After Contracting COVID-19, A Healthcare Worker Racked Up Nearly $1M in Medical Bills

The coronavirus pandemic is still wreaking havoc throughout the world although several vaccines have been produced to combat the effects of it.

One healthcare worker caught the coronavirus while working as a mobile respiratory therapist for COVID-19 patients in Boston at the start of the pandemic. According to THV11, the healthcare worker, who hails from Arkansas, has stated that she has totaled up medical bills that come close to $1 million after being hospitalized with COVID-19.

The healthcare worker, Shenita Russie, who is 42, was stricken with the coronavirus while she was working as a mobile respiratory therapist for COVID-19 patients while she was in Boston at the start of the pandemic. She traveled to Massachusetts to help out at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. After she contracted the virus, she was placed in a medically induced coma and therefore had to stay in the hospital for a little over a month.

After returning back to Little Rock, Arkansas to be reunited with her family, she had to look for outside help for the lingering effects that were caused by the coronavirus. The medical bills had reached an astronomical amount as they reached a total that almost it the million-dollar mark.

“The bills? They were incredible. I mean it was close to a million dollars for how sick I was on life support,” said Russie.

According to Insider, Russie is dealing with long COVID, and she is having to spend more money on cardiologist consultations and rehabilitation. She is unable to walk without the benefits of a cane and has been out of work since obtaining the coronavirus.

Newsweek had also reported that Russie’s worker compensation has covered some of the medical cost, but she is still looking for relief from the bills she received from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and Baptist Health.

Last week at a White House briefing, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that, “Unvaccinated Americans account for virtually all recent COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.”

She continued: “There is a clear message that is coming through: This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated. We are seeing outbreaks of cases in parts of the country that have low vaccination coverage because unvaccinated people are at risk. And communities that are fully vaccinated are generally faring well.”