“It’s Never Too Late” is a series that tells the stories of people who decide to pursue their dreams on their own terms.
Joanna Patchett has always had a fear of death, and the dying.
“I was terrified of being responsible for people’s lives, and was frightened of the space between life and death,” she said.
And yet in July 2020, as coronavirus cases filled up hospitals, Ms. Patchett, who was fresh out of nursing school, found herself caring for extremely ill Covid patients in the intensive care unit at Binghamton General Hospital in upstate New York.
“Seeing how sick everyone was — was heartbreaking. It was a life-changing and extremely difficult experience,” said Ms. Patchett, a 39-year-old Binghamton resident. “I didn’t expect to see so many people dying in quick succession, or to be on a floor full of ventilated patients, or intubating people so frequently, or being their primary person to have contact with them when the rest of the world could not.”