Honoring a COVID-19 hero: UK respiratory therapist Shelby Martin

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — We want to spotlight a forgotten hero fighting this pandemic on the front-line day in and out.

She’s not a doctor, not a nurse but her job is every bit as important in caring for COVID-19 patients.

A wife, and a mother of three, family is important to Shelby Martin.

And now, her family is growing.

“It’s just really hard watching people go through what they’re going through. It’s hard on us because we’re kind of like their family right now, cause their families can’t be here with them,” explains UK Healthcare Respiratory Therapist Shelby Martin.

Martin is one of the only people allowed inside the rooms of patients with COVID-19.

She’s there when even their families can’t be because the disease is so easily spread.

She’s keeping people alive, helping them breathe and fight fear.

“Either by holding their hand, praying with them or even ya know just making them feel better about what’s going on,” says Martin.

In her 20 year career as a respiratory therapist at UK, she has never seen anything like this.

People with even mild cases of COVID-19 struggle to breathe.

Martin says patients’ breathing can deteriorate quickly so it’s vital she’s monitoring them constantly.

“I bring them in the room, get it ready, assist the doctor in intubation and then manage the ventilator,” says Martin.

She gives oxygen therapy, and helps patients breathe when they can’t.

But her hard work and stress doesn’t stop at the hospital, she continues to work at home to keep her family safe.

Her kids can’t even rush to hug her anymore when she walks through the door.

“Before I go in my house I take off everything out in the garage even my shoes and then I go straight to the shower and nobody comes and hugs me or talks to me until I do that,” says Martin.

Her husband is also fighting this disease on the frontlines as a Lexington firefighter, concerned just as healthcare workers are about protective equipment.

Almost ten firefighters in Lexington have tested positive and more than a dozen are in quarantine.

“It’s been very stressful at our house but I have a great support system. We pray a lot and we’re gonna get through this together,” says Martin.

Stress is something Martin has become all too familiar with. You can hear in her voice how difficult this time is.

“Some days are better than others,” says Martin.

But she knows how important her role is and she wants others to, too.

“You have no idea how much this means to me that you’re spotlighting respiratory therapists. I think sometimes we get forgotten. We’re shoulder to shoulder with the doctors

What keeps her going is knowing this is her purpose.

“I was meant to be here, to be with these patients and my coworkers through all this,” says Martin.

What a hero she is.