After five months of active duty fighting COVID, Kendrick returns home

Mt. Vernon worker, Naval reservist helped treat patients in New York, kept recruits healthy in Illinois
 
After spending five months helping in the fight against the COVID-19 virus, Malinda Kendrick is back home.
Kendrick, a nurse practitioner at the Ozark Community Hospital in Mt. Vernon and a commander in the United States Navy Reserve, returned home on Wednesday, Sept. 16. She was given an honor escort by patriot riders, who accompanied her from the airport to her home in Pleasant Hope, where family and friends greeted her with a surprise reception.
Called up to New York
Kendrick was one of over 1,000 U.S. military medical personnel who were sent to New York to help the overwhelmed hospitals there treat a massive number of COVID-19 patients. She left for her assignment on Sunday, April 5, after being given very little advance notice.
“I got notified Friday evening and I got on the plane Sunday morning,” she said.
Kendrick was part of a team assigned to Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, where she helped the staff there give direct care to patients who were infected with COVID-19. The healthier patients, she said, were usually past the virus within two weeks to a month and could go home. However, there were also hundreds of patients with underlying conditions, such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and obesity, on whom the virus took a heavier toll.
“The majority of them were intubated, and they were sedated (and receiving) IV therapy,” she said. “Most of them were getting kidney dialysis, because their kidneys would start failing.”
 While treating the patients, Kendrick said, one of the greatest challenges she and her team faced was communications.
“There were a lot of language barriers, because there are so many different languages that are spoken in New York City,” she said.
Additionally, Kendrick said they were trying to contact each patient’s family twice a day, a task made all the more daunting because most family members couldn’t have direct contact with loved ones in the hospital. However, technology helped make speaking with families easier.
“Towards the end of our rotation, we started getting iPads in so we could Facetime with the family, and communicate with them sometimes through an interpreter,” Kendrick said.
Daily fatalities
Another unpleasant aspect of her mission, Kendrick said, was that at least one patient would die almost every day.
“Almost every shift … that I’d work, we’d have one or more people pass,” she said.
Kendrick said she employed a variety of methods to help her deal with the stress of losing patients.
“My faith (and) working out, exercise, that’s what helped me,” she said. “And also, leaning on my hospice training of eight years.”
To ensure that she and her team did not contract the virus from the patients they were treating, Kendrick and her team members wore a lot of personal protective equipment (PPE) before entering the areas where the patients were, including a gown, gloves, an N95 mask, further covered by a surgical mask, and a face shield when in direct contact with patients. Despite the amount of equipment she had to wear, Kendrick said it never bothered her.
“I felt very comfortable with my protective gear,” she said.
Transfered to Illinois
In early June, Kendrick was transferred to the recruit training center in Great Lakes, Ill., where she helped ensure new recruits were free of the coronavirus before they began basic training. When the recruits arrived, she said, they would be put in quarantine for 14 days, and during the 10th day, they were tested for the virus. If they tested negative, they could begin their basic training at the end of their quarantine.
Proud of her contributions
While it wasn’t easy, Kendrick said she is proud of her work while on active duty.
“(I was) able to take care of the patients in New York City … able to communicate with their families since they couldn’t be there,” she said. That, at the end of the day, made me feel good. It made me feel like I made a difference, because the family couldn’t come see their loved ones. (I) was (also) able to take care of and meet the future of the Navy, our new recruits.”
Kendrick said it made her feel great to see the new recruits join up, despite the new dangers posed by COVID-19.
“I’m so proud of them for standing up, raising their hand and joining the military, especially the way things are now,” she said.
A new vaccine for COVID-19 is being promised, and Kendrick said she would take it, once she was certain it was safe.
“I want to read the science,” she said.
Stefanie Hohensee, the clinic manager at OCH, said the clinic is also very proud of Kendrick’s service.
“We were honored to welcome Mindy home with her family and friends,” she said in a post on the OCH Facebook page. “We have missed her deeply, but are so incredibly proud of her and her service. She is an amazing woman with such strength and compassion which went hand in hand with her mission during this deployment.”
Finally back home
Now that she’s back, Kendrick will have some time to rest. She is on leave from the OCH and the Naval Reserve until the first of November, and in the meantime, she plans to spend time with family and friends, and engage in some of the activities she enjoys, including sewing, archery and crafts.
However, while she’s glad to be back, Kendrick said she would “absolutely” go back if called again.
“I was where I was supposed to be,” she said.