IRMO, S.C. — It’s no secret that health care workers are most susceptible to the coronavirus.
Doctors, nurses and all medical personnel are working day in and day out to keep our communities safe.
That’s why some people are giving back -- by sharing their RV’s with health care workers free of charge to make sure they have somewhere to unwind or sanitize before going home to their families.
Kia St.Cyr is a contracted registered nurse in the Midlands who goes to a different health care facility each day, never knowing what she is going into.
“I have four small children at home and a husband and every day they want to meet and greet me and I feel like crap because I can’t give them a hug and I don’t even touch them or talk to them," St.Cyr shares, "I get bathed and I go in the bed and I’m just like ‘why is this happening?’”
Then St.Cyr discovered “RV’s for MD’s,” a Facebook group offering medical workers a temporary place to stay during this pandemic.
“I said, ‘let me just put my profile out here, I need this like nobody’s business,’” St.Cyr says. And lucky for her, Rebecca Ortiz from Indian Trail, North Carolina saw St.Cyr’s plea and stepped up to the plate.
“I found Kia’s name, and I saw that she had been commenting on people's posts and was waiting for an RV and still looking for one and I said ‘are you still looking because I have one available?’ and she immediately replied," Ortiz recalls. She lives in the RV but is currently staying with her parents in North Carolina during the pandemic -- leaving her RV free.
Saturday morning, Ortiz delivered the RV to St.Cyr's Irmo home.
“This is going to be my strip down/wash down… the anti-room is what I’m going to call it," St.Cyr says, "so I can do everything to get myself covid-free.
"Anything that was on me, just keep it in this RV and then go in to eat dinner with my children," St.Cyr continues. "I’m super excited. I don’t want to pass this to anyone. If I’m the one that’s on the front line and I get it I want to deal with it- but I don’t want anyone else to get it.”
St.Cyr signed a lease with Ortiz and will hold on to the RV until the CDC says it's safe to be directly in contact with her family after work again.
“I’m just grateful to be able to help in someway that I can," Ortiz shares.