Support a Nurse Practitioner Fighting COVID
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Edith Menchavez is a Cardiology Nurse Practitioner at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. A few weeks ago while working alongside all of us fighting this horrible disease Edith became ill. She has been fighting the battle against Covid 19 for the last 3 weeks on a ventilator. She has also been started on dialysis. Her fight has been a long hard battle. Her road to recovery will be a long and difficult one.
Edith's world is her son Patrick and her focus for many years has been working hard to support herself and her son. Her love of Nursing and caring for others has been her passion. It is now our turn to help her and her son. Myself along with my colleagues Helen Hall, Rupal Trivedi, Liz Toledo, Lorency Prakuzhy and Jen Munoz are reaching out to all of you for assistance. Any amount small or large would be greatly appreciated and will aid Patrick and Edith in costs incurred during her long road to recovery.
Below is a word from her son Patrick and the things Edith has been through so far:
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May 5, 2020
Hi everyone, I want to share with you a little bit about one of the most cherished, most important people in my life - my mom, Edith Menchavez. She is the strongest and most loving person I know.
From growing up in a farm in the Philippines with no water and electricity, to walking long distances to and from secondary school just to graduate as the valedictorian, to obtaining two master’s degrees all for taking care of patients as a cardiology nurse practitioner in the US, she took life by the horns and made a way for herself to accomplish what she sought after in life. She is so hard-working that there were days when she’s even planted flowers in our yard from morning to night.
But of all the things she is most dedicated to, one of them is to help and take care of people. She has done so many things for family and for the people she met for the first time. By her helping my grandma, late grandpa, aunt, and two cousins to come to the east and west coasts of the US, they were able to jump-start their new phase in life. She has constantly been sending big care packages to family for years in the Philippines. Last year, she flew back there to lead a medical mission (and was supposed to go this year too). And pursuing all that education just to help others speaks volumes. Tell her to retire, and she’ll say that she will continue being a nurse part-time.
The most headstrong, devoted, patient, health-conscious, stubborn-yet-kind person I know has always sought a better future for herself, her family, and for others. We have been living in tough times, yet she would not stop pursuing happier days. But not everything goes our way.
In the face of the coronavirus, despite having no preexisting conditions, she wasn’t an exception. Since April 8, she has been battling with covid-19 in the ICU on a ventilator. The past three weeks and six days have been a roller coaster for her: getting worse that she receives 100% oxygen from the breathing tube while laying on her stomach; getting so much better that the doctors remove said tube for her to breathe on her own; repeating that process of getting worse and better again plus the infections, fevers, hypothermia, an acute kidney injury, and much more; having the doctors put the tube in for the third time and recommending putting (traching) it in her neck; not traching cause of fever and possible reinfection. These have been, without a doubt, the most trying times ever.
But she continues to fight. She continues to battle this awful virus from morning to night. She continues to deal with covid even if it wants her to retire. She continues to go through all the pain, anxiety, fevers, chills, infections, dialysis, blood transfusions, experimental drugs, sedation and everything else. Without a doubt, I know that she continues to fight. It may be the most difficult fight so far, but it hasn’t changed what she’s been doing since that time as a kid on the farm with a dream.
I hope that you can keep her in your prayers, that your prayer would be to let her persist in this long, arduous fight and to hopefully overcome it.
Edith's world is her son Patrick and her focus for many years has been working hard to support herself and her son. Her love of Nursing and caring for others has been her passion. It is now our turn to help her and her son. Myself along with my colleagues Helen Hall, Rupal Trivedi, Liz Toledo, Lorency Prakuzhy and Jen Munoz are reaching out to all of you for assistance. Any amount small or large would be greatly appreciated and will aid Patrick and Edith in costs incurred during her long road to recovery.
Below is a word from her son Patrick and the things Edith has been through so far:
------------------------------------------
May 5, 2020
Hi everyone, I want to share with you a little bit about one of the most cherished, most important people in my life - my mom, Edith Menchavez. She is the strongest and most loving person I know.
From growing up in a farm in the Philippines with no water and electricity, to walking long distances to and from secondary school just to graduate as the valedictorian, to obtaining two master’s degrees all for taking care of patients as a cardiology nurse practitioner in the US, she took life by the horns and made a way for herself to accomplish what she sought after in life. She is so hard-working that there were days when she’s even planted flowers in our yard from morning to night.
But of all the things she is most dedicated to, one of them is to help and take care of people. She has done so many things for family and for the people she met for the first time. By her helping my grandma, late grandpa, aunt, and two cousins to come to the east and west coasts of the US, they were able to jump-start their new phase in life. She has constantly been sending big care packages to family for years in the Philippines. Last year, she flew back there to lead a medical mission (and was supposed to go this year too). And pursuing all that education just to help others speaks volumes. Tell her to retire, and she’ll say that she will continue being a nurse part-time.
The most headstrong, devoted, patient, health-conscious, stubborn-yet-kind person I know has always sought a better future for herself, her family, and for others. We have been living in tough times, yet she would not stop pursuing happier days. But not everything goes our way.
In the face of the coronavirus, despite having no preexisting conditions, she wasn’t an exception. Since April 8, she has been battling with covid-19 in the ICU on a ventilator. The past three weeks and six days have been a roller coaster for her: getting worse that she receives 100% oxygen from the breathing tube while laying on her stomach; getting so much better that the doctors remove said tube for her to breathe on her own; repeating that process of getting worse and better again plus the infections, fevers, hypothermia, an acute kidney injury, and much more; having the doctors put the tube in for the third time and recommending putting (traching) it in her neck; not traching cause of fever and possible reinfection. These have been, without a doubt, the most trying times ever.
But she continues to fight. She continues to battle this awful virus from morning to night. She continues to deal with covid even if it wants her to retire. She continues to go through all the pain, anxiety, fevers, chills, infections, dialysis, blood transfusions, experimental drugs, sedation and everything else. Without a doubt, I know that she continues to fight. It may be the most difficult fight so far, but it hasn’t changed what she’s been doing since that time as a kid on the farm with a dream.
I hope that you can keep her in your prayers, that your prayer would be to let her persist in this long, arduous fight and to hopefully overcome it.
Organizer and beneficiary
Lynn Sauer
Organizer
Paramus, NJ
Pat Menchavez
Beneficiary