Atlanta nurse returns from Japan to help in coronavirus fight

Brianna Alvarez and her husband JT Masci were living their dream, teaching English together at a school in Nagoya, Japan.

They had arrived in September of 2019, hoping to stay about 18 months.

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But four months into their adventure, a new virus began circulating.

“The first signal that we needed to go back was when our company started slowing down the number of classes we were teaching," Alvarez says.

Because a strange new virus was making people sick.

“It was looking more and more like people were afraid.  Every day, I was having 5 conversations, where people were saying this is looking really bad, this is looking really scary. And a lot of my students knew I was a nurse, so they’d ask me for my advice, right?”

That’s when the 28-year old pediatric surgical nurse realized they needed to go home. 

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So, she called her old boss at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, where she had worked for 3 years before her trip to Japan.

"I just asked her, 'Hey, do you guys have any availability; I’d like to come back and help,'" Alvarez says. " She got back to me, that, yes, of course (I could come back)."

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They made it home just before flights to and from Asia began to shut down. 

After getting medical cleared, Alvarez was back in the OR, excited to be with her team.

"At the same time, it’s a little scary, right, because we are on the front lines," she says.  "It almost feels like the calm before the storm for us. “

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Children don’t seem to be hit as hard by COVID-19, but viruses are notoriously unpredictable. 

So, Alvarez says Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is ramping up its precautions, bracing for what could be ahead.

“Patients that have any sort of flu-like symptoms, we gown up like crazy," she says.  "We’ve got the protective gowns, N95 masks, eye-shields, the whole nine yards.  So, right now it feels like we’re sort of warming up for what is coming.”

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Alvarez admits she’s nervous, as the number of Georgians infected by the virus grows.

But, she’s also certain, she’s exactly where she needs to be.

"I’m just sort of waiting and seeing, trying to stay strong and take care of myself, so I can take care of other people," she says.

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