My COVID-19 Story: Adelene Egan
An Emergency Department nurse captures the faces of the frontlines through photography and storytelling.
During her breaks in the Emergency Department of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, nurse Adelene Egan walks the halls with her camera. She speaks with nurses, doctors, physician assistants, and medical staff about their experiences during the coronavirus pandemic, then snaps a photo of them. The photos — shot in black and white and called “Faces of the Frontlines” — capture her colleagues who, every day, risk their lives to save the lives of others.
“I think these photos will serve as a place to reflect and remember all of these beautiful and heartbreaking experiences that we’re having every day,” Egan says. She shares the photos on her website and Instagram; it’s a chance for the public, as well as families and friends who have loved ones working in the hospital, to witness New York City’s healthcare workers fighting the virus together. Here, she shares why she started “Faces of the Frontlines” and its importance to her.
I started ‘Faces of the Frontlines’ as a side project with the goal of uplifting my co-workers through photography and storytelling. In a way, it’s helped me process my own experience. Being a nurse during this unprecedented time has been humbling, heartbreaking, and beautiful in surprising ways. You really start to realize that the most important thing is just people. To be with them, to savor them, and to love them, especially when life feels super big and scary. Isolation has a way of telling us that of all things, we need each other the most.
Through this project, I’ve been able to connect with my co-workers on a deeper level about their reflections as they navigate this whole pandemic experience. Despite their own fears and their own health, they’re still completely prepared to give everything that they can for their patients and support their co-workers as best they can. I admire their bravery.
This pandemic has demanded the best of myself and my co-workers, to show up despite sometimes feeling uncertain and afraid for our own health, despite knowing that we need to distance from our families to avoid putting them at risk. It has demanded that we are more resourceful than ever. It has asked us to stand in for our patients’ families, who can’t be with them. It’s humbling to look at my role as a nurse in that way, to see my relationship with my patients as being more of a family member and a stand-in support person.
Working as a nurse during this time has made me prouder than ever to be part of the nursing profession and to be part of NewYork-Presbyterian. I have never felt more connected to my co-workers — we’re all leaning on each other — or felt a stronger connection to my patients and our community. It’s overwhelming, the amount of love and support that we have received from family, friends, and the community. That’s what keeps me showing up — knowing that I get to be with a family of co-workers and that I have the community’s love and support.
“I’m an asthmatic. My mother, brother, and father are all asthmatics. I know all too well the painful feeling of grasping for air. I see myself and my family in a lot of these patients who all of a sudden can’t breathe because of this disease. I want to ease that weight off their chest.”- Paulo Luardo, Registered Nurse, Emergency Department, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
“Mission accepted.”-Michelle Trew-Palmer, Registered Nurse, Emergency Department, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
“We are so moved by the outpouring of support from New York City. The applause from balconies, the pizza deliveries and the beautiful crayon art we receive are things we carry with us for a little light on a dark day—and a little strength when we might not feel like superheroes.”- Lauren Silveira, Registered Nurse, Emergency Department, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
“Do I fear for our patients and each other on the frontlines? Without a doubt. But every life we care for, every life we save, keeps us humble and humane, and full of heart to keep on.”-Michael Stern, Attending Physician, Emergency Department, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
“Through our good days, busy days, and extremely challenging days, I know I don’t go through it alone. We go through hurricanes, literally and figuratively, together.”- Sara Choi, Registered Nurse, Emergency Department, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
“We are NY tough. This too shall pass.”-Katie Michels, Registered Nurse, Emergency Department, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
Although this experience has been physically and mentally draining, I feel honored to be able to be here, at this hospital, in this city, during one of the biggest events of our lifetimes, fighting for others.” -Jasmine Johnson, Nurse Practitioner. Emergency Department, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
“Being on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a reminder that we may all come from different walks of life, but at the end of the day our humanity binds us together.” -Delis Cedeno, Technician, Emergency Department, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
“As first responders we leave our families home with the hope not to bring a deadly virus home at the end of our workday. We know what is needed out here and the public needs us now more than ever.” -Juan Aguirre, Paramedic, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
“We saved lives before and will keep saving lives now. There is no virus more vigorous than us.”-Ashley Green, Physician Assistant, Emergency Department of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
“[The patients’] families can’t be with them at the bedside to comfort them at this time due to the danger of this virus. But we can—and I consider that a privilege.”-Bridget Morrissey, Registered Nurse, Emergency Department, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
Visit Faces of the Frontlines.