James O'Brien: NHS worker will resign to protect at-risk daughter, 7
7 April 2020, 16:28
NHS worker contemplating quitting to protect family
As people continue to flout government advice over social distancing, this NHS worker feels she has no choice but to quit to protect her family.
Lisa from South London called James O'Brien to share her horror of what she sees in parks in her area as people are ignoring social distancing advice and flooding the streets "sunbathing and playing football". Lisa told James that she's left horrified by the scenes of pure ignorance.
"They're not taking this seriously and it's heartbreaking" she said. James heard that that the 7 year old daughter of Lisa has an underlying health condition and the NHS worker is terrified to infect her with coronavirus.
"I'm going out every single morning and don't know what I'm bringing home" she told James. She shared her fears by mentioning the fact that people ignoring the advice are putting people like her daughter at risk during this time.
Lisa revealed to James that she called in sick on Friday while on the verge of a mental breakdown. She couldn't bear having to face people coming into contact with coronavirus patients and told her manage that if she came in she would without a doubt have a breakdown.
She told James that she may have to quit her job to protect her daughter, despite not wanting to give up.
Lisa called out the carelessness of some people ignoring the social distancing guidelines.
"They're not seeing the dangers of it." James wanted to know what Lisa thought we could do to make people realise the danger they're putting the NHS in. He added that these people must realise that if they do this, "the NHS might break".
Lisa pointed out that the reaction of everyone is different and accepted that some people will just not listen to what they're told.
"Until a family member contracts Covid, that's when they'll take it seriously" she dejectedly suggested.
James made the case for some people finally seeing the error of their ways from the news of Boris Johnson moving into ICU. He thinks that this can be the way of reaching out to people and letting them know they're not invincible.
