Nurses At Kansas City's HCA Hospitals Say They Aren't Getting Enough Protection From COVID-19

Rob Schulte, a registered nurse at Research Medical Center, was taking care of a patient with COVID-19 symptoms and wearing a surgical mask but thought he needed the additional protection of an N95 medical mask.

So he asked his supervisor for permission to don one. Her response, according to Schulte: If she let him wear one to treat a patient who had not been confirmed with the disease, everyone at the hospital would be asking for one.

“Well, that patient came back positive the next day,” Schulte says. “And they did not notify me. She ended up going to the ICU for respiratory distress.”