Nebraska COVID-19 petition: More than 1,700 healthcare workers call for help

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - “The life you save may be your own.”

From surgeons to technicians, nurses to residents, psychiatrists to oncologists, from pediatrics to geriatrics, and many in emergency medicine, more than 1,700 local medical professionals, students, and others working in the local healthcare system are making an appeal to Nebraskans.

“Nebraska currently has one of the fastest-growing outbreaks of COVID-19 in the United States,” a letter posted on Nebraska Medicine’s website Tuesday states before raising a flag on hospital capacity, a key COVID-19 metric Gov. Pete Ricketts has pointed to during recent news conferences while warning about possible further restrictions.

“Currently, Nebraska Medicine has 10 units full of COVID-19 patients. We are not able to add more space and will soon not have the workforce to care for more patients,” the letter states.

Noting they are “exhausted” and “scared” and calling on Nebraskans, who “have always been strong and hardworking people who have never failed to help out neighbors in the most challenging times,” the letter pleads with Nebraskans to wear face masks, stay home as much as possible, and stop gathering with anyone but those in their immediate household.

According to the website, the letter was drafted by Drs. Christopher Miller and Thomas Marston, University of Nebraska Medical Center pulmonary and critical care medicine fellows; and Dr. Daniel Hershberger, a critical care physician at Nebraska Medicine., who then distributed it to colleagues.

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