Written by Edgar Sandoval and Denis Slattery
After an hour that felt like an eternity, Diabate rubbed the ice our of her eyes and face spotted the gates to the nursing home with a sigh of relief.
“When I went out there, the wind it just, hit me in the face,” Diabate recalled on Sunday as she made her way through a second shift. “The winds were strong. The snow was high.”
Diabate said she wore snow boots and a bubble coat with a hoodie as she plowed through threatening strong winds and waist-deep snow.
“She was the only nurse than came in,” Hebrew Home supervisor Mojdeh Rutigliano said.
A few of the medical staffers had spent the night at the facility she added.
But more than 50 nurses that went home Friday were unable to make it back to work.
“The majority of our nurses called in sick. They just couldn't come,” Rutigliano said. “Talk about crisis mode. But it was such a relief to see her come in.”
Diabate said calling in sick did cross her mind, but then her desire to do good got the better of her.
“I really have to love what I do make such a commitment,” she said. “This is what it means to be a nurse.”
The monster storm that shuttered the city was no match for one Washington Heights nurse.
Chantelle Diabate bundled up and braved the worst of the winter weather Saturday to make it to her overnight patients at a nursing home in the Bronx.
The 32-year-old single mother was hailed as a hero for walking more than a mile during the debilitating snow storm that dumped 26.8 inches of snow to reach the Hebrew Home in Riverdale.
“I walked for about an hour and all I kept thinking was, I really love my patients,” Diabate said.
The snow angel has been working at the facility, which houses more than 840 elderly patients, for a little more than six months.
“We see them a lot. We’re like family,” Diabate said. “I’m tired but I decided to work a double shifts. They need me.”
Diabete said she found someone to care for her 3-year-old girl and then found a place to stay in the Bronx to be close to work. But she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw on the news that public transportation had been canceled and the storm was picking up speed.
“A friend walked with me and fell. At first I started out kind of like speed walking on ice. But then I realized this is like a workout and it's dangerous,” she said. “Then I thought, you know what? A slow and steady pace is going to get me there, eventually.”
After an hour that felt like an eternity, Diabate rubbed the ice our of her eyes and face spotted the gates to the nursing home with a sigh of relief.
“When I went out there, the wind it just, hit me in the face,” Diabate recalled on Sunday as she made her way through a second shift. “The winds were strong. The snow was high.”
Diabate said she wore snow boots and a bubble coat with a hoodie as she plowed through threatening strong winds and waist-deep snow.
“She was the only nurse than came in,” Hebrew Home supervisor Mojdeh Rutigliano said.
A few of the medical staffers had spent the night at the facility she added.
But more than 50 nurses that went home Friday were unable to make it back to work.
“The majority of our nurses called in sick. They just couldn't come,” Rutigliano said. “Talk about crisis mode. But it was such a relief to see her come in.”
Diabate said calling in sick did cross her mind, but then her desire to do good got the better of her.
“I really have to love what I do make such a commitment,” she said. “This is what it means to be a nurse.”
Related Link:
