuts,” said Dr. R. Sean Morrison, a geriatric and palliative care specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. “I walk to work through Central Park. There are still people talking in groups, playing frisbee, standing together. They are vectors who could cause premature death.”

Help Procure Drastically Needed P.P.E.

The virus has exposed this country’s extreme shortage of masks, gowns and similar protection. Some providers have taken the unprecedented step of begging on social media for this equipment.

“We’re at war,” said Dr. David Fleeger, a colorectal surgeon in Austin and president of the Texas Medical Association. “We need the appropriate supplies. I can’t put my teams at risk to go into battle if they’re not well equipped. We’ve put pressure on the state, we’ve put pressure on the feds and we’re putting pressure on the community.”

Donate to P.P.E. fund-raisers on sites like Fundly or GoFundMe. The latter offers guidance on starting your own campaign. Multiple organizations are also pitching in: the Center for Disaster Philanthropy has a Covid-19 response fund. So does Direct Relief. Or, if you operate a business that has masks that aren’t being used now, donate supplies directly.

Repurpose a Hobby or Skill

Like to sew? A movement to make masks for hospital workers is in full swing. Cloth masks don’t meet N95 safety standards, but providers may use them if they’re all that’s available. There are a wide range of patterns online; see if a nearby hospital accepts homemade masks or connect with a group involved in distribution.

Say Thank You Small or Big

The man showed up outside the window of the Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey. Tears streaming, he held up a sign: “Thank you all in emergency for saving my wife’s life/ I love you all.” A nurse, crying herself, snapped a soon-to-be-viral photo.

“It was such a morale booster for our staff,” said Trish O’Keefe, the medical center’s president. “It still is. It’s a symbolic reminder of why we’re all here,”

Read the entire article and choose one way you, along with your family and friends, might help health care professionals as they continue to fight to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Lesson of the Day: ‘The Heartbreaking Last Texts of a Hospital Worker on the Front Lines’ - The New York Times
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