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Amy Portillo, Interview
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Created: Thursday, May 11, 2023 - 11:30 |
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Summary:
An interview with Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen Amy Portillo.Description:
An interview with Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen Amy Portillo. A downloadable transcript may be found by link: Amy Portillo. This interview has been indexed through the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History Center’s Oral History Metadata Synchronizer system at the University of Kentucky. For an indexed copy of the video, please follow the external link found in the bar on the right of this page.
Transcription:
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation
Historic and Cultural Preservation Department Oral History Program
“A Twenty-First Century Pandemic in Indian Country: The Resilience of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Against Covid-19”
As Remembered by: Mrs. Amy Portillo
Interview by: Ms. Midge Dellinger
Date: August 9, 2022
Transcription: The Audio Transcription Company
Edited by: Ms. Midge Dellinger
MIDGE DELLINGER: This is Midge Dellinger, Oral Historian for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Today is August 9, 2022. And I am in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, interviewing Muscogee citizen, Mrs. Amy Portillo. I am performing this interview on behalf of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Historical and Preservation Department for the oral history project titled “A Twenty-First Century Pandemic in Indian Country: The Resilience of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Against COVID-19.”
Mrs. Portillo, thank you so much for being here this morning to do this interview with me. We’re going to start with some questions about your personal life and your background. And so, let’s begin with where is your current place of residence?
AMY PORTILLO: I live in Glenpool, Oklahoma.
DELLINGER: And how long have you lived there?
PORTILLO: I have lived there since 2016.
DELLINGER: Now, where were you born?
PORTILLO: I was born in Talihina, Oklahoma.
DELLINGER: And where did you grow up? [00:01:00]
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PORTILLO: I grew up in the rural area of Sapulpa, kind of out—not in the city limits but on the outskirts of it.
DELLINGER: Now, who were your parents? Will you please share just a little bit about each one of them?
PORTILLO: Uh-huh, yes. My mother, she is deceased, but she is Linda, maiden name Bigpond—or, I’m sorry, maiden name Jefferson—Bigpond. She was originally from Talihina. And my father is, or he is deceased also. And his name was Gregory; he went by Gene Bigpond. He was from Sapulpa.
DELLINGER: And what did your folks do for occupations when they were living?
PORTILLO: My mother, she was a Licensed Practical Nurse. And my father, he was a lineman. He worked for OG&E and retired from there. [00:02:00]
DELLINGER: Where did your mom work? Did she work at the hospital in Sapulpa?
PORTILLO: No, she worked at several places. She worked at Hillcrest, and then the last place she worked at was at Bixby Manor.
DELLINGER: Okay. And so, she did that for many years?
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PORTILLO: Yes. She was a homemaker for many years, but that was probably the last places she worked before she passed.
DELLINGER: Now, do you have siblings?
PORTILLO: I do. I am the second oldest. My oldest sister is Lilly Geesling. She has two children, Jacob and Cassandrea. And I have another one younger than me. Her name is Jennifer Bigpond. She has a daughter named Mariah. And then my youngest sister is Norma Bigpond, and she has a son. His name is Alexander, but we call him Xander for short. [00:03:00]
DELLINGER: And now, where do these folks reside?
PORTILLO: Lilly, she lives south of Sapulpa. Kind of where we grew up is where she still is. Her oldest son, he’s still living there. Cassandrea, she’s in Colorado. And Jennifer and her daughter, they live in the Jenks area. And Norma and Xander, they live with us in Glenpool.
DELLINGER: Oh, okay. Now, who were your grandparents? Can you share a little bit about them?
PORTILLO: Yes. On my mother’s side, they are both deceased as well, but it’s Juanita— her maiden name was Folsom—Jefferson and Norman Jefferson. They were both of
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Talihina. My grandmother, she was also a Licensed Practical Nurse. And she was on the, [00:04:00] oh, the hospital administration board for probably, oh, 20, 30 years, retired. And then she was on the Choctaw Nation judicial board—the first woman elected—until she retired. And my mother, she had one sibling. And her name is Nancy, and she’s a nurse practitioner.
On my father’s side, his father is—they’re all deceased as well—Reverend Roy Bigpond. And his step-father was the former chief Claude Cox. And his mother was Lilly—maiden name Simms—Cox. And he has many siblings as well. The last living sibling of my father is Reverend Negiel Bigpond. [00:05:00] And they’re all, kind of, of this area.
DELLINGER: Okay, now your family members there who were the reverends, did they have churches? Did they have their own churches that they pastored?
PORTILLO: My grandfather, Roy, he was in the United Methodist system. So, you know, he’d be at a certain church for so many years and rotate churches. My father’s sibling, Negiel, he has his own church, Morning Star out in Hectorville.
DELLINGER: Oh, okay.
PORTILLO: Yes, he has his own.
DELLINGER: Okay, very good. Now, where did you attend high school?
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PORTILLO: I went to Mounds public schools.
DELLINGER: And what year did you graduate from Mounds?
PORTILLO: 1996.
DELLINGER: And then where did life take you after high school?
PORTILLO: Oh, I went to TCC [Tulsa Community College] [00:06:00] in the fall of 1996. I was just doing basics. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I never thought I’d be a nurse. That wasn’t in the plans. And I didn’t start an LPN course until 1997. And I only did that because my mother had a heart attack. And being a nurse, she’d only tell us what she thought we needed to know. You could tell things were wrong, and she wouldn’t tell us. And it really bothered me. So, I decided I needed to know more, so I enrolled in a nursing program. And then I finished that in 1998. And I went to Platt College for that.
DELLINGER: Okay, you went to Platt College. And so, then after Platt College, I’m assuming you went out into the workforce.
PORTILLO: I did. I did; one of my first jobs was at Bixby Manor. And I liked that. You know, I did. And then I wanted a little more experience because, you know, [00:07:00]
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geriatric care is very challenging. And then I went into what they call long-term acute care. And that’s when I really got in—I learned a lot about ventilators and, you know, really challenging care. And that’s pretty much what I’ve been into ever since until I returned—I bridged over from an LPN to an RN [Registered Nurse]. I went to Tulsa Community College and finished that in 2013. And I’ve been in acute care ever since.
DELLINGER: Okay. And so, what is your current occupation? And where are you working now?
PORTILLO: I’m a Registered Nurse and I work at OSU [Oklahoma State University] Medical Center in the Emergency Room. I’ve been there for almost ten years. I’ve been working there since 2012, and I’ve been—I worked in the ICU [Intensive Care Unit] for several years, and then I came down to the Emergency Room. And I’ve been there for about five years.
DELLINGER: So, I’m going to ask you this. And you’ve [00:08:00]—I think you’ve already touched on this a little bit. But what drew you into the nursing field, because you said that wasn’t really in the plan?
PORTILLO: It wasn’t. I really didn’t think —you know, I never thought I’d be a nurse. But like I said, whenever my mother had her heart attack, you could tell she was hiding things. And we were worried. We were like, “Are you going to be okay? What’s happening with your heart?” “Everything’s fine. Nothing’s wrong.” And come to find
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out, she ended up needing open-heart surgery. And she hid that from us. And so, I decided I needed to understand the medical terminology and what was going on. And so, that’s what mostly motivated me. And, you know, nursing just runs deep in our family. I have another sister, Jennifer, that’s also a Registered Nurse. And we are the third generation of nurses in our family. It started with our grandmother, our aunts, our mother, so— [00:09:00]
DELLINGER: Yeah, that’s really cool, you know, to have that family legacy of nursing. That’s really neat. So, I’d like for you to tell me about your family and family life in Glenpool.
PORTILLO: Okay. I am married. My husband is Jose. We got married in 2005. We have one son; his name is Justin. He’s fourteen years old. Like I said, my sister Norma and her son, Xander, live with us. Xander is fifteen. We have many animals. We love animals. [Dellinger laughs] We have dogs, cats. My husband complains that we have a zoo somedays. [Dellinger laughs] But, yeah.
DELLINGER: So, what type of work does Jose do?
PORTILLO: He does railroad construction. He works out in the heat, extreme heat, extreme cold. So, ______
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DELLINGER: Wow, so can you give a little explanation of [00:10:00] what exactly he does do?
PORTILLO: He mostly works the heavy machinery. And they repair railroad tracks, or they help pick up trains that fall over, and stuff like that, so—
DELLINGER: Now, is that work he’s always done? Has he done that for many years? PORTILLO: Since we met, it’s what he’s always done.
DELLINGER: And how long again have you been married?
PORTILLO: Seventeen years.
DELLINGER: Okay. And your son attends Glenpool. Let’s see, at fifteen he’s getting ready to be in high school?
PORTILLO: Yes, he’s going to be a freshman this year. We meet his teachers today. [laughs]
DELLINGER: Okay. So as a mom, how’s that feeling that your son’s getting ready to be in high school?
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PORTILLO: I’m okay with it now. Whenever we finished school back in May, it kind of, I don’t know, I got almost emotional about it because I was like, “My son’s a high schooler? How could this have happened already?” And you know, before I know it, he’s going to be graduating. And it was emotional. But, [00:11:00] you know, we’re ready to take that step now, I think.
DELLINGER: Okay. Is he at a point yet in his young life where he’s thinking about maybe what he would like to do when he gets out of school?
PORTILLO: He says he’s moving to Hollywood or New York. That’s what he told me. And he’s thinking about going into gaming, or IT is what he tells me anyway. So, I’m like, “Well, sounds good.” [laughs]
DELLINGER: Yeah, that doesn’t sound like too bad of a plan.
PORTILLO: Not at all.
DELLINGER: Amy, I’m going to ask you a question. Will you pronounce your—how you pronounce your last name for me?
PORTILLO: Oh, okay. I’ll try. [laughs] It’s Portillo. That’s how I pronounce it. My husband says it a little different because he rolls his r’s.
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DELLINGER: Yeah, he rolls his r’s.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh. So, he tried to correct me for years, and he finally gave up and just said, “That’s fine.”
DELLINGER: Yeah. [laughter] And you probably do the same thing when other people are trying to say your last name.
PORTILLO: I just go with it. [laughs]
DELLINGER: Okay. [00:12:00] When you’re not at the hospital working, how do you like to spend your free time?
PORTILLO: Oh, before COVID hit, we used to go out a lot. And the boys—I’m referring to my nephew and my son—we and the dogs, we’d pack up, and I’d always try to take them to a different state park. We like to stay at cabins, go fishing, go to different lakes. And I’d always tell the boys, “It’s important for you to appreciate nature because when you’re my age, is it going to look like that? Is it going to be this beautiful?” Because everything changes and, you know, the way everything is, who knows?
So, I try to teach them that and appreciate nature. So, that’s what we were trying to do. And then, like I said, we went in lockdown, and then it was the shortages we were having at work. You know, I worked a lot more hours. And then now that they’re getting older, [00:13:00] everything is boring; everything is lame.
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DELLINGER: Oh gosh, yes. [laughs]
PORTILLO: Yeah. So, it’s been a little bit of a struggle now to get back in that habit. But we’ll get back there.
DELLINGER: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Family time is so important. I think more people are more appreciative of that now.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh, absolutely.
DELLINGER: For sure. Well, so Amy, is there anything else that you’d like to share with me about yourself or your family? Anything that maybe I have not touched on?
PORTILLO: I know my sister and I, we’re big advocates for autism awareness because of my nephew. He is on the spectrum. And we do, we go to some support groups. And, you know, we support Special Olympics. And he participates in that. So, we’re really big advocates for that, and we go to a lot of their events and fundraisers. [00:14:00]
DELLINGER: Okay, great. Thank you for sharing that. Well, I think we will go ahead now and move into some questions about the COVID pandemic and your experiences with that.
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PORTILLO: Okay.
DELLINGER: And so, here in the United States and around the world, we’re now in the third year of having COVID-19 in existence. But in 2020, going back to 2020, when did you first hear about the virus? And how did you first hear about it?
PORTILLO: Oh, we first heard about it, the doctors—you know, we’re very close. OSU is a teaching hospital, so we have Attendings, and we have a lot of Residents because it is a teaching hospital. So, there’s always a lot of talk, and there’s good communication between the nurses and the doctors, in the Emergency Room anyways. We’re always talking about things. And we’re always, you know, we’re like, [00:15:00] “Well, what do you think about this? Do you think we’re going to see this? Do you think this is—?” You know? Like I said, we discuss everything among each other. And in fact, before it even— you know, before anyone was first diagnosed over here, we’re all like, “We had symptoms like that like two months ago. [laughs] Maybe I already had it.” And you know, we were all talking like, “Well, what are we going to do if it does get here?” Like I said, we all kind of talked among ourselves what was going to happen.
DELLINGER: So, would that have been—when you were having these conversations there in the ER—are you talking right at the beginning of 2020?
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PORTILLO: Yes. Probably about 2019, about December, January. We were like—yeah, we were talking all about that, like, you know, “What are we going to do when it—?” Because, you know, it was mostly across—it was overseas, and we’re like—
DELLINGER: Yeah, it was still overseas at that time.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: Okay.
PORTILLO: Right. And we’re like, “You know, what are we going to do if it comes over here and people panic?” Or like I said, we were just watching the news. [00:16:00] And we’re like, you know, “If we have a pandemic, like how are we going to do this?” And so—
DELLINGER: But what were your first thoughts about the virus? I mean, were you thinking, ah, maybe it won’t come over here? Or you were you thinking, realistically, this thing’s going to come over here?
PORTILLO: We knew it’d make it over here. We knew it would. But we were kind of hoping—I think in the back of our mind we were kind of hoping that maybe it was just kind of hyped up. At first we were kind of like, “Maybe it’s not that bad. Maybe they’re just really focusing on the few that are just that sick. Maybe everyone else is going to be
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okay.” You know? That’s what we were kind of hoping, that it wasn’t going to be that bad. That everyone was, you know, going to recover. That was our hope anyways that, yeah, it was like the flu. Yeah, there are some that get that sick, but most everyone recovers, is what we were hoping, that we weren’t going to see it that severe.
DELLINGER: Yeah. And I think that’s interesting that right off the bat, you know, [00:17:00] you all were acknowledging that, hey, we’ve seen a lot of these symptoms already coming into the ER.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: I’ve had other people say that, too. I’ve had people say that they even thought they had COVID before 2020.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh. So did we.
DELLINGER: Like right there at the end of 2019.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: So, at what point then, there at the beginning of 2020, did your understanding and thoughts about the virus become more concerned? What made you realize the severity of the virus?
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PORTILLO: Well, I remember the very first case that I saw. We didn’t know we had seen it yet. It was a prisoner that came in.
DELLINGER: Oh.
PORTILLO: Yes. It wasn’t even a traveler or anything. Like I said, I remember some people came in to get testing, but the very first severe case I saw was a prisoner that had came in. And he had to be intubated. And I mean, no matter what we did, we could not get him oxygenated. And it was just weird. We were like, “Oh, well this has to be something else. He just has really bad [00:18:00] pneumonia.” And you know, he was just a really sick guy. And then a few days later, my friend from ICU was like, “You know, he has COVID.” We were like, “What? It’s here?” You know this was officially our first case.
DELLINGER: Do you remember that day? That date?
PORTILLO: Oh, —
DELLINGER: Or even —
PORTILLO: —I want to say it was probably in March.
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DELLINGER: Oh, okay.
PORTILLO: Yes, I want to say it was in March. But I remember I’m like, “So, this is it. This is official.” Because we were just kind of waiting. And like I said, people were coming in for testing. Like, the first people we saw coming in testing were people that— like flight attendants and different people like that. But I’m going to say this was our first really sick one that we got. Then after that, it really picked up. But like I say, I remember he was in there for weeks. And I don’t even know if he survived or not.
DELLINGER: Oh, okay. Okay.
PORTILLO: But it was just interesting because like I said, [00:19:00] it kind of mimics some other stuff. They were like, “Well, we’ve seen things like this before.” And you know, “He’s just very sick and—” But yeah, I remember my friend was like, “No, he has COVID.” And we had to put him in isolation, you know? And it kind of, yeah, we were like, “Oh no, it’s here. This is real.” Yeah.
DELLINGER: So, you’ve already talked about some of the initial conversations that you were having with coworkers at the beginning of 2020. Either before this first case of COVID that you had in March, or for sure after, do you remember what some of the conversations were that you started having with family and friends?
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PORTILLO: Yes. I remember there was a lot of kind of panic among some of the other nurses, especially there were some that were pregnant. And there was a couple that [00:20:00] resigned because, you know, it wasn’t really worth, especially if they didn’t have to work, you know. They were like, “I just don’t want to risk my pregnancy, my family.” And we were like, “Understandable.” There was some panic among some of them, especially with the PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] shortage. That’s—hmm, that was very bothersome because we were like, “We don’t have enough of this.” And so like I said, there was a lot. And it was really bothersome.
DELLINGER: I was going to ask you about supply shortages.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: And so, since you’ve already brought that up, is that something that happened at OSU Medical Center pretty quickly?
PORTILLO: Yes.
DELLINGER: Okay.
PORTILLO: Yes, we were only allotted so much. We had to reuse our N95s for three days. They would take it, and they would sterilize it or whatever for three days before we could have another one, unless it was just damaged or [00:21:00] too soiled to use. But
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yes. And like I said, it —everyone was upset about it and very emotional about it. There were nurses that would break down and cry because they were like, “You know, you’re risking my life.” And so, it—in the beginning, it really took a toll on everyone.
DELLINGER: Yeah. So, it sounds like what happened, like maybe after that first case was diagnosed, sounds like the hospital then just became inundated. It wasn’t like a slow trickle of patients coming in that were then diagnosed with COVID. It was like you guys were inundated with these people with this illness. Is that how it happened?
PORTILLO: It did. It did; it just kind of got slammed after that because, you know, little rural hospitals were getting hit with them. And [00:22:00] a lot of the people that we had inpatient with COVID didn’t even come through our doors as a patient. They were transferred in. And everyone was looking for somewhere to get their patients in. So,—
DELLINGER: So, why do you think that—and look, you know, OSU Medical Center is not the only medical facility that this happened to.
PORTILLO: No.
DELLINGER: But so many medical facilities were kind of caught off-guard, even though people were aware that this illness was out there.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
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DELLINGER: So, why do you think that went that way for so many, for OSU and so many other medical facilities?
PORTILLO: Oh, I don’t know. Like I said, the PPE, I’m not sure why we had such a shortage on that. I mean, I don’t know what happened on that. One good thing I can say is they quickly brought in machines and stuff to help [00:23:00] purify our air because we had to turn what would be like a simple med/surg floor into COVID units. And they’d bring in certain purifiers and stuff. So I mean, they did that pretty quickly, which was really helpful for us so that we could make more room for people to come in and stuff. But like I said, I’m not sure what happened to the PPE because I mean they had us counting gloves every day. And we had every morning each and every floor had to report how many gloves they had—
DELLINGER: Wow.
PORTILLO: —how many masks they had, gowns. I mean, we had PPE counts every morning. It was, I don’t know. [laughs] It’s ridiculous.
DELLINGER: Yeah, I mean that just says right there the extreme.
PORTILLO: Yes.
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DELLINGER: You know, how extreme the situation was.
PORTILLO: I’m not sure what happened on that. I’m like, “We had a surplus at one time, and what happened?” So, but then—
DELLINGER: But was there a point in 2020 where you felt like, “Okay, the hospital’s got things under control now,” where you felt more comfortable?
PORTILLO: Towards the end, uh-huh. Towards the fall we did. But you know, another thing is [00:24:00] when it first started coming out, patients that were coming through, they were stealing our stuff, too. We had to start taking stuff out of the rooms because they would steal our masks, our gloves, anything they could come in and grab. Patients were stealing all of our stuff out of the rooms.
DELLINGER: I never thought about that.
PORTILLO: Yes. So, that kind of hurt us, too, because we used to keep stuff like that in the room for quick access for us. And like I said, they were robbing us blind because out of panic.
DELLINGER: Out of panic. Panic and maybe the inability to go buy those things themselves. Because those things aren’t cheap.
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PORTILLO: Right. So, that kind of hurt us, too. And it got to the point where we had to pull everything out, and so—
DELLINGER: Okay. So, early in 2020, you know, we started hearing the words lockdown and shelter in place and social distancing, like words that we’ve never heard before, right?
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: And so, what were your thoughts [00:25:00] about these safety measures?
PORTILLO: It seemed to help some. I mean, at OSU we had a tent on the outside to try to prevent people with COVID symptoms coming into people that had, like, different emergency types. And it helped some. You still had—I don’t know. You still had people that would still come in for the littlest thing. We’re like, “We’re under a pandemic. [laughs] We’re under lockdown. Why are you here?” So, some people were just naïve to the whole idea. But for a lot of it, it seemed to reduce because like I said, we were over ran. As soon as it started hitting, we were over ran in the Emergency Room. I mean, we’re a small Emergency Room. And we—I mean, every chair was full; and every room was full. And then when we went into lockdown, it all, [00:26:00] you know, it got better. It did get better. But like I said, I don’t know. [laughs]
DELLINGER: All right. So, the pandemic hits, and you work in an Emergency Room.
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PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: What was your personal plan of action to stay safe from the virus and to make sure that you weren’t bringing that home to your family?
PORTILLO: Well, just being very cautious. I wear two masks at all times. You know, I’ve just learned to breathe through eight layers of masks or you know. We wear N95s, and I wear a surgical mask over that. So like I said, I’ve adapted and learned to wear—
breathe through, like I said, eight layers. And I do that with every single patient that comes through because I just assume everyone has COVID. And that’s how I do it as a precaution. [00:27:00] Now, I’m probably like one of the few in our Emergency Room that has not had COVID. Everyone’s on like their second or third round of having it (knocking). Knock on wood.
DELLINGER: I’m knocking on wood for you right now.
PORTILLO: [laughs] For sure, for sure, because I’m immune compromised. And I’m like, “I can’t afford to get this.” [laughs] So, I’m very cautious. I clean my hands; I keep my distance. And like I said, I just presume everyone has it, and I just—that’s how I treat everyone. You know? I’m like, “Sorry.” [laughs] But I have to protect myself. And like I said, whenever we had someone very, you know, very sickly that obviously had COVID, I always had my PPE. And like I said, I’m just very cautious.
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And when it first came out, and especially when we had patients that were like intubated and all that, we had negative pressure rooms in the Emergency Room, which kind of helped clean out the air. So, that helps a lot. And then they would provide [00:28:00] us uniforms to change in and out of on top of our PPE. I mean, our hospital did good. They gave us all kinds of different masks. Once the shortage got a little bit better, they had all kind of different little respirators you could wear. And whatever you wanted, they would try to get it for you to protect you, whatever made you feel safer. Once they could get access to it, they did it for you, so—
DELLINGER: Right. That’s good.
PORTILLO: Yes, and like I said, once they could get access, they did everything they could for you to make you feel better.
DELLINGER: Yeah. Now what about when you returned home? You know, I’ve talked to people, and people have shared like these routines that they created for coming home—
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: —you know, after they’ve been in public and around other people. Did you have any type of process that you went through when you got back home?
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PORTILLO: I would say not much different than I always do because, I mean, there’s always been all kinds of bugs, [00:29:00] like flu and all that. I don’t ever wear my shoes around in my house. My shoes always go off when I come in the door. I have a certain spot for that, and I’ve always sprayed it with antibacterial. And I’ve always washed my scrubs with like a Lysol disinfectant. And I’ve always done the same. So, you know, pretty much just the same. Like I said, I’ve always done that even before COVID because yeah. [laughs] So, I’ve pretty much kept it up.
DELLINGER: Yeah. Okay, very good. I’d like for you now to share from your medical knowledge and your position as an ER nurse your knowledge and understanding about the COVID-19 virus, including how it spreads and some of the health impacts that you’ve seen on the human body if it’s contracted.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh, okay. Well, obviously it depends on the strand [00:30:00], but the first strand was more respiratory. And so, you know, they kept saying to keep the six-foot distance and encouraged everyone to wear masks or cover your face and everything. And I know whenever we did intubations and stuff, we’d all have to not only wear masks but shields and everything. Whenever we did intubations and did a mask—or, I’m sorry, NG tubes or anything that had to do with their face, we had to put on several shields and stuff to try to keep anything from getting into our face or breathe in anything.
It had a lot of affect. It would cause so much inflammation in the lungs that it would just—all the little air sacs of the lungs would just fill with fluid and mucus. And whenever they did X-rays, I mean, the lungs would just be completely whited out.
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There’d be like no air movement. [00:31:00] And no matter how much oxygenation—I mean, how much oxygen you could give them, you could not oxygenate these people. And they would make constant adjustments to their ventilators. One that they refer to is the PEEP. And when I worked in ICU, the most I had ever seen on a PEEP was probably like ten. An average is a five. And a ten is probably the most I’d ever seen.
And most people had to have a chest tube. A chest tube is just a surgical tube that they put in. And you can have multiple areas of the chest. And it just helps alleviate air or fluid accumulation in the chest. But usually, like I said, when they got that high, they would need that. But these people were needing PEPs of like eighteen, twenty.
DELLINGER: Gosh.
PORTILLO: And these people would be blue. I mean, you’d go up there and they were just like blueberries [00:32:00] laying there. And they did find out—in the beginning, they would put them in special beds called RotoPrones. They found that they would breathe a little bit easier if you laid them on their belly.
DELLINGER: Mm, uh-huh.
PORTILLO: And so, that’s typically how they would try to keep them was on their belly. And they said it kind of alleviated the pressure on their lungs if they were on their belly.
DELLINGER: That’s interesting.
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PORTILLO: They could expand a little bit more. And so, they would do that. And a lot of them, they would try to get them to Ecmo, which is a lung and heart bypass machine. But those are so —there’s not a lot of them available. And so, so many would die waiting to try to get to one of those because those, like I said, there’s not very many of those. And there’s hardly any that do any in this state. And so, we would ship some of them off to Texas. And it was just [00:33:00]—
DELLINGER: Has that changed, though, since all of this? Are there—?
PORTILLO: Are there more of those? Probably not because you have to specialize in those, and the machines are a lot of money. And plus, you’ve got to compete with people that are having like open-heart surgeries and stuff. You know, they need those bypass machines just as much. So, it was—it was very —it was sad.
And you know, and then not only it was just their lungs it was attacking, it was attacking like their blood levels, like their platelet counts. Their blood would be fine when they first came in. And then they wouldn’t have any platelets, and they would start hemorrhaging, bleeding out through any orifice and any puncture sites. They’d just start bleeding out everywhere and—
DELLINGER: So, was it triggering DIC?
PORTILLO: A lot of them, uh-huh.
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DELLINGER: Okay.
PORTILLO: Yes. It was kind of mimicking DIC. It wouldn’t be true DIC, but it was kind of mimicking it.
DELLINGER: Uh-huh, wow. [00:34:00] Okay.
PORTILLO: Yes, and let’s see, what else? I had a lot of good friends that worked the COVID ICU. And so, I would go up there just to go—you know, if I had some downtime or on my break—I’d go up there and see them and just kind of chit chat with them because, you know, it got hard on them. They’d have multiple deaths in their twelve-hour shifts. And as soon as that person died, there was someone on the waiting list for that bed. Someone else would come in; or the next person died. I mean, it was just like that. It exchanged out regularly. I mean, there was a shortage of body bags. And I’ve never seen that in my career, shortage of body bags. But yeah, it stayed like that. And I’d go up there and see them and talk with them.
And I remember, this was probably—maybe towards the end of 2020 when one of the charge nurses told me. [00:35:00] He said, “We went a whole twenty-four hours and no one died.” I mean, you know, that was a relief.
DELLINGER: Right.
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PORTILLO: Yeah, that was probably the first time in eight, nine months. They went a whole day and no one died. So, it was then that they felt like things were easing up, things were getting better. And you know, it wasn’t just older people dying. It was people my age, some younger, that were dying. And even with the second wave of COVID, it seemed like there were younger people dying, even younger. And like I said, it was hard because, you know, the families couldn’t come in. Towards the second wave of COVID, they started allowing families to come in. They would mask them up and let them look at the door. They couldn’t come into the room, but they could come to the door and at least see their loved one. [00:36:00] I mean, they’d take an iPad or whatever they could in there to them and try to let them talk, you know, if they could. Some of them were intubated and they were sedated. Not only did they sedate them for pain and—they gave them pain medicine and sedation—but the pulmonologists felt it was easier on them to keep them paralyzed to see if their lungs could heal better, too. So, they’d be paralyzed as well.
DELLINGER: Wow!
PORTILLO: Yeah, it was—there was a lot, a lot into it. And so like I said, whenever—if it was going that way where it was inevitable, they might let the family come out and look at the door at them. But never allowed in the room. Yeah.
DELLINGER: Yeah, that was—actually, that was another question that I had for you. You’re reading my mind here. [Portillo laughs] We’re on the same page because I know
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that had to be so difficult [00:37:00] for the families—I can’t even imagine—but then also for the workers, you know, for you all to have to tell a family member, “You can’t go back with them.”
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: Yeah, that had to be very trying.
PORTILLO: It was; it was. We had one in the ER. She was young; she was probably early thirties. And she wasn’t going to make it. And she had young children. They were probably, I don’t know, maybe seven, six or seven. And we knew she wasn’t going to make it. And she had been waiting in our ER to get a bed in the ICU. And once she finally had a bed available, they gowned up her little kids and let them go in and tell her goodbye because they would not be allowed in the COVID unit. And like I said, they knew she would not leave that COVID unit alive. So, they would let them come into the ER [00:38:00] to tell her goodbye. So, that was pretty emotional for a lot of the nurses there just to have kids come tell their mom goodbye.
DELLINGER: Right. Well, you know, you have—in talking about this—you have touched on another question that I was going to ask which, you know, was what has been the physical, emotional, and mental toll on yourself and other frontline medical workers throughout the pandemic? And especially during the surges, because I’m sure those have been the more difficult times.
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PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: And have you—you’ve already mentioned you saw people leave, women who were pregnant, right at the beginning of the pandemic. But have you experienced other coworkers leave the medical profession [00:39:00] because of COVID?
PORTILLO: Probably not since the first wave. Once we kind of made it through it, those that were going to leave, left. And the rest of us were—we’re kind of okay I think now because, like I said, I think the first few months was hard. You had to be really strong because the patients were panicking, and they’re looking at you. They’re looking at you how to react. And even to this day people still ask me, “Aren’t you scared?” I’m like, “No. I’m not scared.” It’ll be inconvenient. I don’t want to be sick, but I’m not afraid. So,—
DELLINGER: Right. Okay. Now have—well, you’ve already mentioned that you have not contracted COVID. And I’m knocking on wood again since I’m saying it out loud. But have you had any family members, either in the house or outside of the house—
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: —who have had COVID?
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PORTILLO: My sister, Norma, and her son. They’ve both had it once. DELLINGER: And they’re in your home.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh. They are, yes. [00:40:00]
DELLINGER: So, how did that—can you talk a little bit about that and how you guys maneuvered through that situation?
PORTILLO: Yes. When they—well, it was my sister who got sick first. So, we already knew her son would get it, too, because their rooms are right across from each other, and their rooms are the opposite side of the house of mine. So, when she started feeling sick, she went and hurried up and got tested. And like I said, everyone knows that I’m immune compromised. And they respect that. Like I said, they all—everyone—got the shots, their COVID shots and everything all out of respect for me. And they do that with their flu vaccines and everything, all out of respect for me. And so, as soon as she found out she was sick, she never went around the house without a mask. She and Xander both, they wore a mask. Or if I was out and moving around in the house, they would wait until I went back in my room and then they would come out. So, that’s kind of how we maintained. [00:41:00] But I worked a lot. Like I said, there was such a shortage during COVID, I probably worked like sixty hours a week. So,—
DELLINGER: Oh, my gosh.
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PORTILLO: —I wasn’t home a whole lot.
DELLINGER: Yes. So, did they have milder symptoms? Or did they have—?
PORTILLO: I believe so. My nephew, he did just fine. My sister, she struggled for a couple weeks with respiratory symptoms, but she did okay.
DELLINGER: Uh-huh. Okay. So, throughout the pandemic and especially during the first several months of the pandemic—you know, when so little was known about the virus—how did you get yourself ready day after day and go to work knowing you were putting yourself at risk and really in a dangerous situation?
PORTILLO: It was tough. And my husband, he kind of made it tougher, too, because you know, he’d watch the news, and he panicked. And he would panic. [00:42:00] He was like, “You know, should you really be working? I mean, can’t you go work in a clinic? Can you not change and go to a different department?” And I’m like, “No, this is what I do.” You know, I mean I can’t run every time something happens. And I was like, “You know, this is what I’m meant to do. This is what I was called to do. This is what I do.” So,—
DELLINGER: All right. Now, was he—at the beginning of the pandemic, did he shelter in place? Was he sent home by his company?
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PORTILLO: No. He was considered an essential worker to keep the tracks open so supplies and everything could still come through. So, he still got to work the whole time.
DELLINGER: Okay, so he was away from the house, too, then—
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: —quite a bit? Okay. So, we’ve been talking here about the mental and emotional trauma that COVID [00:43:00], you know, inflicted on medical workers. Do you have any thoughts about the extent of these issues caused by COVID to the public? Have you been—you know, have you experienced anything in the ER where you’re seeing more people coming into the ER with mental and emotional issues because of the stress of COVID?
PORTILLO: I think so. Unfortunately, we noticed that after the lockdown there was a lot more violent episodes. There was a lot of assaults coming in and domestic violence and stuff like that. I guess people were just tired of being, you know, indoors with each other. So unfortunately, we did see a lot of that.
[00:44:00] And now some people are kind of scared. They don’t want to go outside, you know. Or they’re afraid of everything. And then you have some that are just cocky and are like, “Oh, it was nothing. I’ve had it three or four times. It’s nothing.” And I’m like, “Well, just keep that opinion to yourself because there’s people that are literally
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dying upstairs and they have family here. So, just please keep your opinions to yourself.” So, yes, unfortunately.
DELLINGER: Okay. What resources have been made available to medical workers to assist in their processing of COVID trauma?
PORTILLO: We’ve had counselors. Our job has provided counseling for us. They’ve— we have this resource that we can call that always has a counselor on call for us. And then [00:45:00] they did bring in—especially when we were losing a lot of patients—they did bring in like a counselor to come in or to be available for anyone that needed to talk because it did get kind of—it got a little hard.
DELLINGER: Yeah. Were there chaplains available? I’m assuming the hospital has chaplains?
PORTILLO: We have a chaplain on call. I don’t—they probably would have came in. They’re very good, so they probably would have. But I think these were mostly just counselors that came in. And you know, you could go as a group or individual, or whatever you needed. They pretty much would work with you, whatever you needed.
DELLINGER: Has the hospital provided any, like, extra pay, or increase in pay, or days off, like personal days?
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PORTILLO: They—certain—the COVID wards were compensated financially. [00:46:00] Those employees, they got extra pay and extra money an hour. Not everyone, but the COVID wards did. So, but like I said, not everyone. [laughs] We didn’t. [laughs]
DELLINGER: Right. The ER didn’t, wow.
PORTILLO: Even though we kept arguing that we were the first line of defense— DELLINGER: Yeah, absolutely.
PORTILLO: —because everyone comes through us first before they go up to the COVID, but (smacks lips) we didn’t win that war. [laughs]
DELLINGER: Right. So, is the hospital still offering—I mean, are these counseling opportunities ongoing?
PORTILLO: There’s one that’s always available to us regardless. But I don’t think they’ve been bringing in the other ones anymore, not since—probably not in the last year or so they haven’t.
DELLINGER: I see, okay. So, at the end of a workday when you go home, and especially when you’ve had a horribly [00:47:00] stressful day, how do you nurture and take care of yourself?
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PORTILLO: Well, doing this for twenty-two years I’ve learned not to take anything personally. You know, I take care of my patient, and whenever my patient care ends, it ends. I don’t take it home with me. And like I said, I don’t take it personally because that will eat at you as a nurse. I come home; I see my family. I try to hug on my son, but he’s fourteen and he doesn’t like that. [Dellinger laughs] So, I’ll hug on my dog; he loves it. So, I come home to my zoo, appreciate my animals. Like I said, I may sit out and watch the birds and, like I said, just de-stress.
DELLINGER: Right.
PORTILLO: Yeah, because it can be very stressful. But like I said, I don’t think about it; I don’t dwell on it. It’s over until the next day.
DELLINGER: Yeah. [00:48:00] And you do three on and four off. Is that— PORTILLO: Uh-huh, yes.
DELLINGER: —your schedule? Yeah. All right. Mrs. Portillo, have you been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus?
PORTILLO: Yes, I have.
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DELLINGER: And which vaccine did you receive?
PORTILLO: Pfizer.
DELLINGER: How did your body react to the vaccine? Did you have any side effects?
PORTILLO: Oh, yes. [laughs] The first one, I vomited a lot and my body hurt real bad. The second one I was more prepared. I took ibuprofen and Zofran before I got my shot. And I did pretty good with the second one and third one as well. I just pre-medicate for it.
DELLINGER: Okay. Do you—well, what are your thoughts and perspectives about COVID vaccines?
PORTILLO: You know, we talked a long time about this. I remember when it was about to come out, [00:49:00] I remember us nurses and doctors really hashing this over. We were like, “Do you think it’s going to work? Do you think it’s worth it?” You know, especially when it was becoming mandatory. Because it is, you know: you don’t have it, you don’t work in our profession. And then especially when it came to vaccinating my child as well, you know, it took a lot of thought.
And then I finally, after thinking it over, I thought, “Well, if anything comes about, at least I know I was doing it to try to prevent something.” You know, I would feel worse if something happened, and I knew I could have prevented it and I didn’t. Like I
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said, I could live with myself better if I knew I was trying to prevent it. And that’s how I looked at it when I decided to vaccinate my family and myself.
DELLINGER: Do you have any idea of what percentage [00:50:00] of patients that are coming in to the ER now that are not vaccinated?
PORTILLO: The ones—
DELLINGER: You know, who become diagnosed with COVID?
PORTILLO: Oh, the ones that are hospitalized. Last that I knew, I think about seventy to eighty percent were unvaccinated—last that I knew, the hospitalized ones. The ones that come through the ER, a lot of them that I’ve been swabbing that have COVID, most of them have been vaccinated because they’re disappointed that they got it. I’m like, “It does happen. But maybe it won’t be that severe.”
DELLINGER: Right. Right, okay. At this point in time, do you feel like the rate of infection and death has slowed from where things were, say at the end of 2020?
PORTILLO: Yes. Yes, I do because now we don’t even have to designate [00:51:00] wards to them. We had several COVID wards, and now we don’t. We just have—you know, we just put them in negative pressure rooms now. And like I said, we don’t have to dedicate a whole floor to them anymore. So, that’s how I know things are better now.
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DELLINGER: Yeah, that’s a big change.
PORTILLO: Yes.
DELLINGER: So, besides the vaccines for illness prevention or reduced illness severity, what are other treatments are available to the public to combat COVID-19?
PORTILLO: Right now our doctors are just doing for symptoms because you know all they tell them is it has to work its course; it should pass. You know, a lot of them are given symptoms like for the nausea and vomiting. They’ll give them medicine for that. They’ll give them some medicine for the cough. The important thing is hydration. You know like even if you don’t want to eat, you must drink. [00:52:00] You know, control your fevers and body aches, you know they come and go. But mostly they’re just treating the symptoms. There’s nothing that’s really—a lot of people are coming in like, “I want steroids. I want antibiotics.” And they’re like (smacks lips), “Unless you already developed COVID pneumonia, these aren’t really going to work.” But it’s mostly just symptom treatment.
DELLINGER: Okay, so OSU Medical Center then is not engaging with the monoclonal antibody treatment?
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PORTILLO: We haven’t been here lately. We did on the first. On the first round we did. We did some, but then we kind of got away from it because we had a lot of reactions. People were having a lot of reactions to it.
DELLINGER: Can you talk about that just a little bit? Like what type of reactions?
PORTILLO: I myself, I only gave the infusion twice in the ER because we didn’t do them in the ER. Our infusion clinic and our same day, they did it. [00:53:00] But the doctors were talking that there was a lot of reactions happening, and they weren’t going to order them anymore. I think people were having, like their heart rates were going too high, or their fevers were going too high from them, and stuff like that. So,—
DELLINGER: That’s interesting because you know the Muscogee (Creek) Nation has a monoclonal antibody clinic.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: Yeah, so that’s—
PORTILLO: Yeah, I’ve seen that.
DELLINGER: You’ve shared something with me even that I want to—I feel like I need to check out more now.
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PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: I need to research that a little bit more.
PORTILLO: Right. And like I said, I’ve only given the infusion twice in my career. And both times—knock on wood—did okay. [laughs] But that was—
DELLINGER: Yeah, your patients did okay.
PORTILLO: —the only times I did it, and like I said, I haven’t—oh, it’s probably been a year and a half or so since I’ve done that. And I haven’t heard of them ordering or doing it since. So, I guess it’s just kind of optional; if you want to do it, [00:54:00] that’s fine. But I know we’re not doing it, well that I know of. We’re not ordering it.
DELLINGER: And then isn’t there in the works a pill? Or maybe that pill is already out on the market?
PORTILLO: I’ve heard, but I know we are not doing it. I’ve heard of some other places—
DELLINGER: But that’s a pill you take after you’ve—after you get it, right? It’s a pill you take within a certain period of time after you start with the symptoms?
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PORTILLO: Yes, and I think there’s a fine window, kind of like the flu. You know, once you get the flu, there’s like a pill you can—
DELLINGER: The Tamiflu? Kind of like the Tamiflu?
PORTILLO: Something like that, yeah. Yeah, where you’ve only got a short window that you can take it. And yet, it really only shortens your symptoms by like—I don’t know— eight hours, twelve hours? So, I don’t know if this is something similar, but I know right now we are not doing it at our facility.
DELLINGER: Right, but this is all such good information because, again it makes me think, “Okay, people, we need—” You know, people need to be researching these things [00:55:00] and not just taking for granted what we hear in the news,—
PORTILLO: Exactly.
DELLINGER: —or what the media puts out or, you know, things like that. PORTILLO: Exactly.
DELLINGER: So, yeah, that’s good. All right, we’re going to go back to the first year of the pandemic.
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PORTILLO: Okay.
DELLINGER: How do you think the state of Oklahoma handled the pandemic? As a frontline medical worker, have you felt supported by decisions coming out of the state capitol?
PORTILLO: Oh, about as much as can be, I guess. Like I said, pretty much in us and every other state, I mean, I don’t think anyone was truly prepared for it. And like I said, I don’t know what happened to the PPE. I don’t know how that happened. But eventually we did have enough, and we weren’t the only ones having to reuse. And I mean, it could have been worse. So, [00:56:00] yeah, they did okay. [laughs]
DELLINGER: Okay. What are your thoughts about the COVID-19 pandemic shifting to a global endemic?
PORTILLO: Well, it’s probably inevitable, you know. Whenever we saw the news that, you know, about Italy, and China, and all that, we were like, “Oh, yeah. It’s going to be everywhere.” It was inevitable, you know, because everyone travels, and so—
DELLINGER: Are the folks that you work with there in your ER, like the doctors, are people even having conversations? Because I know we’re not to that point yet, especially in this country we’re not to that point yet. But is that something that people are starting to
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talk about, that it looks like this is the direction that we’re going in and we’re always going to have COVID in our existence?
PORTILLO: Yeah, we’ve pretty much accepted the fact [00:57:00] it’s not going away anytime soon. We’re like, “It’s here. There’s more strands. And it’s going to mutate.” It’s going to mutate, you know. It’s not going away anytime terribly soon. But hopefully the strand will keep weakening, and it won’t be as severe as the initial, we hope. So, we accept the fact that it’s here for a little bit.
DELLINGER: Yeah, okay.
PORTILLO: And we just plan to keep being cautious. And that’s what they keep telling us. They’re like, “It’s still here. Protect yourselves.”
DELLINGER: Uh-huh, okay. Well, I’ll tell you what, we’re down to our last two questions. And I’m actually going to flip these questions. I’m going to do them in reverse order than I would normally do them.
PORTILLO: [laughs] Okay.
DELLINGER: And so, I want to go ahead and ask you because I know we talked about you brought some notes with you, just some things that obviously were important to you that maybe you wanted to share here today. And so, [00:58:00] I’m going to give you the
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opportunity now if you would like to share anything else about your experiences with COVID-19.
PORTILLO: Oh, you know, it’s —it was interesting. You know you never—I never thought I’d live through a, or see a pandemic. And the things I’ve seen, you know, you can’t un-see it. And I don’t know, its life changing—very life changing—and it’s sad. Because like I say, I have known several people that passed from it. And like I said, they were my age. And I don’t know, like I said, it’s very sad. I feel for many of those people.
DELLINGER: Something just popped into my head.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh?
DELLINGER: Did you [00:59:00]—I mean, obviously you saw many, many patients pass away from COVID. Have you experienced coworkers who got ill with COVID and passed away?
PORTILLO: I did. None passed away. One of my coworkers, I think she’s like sixty. She was close to sixty and she got it. She wasn’t in bad health, but she got very ill on the first one. And she was gone from work probably about a good eight weeks. In fact, she’s called one of those long haulers?
DELLINGER: Mm, uh-huh.
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PORTILLO: She still has—it did a little bit of heart damage; it did some lung damage to her. And yeah, she’s going to have long-term effects from it.
DELLINGER: Yeah, and we didn’t even talk about that. That is another part of all of this, too.
PORTILLO: Yeah, and I heard I have another coworker that’s in her nurse practitioner clinicals. And she was just talking about [01:00:00] how they’re seeing so many lasting effects in children and other people from having COVID, like hearing damages. And I
mean, not only did they just have COVID, now they’ve got long-term effects from it. So, this is interesting what all’s happ—what all we’re going to see as a lasting result of it.
DELLINGER: Right and more people. Was that coworker able to come back to work then?
PORTILLO: Yeah, she’s back at work. But it took a long time for her to recover. But like I said—
DELLINGER: Right, so a lot of people with short-term and long-term disability.
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PORTILLO: Uh-huh, and she still has headaches, and this is a couple of years ago. She still has headaches, and sometimes she’ll have—she’ll say like a foggy memory is how she refers it to. So, it’s interesting.
DELLINGER: Yeah.
PORTILLO: I hate it for them. So, you know, technically they recover, but will they fully recover? Don’t know. May not. [01:01:00]
DELLINGER: Anything else?
PORTILLO: I don’t think so. [laughs]
DELLINGER: Okay, well you definitely have shared a lot here. So, for this last question, we’re thinking about future generations of Muscogee—and we’ll say other peoples, too— who may find themselves forced to engage with a global health and economic crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. And we just talked about how possibly COVID’s never even
going to go away. But what words of advice do you have for them about surviving and living with such a destructive illness and world event?
PORTILLO: Well, I think, for one, [01:02:00] one thing people didn’t do is I don’t think they—they didn’t take it serious enough. Like when they told people social distancing and all that was helpful, they didn’t. They still went to their events, and they still did
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whatever they wanted. And then they got sick. And some of them, it cost them their life because of it. You know, had they have just not gone to this activity or had stayed home [laughs] or something, they might still be alive, or they might not have got as sick. And like I said, a lot of people didn’t take it serious enough.
You know, and some people, they still as of now still won’t take a vaccine or whatever. I mean, I don’t see the harm in it. There’s all these conspiracy theories, but ultimately it’s their health. So, whatever they want to believe is, I guess, is their right. But, you know, [01:03:00] you should value your health. And like I said, you just ultimately have to value your health. You know, if a mask is going to save your life, don’t be too prideful. You know a lot of people are like, “Well, I don’t want to wear a mask. It’s against my right,” or whatever. And what does it matter if it’s going to save your life? So someone’s not going to see you smile. [laughs] You know? Like I said, I wear two masks; I breathe through eight layers. [laughs] It’s going to be fine. I don’t have any brain damage or anything from it. [laughs] And I don’t know, it’s—I can’t think of anything else.
DELLINGER: Okay. Well, Mrs. Portillo, again thank you so much for taking time out of your day off [Portillo laughs] to be here with me today and to do this very important and informative [01:04:00] interview. And I wish you continued health and wellbeing. And thank you for your service.
PORTILLO: Oh, thank you.
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END OF INTERVIEW
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Historic and Cultural Preservation Department Oral History Program
“A Twenty-First Century Pandemic in Indian Country: The Resilience of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Against Covid-19”
As Remembered by: Mrs. Amy Portillo
Interview by: Ms. Midge Dellinger
Date: August 9, 2022
Transcription: The Audio Transcription Company
Edited by: Ms. Midge Dellinger
MIDGE DELLINGER: This is Midge Dellinger, Oral Historian for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Today is August 9, 2022. And I am in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, interviewing Muscogee citizen, Mrs. Amy Portillo. I am performing this interview on behalf of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Historical and Preservation Department for the oral history project titled “A Twenty-First Century Pandemic in Indian Country: The Resilience of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Against COVID-19.”
Mrs. Portillo, thank you so much for being here this morning to do this interview with me. We’re going to start with some questions about your personal life and your background. And so, let’s begin with where is your current place of residence?
AMY PORTILLO: I live in Glenpool, Oklahoma.
DELLINGER: And how long have you lived there?
PORTILLO: I have lived there since 2016.
DELLINGER: Now, where were you born?
PORTILLO: I was born in Talihina, Oklahoma.
DELLINGER: And where did you grow up? [00:01:00]
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PORTILLO: I grew up in the rural area of Sapulpa, kind of out—not in the city limits but on the outskirts of it.
DELLINGER: Now, who were your parents? Will you please share just a little bit about each one of them?
PORTILLO: Uh-huh, yes. My mother, she is deceased, but she is Linda, maiden name Bigpond—or, I’m sorry, maiden name Jefferson—Bigpond. She was originally from Talihina. And my father is, or he is deceased also. And his name was Gregory; he went by Gene Bigpond. He was from Sapulpa.
DELLINGER: And what did your folks do for occupations when they were living?
PORTILLO: My mother, she was a Licensed Practical Nurse. And my father, he was a lineman. He worked for OG&E and retired from there. [00:02:00]
DELLINGER: Where did your mom work? Did she work at the hospital in Sapulpa?
PORTILLO: No, she worked at several places. She worked at Hillcrest, and then the last place she worked at was at Bixby Manor.
DELLINGER: Okay. And so, she did that for many years?
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PORTILLO: Yes. She was a homemaker for many years, but that was probably the last places she worked before she passed.
DELLINGER: Now, do you have siblings?
PORTILLO: I do. I am the second oldest. My oldest sister is Lilly Geesling. She has two children, Jacob and Cassandrea. And I have another one younger than me. Her name is Jennifer Bigpond. She has a daughter named Mariah. And then my youngest sister is Norma Bigpond, and she has a son. His name is Alexander, but we call him Xander for short. [00:03:00]
DELLINGER: And now, where do these folks reside?
PORTILLO: Lilly, she lives south of Sapulpa. Kind of where we grew up is where she still is. Her oldest son, he’s still living there. Cassandrea, she’s in Colorado. And Jennifer and her daughter, they live in the Jenks area. And Norma and Xander, they live with us in Glenpool.
DELLINGER: Oh, okay. Now, who were your grandparents? Can you share a little bit about them?
PORTILLO: Yes. On my mother’s side, they are both deceased as well, but it’s Juanita— her maiden name was Folsom—Jefferson and Norman Jefferson. They were both of
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Talihina. My grandmother, she was also a Licensed Practical Nurse. And she was on the, [00:04:00] oh, the hospital administration board for probably, oh, 20, 30 years, retired. And then she was on the Choctaw Nation judicial board—the first woman elected—until she retired. And my mother, she had one sibling. And her name is Nancy, and she’s a nurse practitioner.
On my father’s side, his father is—they’re all deceased as well—Reverend Roy Bigpond. And his step-father was the former chief Claude Cox. And his mother was Lilly—maiden name Simms—Cox. And he has many siblings as well. The last living sibling of my father is Reverend Negiel Bigpond. [00:05:00] And they’re all, kind of, of this area.
DELLINGER: Okay, now your family members there who were the reverends, did they have churches? Did they have their own churches that they pastored?
PORTILLO: My grandfather, Roy, he was in the United Methodist system. So, you know, he’d be at a certain church for so many years and rotate churches. My father’s sibling, Negiel, he has his own church, Morning Star out in Hectorville.
DELLINGER: Oh, okay.
PORTILLO: Yes, he has his own.
DELLINGER: Okay, very good. Now, where did you attend high school?
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PORTILLO: I went to Mounds public schools.
DELLINGER: And what year did you graduate from Mounds?
PORTILLO: 1996.
DELLINGER: And then where did life take you after high school?
PORTILLO: Oh, I went to TCC [Tulsa Community College] [00:06:00] in the fall of 1996. I was just doing basics. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I never thought I’d be a nurse. That wasn’t in the plans. And I didn’t start an LPN course until 1997. And I only did that because my mother had a heart attack. And being a nurse, she’d only tell us what she thought we needed to know. You could tell things were wrong, and she wouldn’t tell us. And it really bothered me. So, I decided I needed to know more, so I enrolled in a nursing program. And then I finished that in 1998. And I went to Platt College for that.
DELLINGER: Okay, you went to Platt College. And so, then after Platt College, I’m assuming you went out into the workforce.
PORTILLO: I did. I did; one of my first jobs was at Bixby Manor. And I liked that. You know, I did. And then I wanted a little more experience because, you know, [00:07:00]
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geriatric care is very challenging. And then I went into what they call long-term acute care. And that’s when I really got in—I learned a lot about ventilators and, you know, really challenging care. And that’s pretty much what I’ve been into ever since until I returned—I bridged over from an LPN to an RN [Registered Nurse]. I went to Tulsa Community College and finished that in 2013. And I’ve been in acute care ever since.
DELLINGER: Okay. And so, what is your current occupation? And where are you working now?
PORTILLO: I’m a Registered Nurse and I work at OSU [Oklahoma State University] Medical Center in the Emergency Room. I’ve been there for almost ten years. I’ve been working there since 2012, and I’ve been—I worked in the ICU [Intensive Care Unit] for several years, and then I came down to the Emergency Room. And I’ve been there for about five years.
DELLINGER: So, I’m going to ask you this. And you’ve [00:08:00]—I think you’ve already touched on this a little bit. But what drew you into the nursing field, because you said that wasn’t really in the plan?
PORTILLO: It wasn’t. I really didn’t think —you know, I never thought I’d be a nurse. But like I said, whenever my mother had her heart attack, you could tell she was hiding things. And we were worried. We were like, “Are you going to be okay? What’s happening with your heart?” “Everything’s fine. Nothing’s wrong.” And come to find
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out, she ended up needing open-heart surgery. And she hid that from us. And so, I decided I needed to understand the medical terminology and what was going on. And so, that’s what mostly motivated me. And, you know, nursing just runs deep in our family. I have another sister, Jennifer, that’s also a Registered Nurse. And we are the third generation of nurses in our family. It started with our grandmother, our aunts, our mother, so— [00:09:00]
DELLINGER: Yeah, that’s really cool, you know, to have that family legacy of nursing. That’s really neat. So, I’d like for you to tell me about your family and family life in Glenpool.
PORTILLO: Okay. I am married. My husband is Jose. We got married in 2005. We have one son; his name is Justin. He’s fourteen years old. Like I said, my sister Norma and her son, Xander, live with us. Xander is fifteen. We have many animals. We love animals. [Dellinger laughs] We have dogs, cats. My husband complains that we have a zoo somedays. [Dellinger laughs] But, yeah.
DELLINGER: So, what type of work does Jose do?
PORTILLO: He does railroad construction. He works out in the heat, extreme heat, extreme cold. So, ______
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DELLINGER: Wow, so can you give a little explanation of [00:10:00] what exactly he does do?
PORTILLO: He mostly works the heavy machinery. And they repair railroad tracks, or they help pick up trains that fall over, and stuff like that, so—
DELLINGER: Now, is that work he’s always done? Has he done that for many years? PORTILLO: Since we met, it’s what he’s always done.
DELLINGER: And how long again have you been married?
PORTILLO: Seventeen years.
DELLINGER: Okay. And your son attends Glenpool. Let’s see, at fifteen he’s getting ready to be in high school?
PORTILLO: Yes, he’s going to be a freshman this year. We meet his teachers today. [laughs]
DELLINGER: Okay. So as a mom, how’s that feeling that your son’s getting ready to be in high school?
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PORTILLO: I’m okay with it now. Whenever we finished school back in May, it kind of, I don’t know, I got almost emotional about it because I was like, “My son’s a high schooler? How could this have happened already?” And you know, before I know it, he’s going to be graduating. And it was emotional. But, [00:11:00] you know, we’re ready to take that step now, I think.
DELLINGER: Okay. Is he at a point yet in his young life where he’s thinking about maybe what he would like to do when he gets out of school?
PORTILLO: He says he’s moving to Hollywood or New York. That’s what he told me. And he’s thinking about going into gaming, or IT is what he tells me anyway. So, I’m like, “Well, sounds good.” [laughs]
DELLINGER: Yeah, that doesn’t sound like too bad of a plan.
PORTILLO: Not at all.
DELLINGER: Amy, I’m going to ask you a question. Will you pronounce your—how you pronounce your last name for me?
PORTILLO: Oh, okay. I’ll try. [laughs] It’s Portillo. That’s how I pronounce it. My husband says it a little different because he rolls his r’s.
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DELLINGER: Yeah, he rolls his r’s.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh. So, he tried to correct me for years, and he finally gave up and just said, “That’s fine.”
DELLINGER: Yeah. [laughter] And you probably do the same thing when other people are trying to say your last name.
PORTILLO: I just go with it. [laughs]
DELLINGER: Okay. [00:12:00] When you’re not at the hospital working, how do you like to spend your free time?
PORTILLO: Oh, before COVID hit, we used to go out a lot. And the boys—I’m referring to my nephew and my son—we and the dogs, we’d pack up, and I’d always try to take them to a different state park. We like to stay at cabins, go fishing, go to different lakes. And I’d always tell the boys, “It’s important for you to appreciate nature because when you’re my age, is it going to look like that? Is it going to be this beautiful?” Because everything changes and, you know, the way everything is, who knows?
So, I try to teach them that and appreciate nature. So, that’s what we were trying to do. And then, like I said, we went in lockdown, and then it was the shortages we were having at work. You know, I worked a lot more hours. And then now that they’re getting older, [00:13:00] everything is boring; everything is lame.
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DELLINGER: Oh gosh, yes. [laughs]
PORTILLO: Yeah. So, it’s been a little bit of a struggle now to get back in that habit. But we’ll get back there.
DELLINGER: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Family time is so important. I think more people are more appreciative of that now.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh, absolutely.
DELLINGER: For sure. Well, so Amy, is there anything else that you’d like to share with me about yourself or your family? Anything that maybe I have not touched on?
PORTILLO: I know my sister and I, we’re big advocates for autism awareness because of my nephew. He is on the spectrum. And we do, we go to some support groups. And, you know, we support Special Olympics. And he participates in that. So, we’re really big advocates for that, and we go to a lot of their events and fundraisers. [00:14:00]
DELLINGER: Okay, great. Thank you for sharing that. Well, I think we will go ahead now and move into some questions about the COVID pandemic and your experiences with that.
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PORTILLO: Okay.
DELLINGER: And so, here in the United States and around the world, we’re now in the third year of having COVID-19 in existence. But in 2020, going back to 2020, when did you first hear about the virus? And how did you first hear about it?
PORTILLO: Oh, we first heard about it, the doctors—you know, we’re very close. OSU is a teaching hospital, so we have Attendings, and we have a lot of Residents because it is a teaching hospital. So, there’s always a lot of talk, and there’s good communication between the nurses and the doctors, in the Emergency Room anyways. We’re always talking about things. And we’re always, you know, we’re like, [00:15:00] “Well, what do you think about this? Do you think we’re going to see this? Do you think this is—?” You know? Like I said, we discuss everything among each other. And in fact, before it even— you know, before anyone was first diagnosed over here, we’re all like, “We had symptoms like that like two months ago. [laughs] Maybe I already had it.” And you know, we were all talking like, “Well, what are we going to do if it does get here?” Like I said, we all kind of talked among ourselves what was going to happen.
DELLINGER: So, would that have been—when you were having these conversations there in the ER—are you talking right at the beginning of 2020?
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PORTILLO: Yes. Probably about 2019, about December, January. We were like—yeah, we were talking all about that, like, you know, “What are we going to do when it—?” Because, you know, it was mostly across—it was overseas, and we’re like—
DELLINGER: Yeah, it was still overseas at that time.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: Okay.
PORTILLO: Right. And we’re like, “You know, what are we going to do if it comes over here and people panic?” Or like I said, we were just watching the news. [00:16:00] And we’re like, you know, “If we have a pandemic, like how are we going to do this?” And so—
DELLINGER: But what were your first thoughts about the virus? I mean, were you thinking, ah, maybe it won’t come over here? Or you were you thinking, realistically, this thing’s going to come over here?
PORTILLO: We knew it’d make it over here. We knew it would. But we were kind of hoping—I think in the back of our mind we were kind of hoping that maybe it was just kind of hyped up. At first we were kind of like, “Maybe it’s not that bad. Maybe they’re just really focusing on the few that are just that sick. Maybe everyone else is going to be
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okay.” You know? That’s what we were kind of hoping, that it wasn’t going to be that bad. That everyone was, you know, going to recover. That was our hope anyways that, yeah, it was like the flu. Yeah, there are some that get that sick, but most everyone recovers, is what we were hoping, that we weren’t going to see it that severe.
DELLINGER: Yeah. And I think that’s interesting that right off the bat, you know, [00:17:00] you all were acknowledging that, hey, we’ve seen a lot of these symptoms already coming into the ER.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: I’ve had other people say that, too. I’ve had people say that they even thought they had COVID before 2020.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh. So did we.
DELLINGER: Like right there at the end of 2019.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: So, at what point then, there at the beginning of 2020, did your understanding and thoughts about the virus become more concerned? What made you realize the severity of the virus?
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PORTILLO: Well, I remember the very first case that I saw. We didn’t know we had seen it yet. It was a prisoner that came in.
DELLINGER: Oh.
PORTILLO: Yes. It wasn’t even a traveler or anything. Like I said, I remember some people came in to get testing, but the very first severe case I saw was a prisoner that had came in. And he had to be intubated. And I mean, no matter what we did, we could not get him oxygenated. And it was just weird. We were like, “Oh, well this has to be something else. He just has really bad [00:18:00] pneumonia.” And you know, he was just a really sick guy. And then a few days later, my friend from ICU was like, “You know, he has COVID.” We were like, “What? It’s here?” You know this was officially our first case.
DELLINGER: Do you remember that day? That date?
PORTILLO: Oh, —
DELLINGER: Or even —
PORTILLO: —I want to say it was probably in March.
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DELLINGER: Oh, okay.
PORTILLO: Yes, I want to say it was in March. But I remember I’m like, “So, this is it. This is official.” Because we were just kind of waiting. And like I said, people were coming in for testing. Like, the first people we saw coming in testing were people that— like flight attendants and different people like that. But I’m going to say this was our first really sick one that we got. Then after that, it really picked up. But like I say, I remember he was in there for weeks. And I don’t even know if he survived or not.
DELLINGER: Oh, okay. Okay.
PORTILLO: But it was just interesting because like I said, [00:19:00] it kind of mimics some other stuff. They were like, “Well, we’ve seen things like this before.” And you know, “He’s just very sick and—” But yeah, I remember my friend was like, “No, he has COVID.” And we had to put him in isolation, you know? And it kind of, yeah, we were like, “Oh no, it’s here. This is real.” Yeah.
DELLINGER: So, you’ve already talked about some of the initial conversations that you were having with coworkers at the beginning of 2020. Either before this first case of COVID that you had in March, or for sure after, do you remember what some of the conversations were that you started having with family and friends?
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PORTILLO: Yes. I remember there was a lot of kind of panic among some of the other nurses, especially there were some that were pregnant. And there was a couple that [00:20:00] resigned because, you know, it wasn’t really worth, especially if they didn’t have to work, you know. They were like, “I just don’t want to risk my pregnancy, my family.” And we were like, “Understandable.” There was some panic among some of them, especially with the PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] shortage. That’s—hmm, that was very bothersome because we were like, “We don’t have enough of this.” And so like I said, there was a lot. And it was really bothersome.
DELLINGER: I was going to ask you about supply shortages.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: And so, since you’ve already brought that up, is that something that happened at OSU Medical Center pretty quickly?
PORTILLO: Yes.
DELLINGER: Okay.
PORTILLO: Yes, we were only allotted so much. We had to reuse our N95s for three days. They would take it, and they would sterilize it or whatever for three days before we could have another one, unless it was just damaged or [00:21:00] too soiled to use. But
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yes. And like I said, it —everyone was upset about it and very emotional about it. There were nurses that would break down and cry because they were like, “You know, you’re risking my life.” And so, it—in the beginning, it really took a toll on everyone.
DELLINGER: Yeah. So, it sounds like what happened, like maybe after that first case was diagnosed, sounds like the hospital then just became inundated. It wasn’t like a slow trickle of patients coming in that were then diagnosed with COVID. It was like you guys were inundated with these people with this illness. Is that how it happened?
PORTILLO: It did. It did; it just kind of got slammed after that because, you know, little rural hospitals were getting hit with them. And [00:22:00] a lot of the people that we had inpatient with COVID didn’t even come through our doors as a patient. They were transferred in. And everyone was looking for somewhere to get their patients in. So,—
DELLINGER: So, why do you think that—and look, you know, OSU Medical Center is not the only medical facility that this happened to.
PORTILLO: No.
DELLINGER: But so many medical facilities were kind of caught off-guard, even though people were aware that this illness was out there.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
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DELLINGER: So, why do you think that went that way for so many, for OSU and so many other medical facilities?
PORTILLO: Oh, I don’t know. Like I said, the PPE, I’m not sure why we had such a shortage on that. I mean, I don’t know what happened on that. One good thing I can say is they quickly brought in machines and stuff to help [00:23:00] purify our air because we had to turn what would be like a simple med/surg floor into COVID units. And they’d bring in certain purifiers and stuff. So I mean, they did that pretty quickly, which was really helpful for us so that we could make more room for people to come in and stuff. But like I said, I’m not sure what happened to the PPE because I mean they had us counting gloves every day. And we had every morning each and every floor had to report how many gloves they had—
DELLINGER: Wow.
PORTILLO: —how many masks they had, gowns. I mean, we had PPE counts every morning. It was, I don’t know. [laughs] It’s ridiculous.
DELLINGER: Yeah, I mean that just says right there the extreme.
PORTILLO: Yes.
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DELLINGER: You know, how extreme the situation was.
PORTILLO: I’m not sure what happened on that. I’m like, “We had a surplus at one time, and what happened?” So, but then—
DELLINGER: But was there a point in 2020 where you felt like, “Okay, the hospital’s got things under control now,” where you felt more comfortable?
PORTILLO: Towards the end, uh-huh. Towards the fall we did. But you know, another thing is [00:24:00] when it first started coming out, patients that were coming through, they were stealing our stuff, too. We had to start taking stuff out of the rooms because they would steal our masks, our gloves, anything they could come in and grab. Patients were stealing all of our stuff out of the rooms.
DELLINGER: I never thought about that.
PORTILLO: Yes. So, that kind of hurt us, too, because we used to keep stuff like that in the room for quick access for us. And like I said, they were robbing us blind because out of panic.
DELLINGER: Out of panic. Panic and maybe the inability to go buy those things themselves. Because those things aren’t cheap.
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PORTILLO: Right. So, that kind of hurt us, too. And it got to the point where we had to pull everything out, and so—
DELLINGER: Okay. So, early in 2020, you know, we started hearing the words lockdown and shelter in place and social distancing, like words that we’ve never heard before, right?
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: And so, what were your thoughts [00:25:00] about these safety measures?
PORTILLO: It seemed to help some. I mean, at OSU we had a tent on the outside to try to prevent people with COVID symptoms coming into people that had, like, different emergency types. And it helped some. You still had—I don’t know. You still had people that would still come in for the littlest thing. We’re like, “We’re under a pandemic. [laughs] We’re under lockdown. Why are you here?” So, some people were just naïve to the whole idea. But for a lot of it, it seemed to reduce because like I said, we were over ran. As soon as it started hitting, we were over ran in the Emergency Room. I mean, we’re a small Emergency Room. And we—I mean, every chair was full; and every room was full. And then when we went into lockdown, it all, [00:26:00] you know, it got better. It did get better. But like I said, I don’t know. [laughs]
DELLINGER: All right. So, the pandemic hits, and you work in an Emergency Room.
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PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: What was your personal plan of action to stay safe from the virus and to make sure that you weren’t bringing that home to your family?
PORTILLO: Well, just being very cautious. I wear two masks at all times. You know, I’ve just learned to breathe through eight layers of masks or you know. We wear N95s, and I wear a surgical mask over that. So like I said, I’ve adapted and learned to wear—
breathe through, like I said, eight layers. And I do that with every single patient that comes through because I just assume everyone has COVID. And that’s how I do it as a precaution. [00:27:00] Now, I’m probably like one of the few in our Emergency Room that has not had COVID. Everyone’s on like their second or third round of having it (knocking). Knock on wood.
DELLINGER: I’m knocking on wood for you right now.
PORTILLO: [laughs] For sure, for sure, because I’m immune compromised. And I’m like, “I can’t afford to get this.” [laughs] So, I’m very cautious. I clean my hands; I keep my distance. And like I said, I just presume everyone has it, and I just—that’s how I treat everyone. You know? I’m like, “Sorry.” [laughs] But I have to protect myself. And like I said, whenever we had someone very, you know, very sickly that obviously had COVID, I always had my PPE. And like I said, I’m just very cautious.
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And when it first came out, and especially when we had patients that were like intubated and all that, we had negative pressure rooms in the Emergency Room, which kind of helped clean out the air. So, that helps a lot. And then they would provide [00:28:00] us uniforms to change in and out of on top of our PPE. I mean, our hospital did good. They gave us all kinds of different masks. Once the shortage got a little bit better, they had all kind of different little respirators you could wear. And whatever you wanted, they would try to get it for you to protect you, whatever made you feel safer. Once they could get access to it, they did it for you, so—
DELLINGER: Right. That’s good.
PORTILLO: Yes, and like I said, once they could get access, they did everything they could for you to make you feel better.
DELLINGER: Yeah. Now what about when you returned home? You know, I’ve talked to people, and people have shared like these routines that they created for coming home—
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: —you know, after they’ve been in public and around other people. Did you have any type of process that you went through when you got back home?
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PORTILLO: I would say not much different than I always do because, I mean, there’s always been all kinds of bugs, [00:29:00] like flu and all that. I don’t ever wear my shoes around in my house. My shoes always go off when I come in the door. I have a certain spot for that, and I’ve always sprayed it with antibacterial. And I’ve always washed my scrubs with like a Lysol disinfectant. And I’ve always done the same. So, you know, pretty much just the same. Like I said, I’ve always done that even before COVID because yeah. [laughs] So, I’ve pretty much kept it up.
DELLINGER: Yeah. Okay, very good. I’d like for you now to share from your medical knowledge and your position as an ER nurse your knowledge and understanding about the COVID-19 virus, including how it spreads and some of the health impacts that you’ve seen on the human body if it’s contracted.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh, okay. Well, obviously it depends on the strand [00:30:00], but the first strand was more respiratory. And so, you know, they kept saying to keep the six-foot distance and encouraged everyone to wear masks or cover your face and everything. And I know whenever we did intubations and stuff, we’d all have to not only wear masks but shields and everything. Whenever we did intubations and did a mask—or, I’m sorry, NG tubes or anything that had to do with their face, we had to put on several shields and stuff to try to keep anything from getting into our face or breathe in anything.
It had a lot of affect. It would cause so much inflammation in the lungs that it would just—all the little air sacs of the lungs would just fill with fluid and mucus. And whenever they did X-rays, I mean, the lungs would just be completely whited out.
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There’d be like no air movement. [00:31:00] And no matter how much oxygenation—I mean, how much oxygen you could give them, you could not oxygenate these people. And they would make constant adjustments to their ventilators. One that they refer to is the PEEP. And when I worked in ICU, the most I had ever seen on a PEEP was probably like ten. An average is a five. And a ten is probably the most I’d ever seen.
And most people had to have a chest tube. A chest tube is just a surgical tube that they put in. And you can have multiple areas of the chest. And it just helps alleviate air or fluid accumulation in the chest. But usually, like I said, when they got that high, they would need that. But these people were needing PEPs of like eighteen, twenty.
DELLINGER: Gosh.
PORTILLO: And these people would be blue. I mean, you’d go up there and they were just like blueberries [00:32:00] laying there. And they did find out—in the beginning, they would put them in special beds called RotoPrones. They found that they would breathe a little bit easier if you laid them on their belly.
DELLINGER: Mm, uh-huh.
PORTILLO: And so, that’s typically how they would try to keep them was on their belly. And they said it kind of alleviated the pressure on their lungs if they were on their belly.
DELLINGER: That’s interesting.
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PORTILLO: They could expand a little bit more. And so, they would do that. And a lot of them, they would try to get them to Ecmo, which is a lung and heart bypass machine. But those are so —there’s not a lot of them available. And so, so many would die waiting to try to get to one of those because those, like I said, there’s not very many of those. And there’s hardly any that do any in this state. And so, we would ship some of them off to Texas. And it was just [00:33:00]—
DELLINGER: Has that changed, though, since all of this? Are there—?
PORTILLO: Are there more of those? Probably not because you have to specialize in those, and the machines are a lot of money. And plus, you’ve got to compete with people that are having like open-heart surgeries and stuff. You know, they need those bypass machines just as much. So, it was—it was very —it was sad.
And you know, and then not only it was just their lungs it was attacking, it was attacking like their blood levels, like their platelet counts. Their blood would be fine when they first came in. And then they wouldn’t have any platelets, and they would start hemorrhaging, bleeding out through any orifice and any puncture sites. They’d just start bleeding out everywhere and—
DELLINGER: So, was it triggering DIC?
PORTILLO: A lot of them, uh-huh.
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DELLINGER: Okay.
PORTILLO: Yes. It was kind of mimicking DIC. It wouldn’t be true DIC, but it was kind of mimicking it.
DELLINGER: Uh-huh, wow. [00:34:00] Okay.
PORTILLO: Yes, and let’s see, what else? I had a lot of good friends that worked the COVID ICU. And so, I would go up there just to go—you know, if I had some downtime or on my break—I’d go up there and see them and just kind of chit chat with them because, you know, it got hard on them. They’d have multiple deaths in their twelve-hour shifts. And as soon as that person died, there was someone on the waiting list for that bed. Someone else would come in; or the next person died. I mean, it was just like that. It exchanged out regularly. I mean, there was a shortage of body bags. And I’ve never seen that in my career, shortage of body bags. But yeah, it stayed like that. And I’d go up there and see them and talk with them.
And I remember, this was probably—maybe towards the end of 2020 when one of the charge nurses told me. [00:35:00] He said, “We went a whole twenty-four hours and no one died.” I mean, you know, that was a relief.
DELLINGER: Right.
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PORTILLO: Yeah, that was probably the first time in eight, nine months. They went a whole day and no one died. So, it was then that they felt like things were easing up, things were getting better. And you know, it wasn’t just older people dying. It was people my age, some younger, that were dying. And even with the second wave of COVID, it seemed like there were younger people dying, even younger. And like I said, it was hard because, you know, the families couldn’t come in. Towards the second wave of COVID, they started allowing families to come in. They would mask them up and let them look at the door. They couldn’t come into the room, but they could come to the door and at least see their loved one. [00:36:00] I mean, they’d take an iPad or whatever they could in there to them and try to let them talk, you know, if they could. Some of them were intubated and they were sedated. Not only did they sedate them for pain and—they gave them pain medicine and sedation—but the pulmonologists felt it was easier on them to keep them paralyzed to see if their lungs could heal better, too. So, they’d be paralyzed as well.
DELLINGER: Wow!
PORTILLO: Yeah, it was—there was a lot, a lot into it. And so like I said, whenever—if it was going that way where it was inevitable, they might let the family come out and look at the door at them. But never allowed in the room. Yeah.
DELLINGER: Yeah, that was—actually, that was another question that I had for you. You’re reading my mind here. [Portillo laughs] We’re on the same page because I know
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that had to be so difficult [00:37:00] for the families—I can’t even imagine—but then also for the workers, you know, for you all to have to tell a family member, “You can’t go back with them.”
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: Yeah, that had to be very trying.
PORTILLO: It was; it was. We had one in the ER. She was young; she was probably early thirties. And she wasn’t going to make it. And she had young children. They were probably, I don’t know, maybe seven, six or seven. And we knew she wasn’t going to make it. And she had been waiting in our ER to get a bed in the ICU. And once she finally had a bed available, they gowned up her little kids and let them go in and tell her goodbye because they would not be allowed in the COVID unit. And like I said, they knew she would not leave that COVID unit alive. So, they would let them come into the ER [00:38:00] to tell her goodbye. So, that was pretty emotional for a lot of the nurses there just to have kids come tell their mom goodbye.
DELLINGER: Right. Well, you know, you have—in talking about this—you have touched on another question that I was going to ask which, you know, was what has been the physical, emotional, and mental toll on yourself and other frontline medical workers throughout the pandemic? And especially during the surges, because I’m sure those have been the more difficult times.
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PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: And have you—you’ve already mentioned you saw people leave, women who were pregnant, right at the beginning of the pandemic. But have you experienced other coworkers leave the medical profession [00:39:00] because of COVID?
PORTILLO: Probably not since the first wave. Once we kind of made it through it, those that were going to leave, left. And the rest of us were—we’re kind of okay I think now because, like I said, I think the first few months was hard. You had to be really strong because the patients were panicking, and they’re looking at you. They’re looking at you how to react. And even to this day people still ask me, “Aren’t you scared?” I’m like, “No. I’m not scared.” It’ll be inconvenient. I don’t want to be sick, but I’m not afraid. So,—
DELLINGER: Right. Okay. Now have—well, you’ve already mentioned that you have not contracted COVID. And I’m knocking on wood again since I’m saying it out loud. But have you had any family members, either in the house or outside of the house—
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: —who have had COVID?
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PORTILLO: My sister, Norma, and her son. They’ve both had it once. DELLINGER: And they’re in your home.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh. They are, yes. [00:40:00]
DELLINGER: So, how did that—can you talk a little bit about that and how you guys maneuvered through that situation?
PORTILLO: Yes. When they—well, it was my sister who got sick first. So, we already knew her son would get it, too, because their rooms are right across from each other, and their rooms are the opposite side of the house of mine. So, when she started feeling sick, she went and hurried up and got tested. And like I said, everyone knows that I’m immune compromised. And they respect that. Like I said, they all—everyone—got the shots, their COVID shots and everything all out of respect for me. And they do that with their flu vaccines and everything, all out of respect for me. And so, as soon as she found out she was sick, she never went around the house without a mask. She and Xander both, they wore a mask. Or if I was out and moving around in the house, they would wait until I went back in my room and then they would come out. So, that’s kind of how we maintained. [00:41:00] But I worked a lot. Like I said, there was such a shortage during COVID, I probably worked like sixty hours a week. So,—
DELLINGER: Oh, my gosh.
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PORTILLO: —I wasn’t home a whole lot.
DELLINGER: Yes. So, did they have milder symptoms? Or did they have—?
PORTILLO: I believe so. My nephew, he did just fine. My sister, she struggled for a couple weeks with respiratory symptoms, but she did okay.
DELLINGER: Uh-huh. Okay. So, throughout the pandemic and especially during the first several months of the pandemic—you know, when so little was known about the virus—how did you get yourself ready day after day and go to work knowing you were putting yourself at risk and really in a dangerous situation?
PORTILLO: It was tough. And my husband, he kind of made it tougher, too, because you know, he’d watch the news, and he panicked. And he would panic. [00:42:00] He was like, “You know, should you really be working? I mean, can’t you go work in a clinic? Can you not change and go to a different department?” And I’m like, “No, this is what I do.” You know, I mean I can’t run every time something happens. And I was like, “You know, this is what I’m meant to do. This is what I was called to do. This is what I do.” So,—
DELLINGER: All right. Now, was he—at the beginning of the pandemic, did he shelter in place? Was he sent home by his company?
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PORTILLO: No. He was considered an essential worker to keep the tracks open so supplies and everything could still come through. So, he still got to work the whole time.
DELLINGER: Okay, so he was away from the house, too, then—
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: —quite a bit? Okay. So, we’ve been talking here about the mental and emotional trauma that COVID [00:43:00], you know, inflicted on medical workers. Do you have any thoughts about the extent of these issues caused by COVID to the public? Have you been—you know, have you experienced anything in the ER where you’re seeing more people coming into the ER with mental and emotional issues because of the stress of COVID?
PORTILLO: I think so. Unfortunately, we noticed that after the lockdown there was a lot more violent episodes. There was a lot of assaults coming in and domestic violence and stuff like that. I guess people were just tired of being, you know, indoors with each other. So unfortunately, we did see a lot of that.
[00:44:00] And now some people are kind of scared. They don’t want to go outside, you know. Or they’re afraid of everything. And then you have some that are just cocky and are like, “Oh, it was nothing. I’ve had it three or four times. It’s nothing.” And I’m like, “Well, just keep that opinion to yourself because there’s people that are literally
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dying upstairs and they have family here. So, just please keep your opinions to yourself.” So, yes, unfortunately.
DELLINGER: Okay. What resources have been made available to medical workers to assist in their processing of COVID trauma?
PORTILLO: We’ve had counselors. Our job has provided counseling for us. They’ve— we have this resource that we can call that always has a counselor on call for us. And then [00:45:00] they did bring in—especially when we were losing a lot of patients—they did bring in like a counselor to come in or to be available for anyone that needed to talk because it did get kind of—it got a little hard.
DELLINGER: Yeah. Were there chaplains available? I’m assuming the hospital has chaplains?
PORTILLO: We have a chaplain on call. I don’t—they probably would have came in. They’re very good, so they probably would have. But I think these were mostly just counselors that came in. And you know, you could go as a group or individual, or whatever you needed. They pretty much would work with you, whatever you needed.
DELLINGER: Has the hospital provided any, like, extra pay, or increase in pay, or days off, like personal days?
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PORTILLO: They—certain—the COVID wards were compensated financially. [00:46:00] Those employees, they got extra pay and extra money an hour. Not everyone, but the COVID wards did. So, but like I said, not everyone. [laughs] We didn’t. [laughs]
DELLINGER: Right. The ER didn’t, wow.
PORTILLO: Even though we kept arguing that we were the first line of defense— DELLINGER: Yeah, absolutely.
PORTILLO: —because everyone comes through us first before they go up to the COVID, but (smacks lips) we didn’t win that war. [laughs]
DELLINGER: Right. So, is the hospital still offering—I mean, are these counseling opportunities ongoing?
PORTILLO: There’s one that’s always available to us regardless. But I don’t think they’ve been bringing in the other ones anymore, not since—probably not in the last year or so they haven’t.
DELLINGER: I see, okay. So, at the end of a workday when you go home, and especially when you’ve had a horribly [00:47:00] stressful day, how do you nurture and take care of yourself?
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PORTILLO: Well, doing this for twenty-two years I’ve learned not to take anything personally. You know, I take care of my patient, and whenever my patient care ends, it ends. I don’t take it home with me. And like I said, I don’t take it personally because that will eat at you as a nurse. I come home; I see my family. I try to hug on my son, but he’s fourteen and he doesn’t like that. [Dellinger laughs] So, I’ll hug on my dog; he loves it. So, I come home to my zoo, appreciate my animals. Like I said, I may sit out and watch the birds and, like I said, just de-stress.
DELLINGER: Right.
PORTILLO: Yeah, because it can be very stressful. But like I said, I don’t think about it; I don’t dwell on it. It’s over until the next day.
DELLINGER: Yeah. [00:48:00] And you do three on and four off. Is that— PORTILLO: Uh-huh, yes.
DELLINGER: —your schedule? Yeah. All right. Mrs. Portillo, have you been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus?
PORTILLO: Yes, I have.
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DELLINGER: And which vaccine did you receive?
PORTILLO: Pfizer.
DELLINGER: How did your body react to the vaccine? Did you have any side effects?
PORTILLO: Oh, yes. [laughs] The first one, I vomited a lot and my body hurt real bad. The second one I was more prepared. I took ibuprofen and Zofran before I got my shot. And I did pretty good with the second one and third one as well. I just pre-medicate for it.
DELLINGER: Okay. Do you—well, what are your thoughts and perspectives about COVID vaccines?
PORTILLO: You know, we talked a long time about this. I remember when it was about to come out, [00:49:00] I remember us nurses and doctors really hashing this over. We were like, “Do you think it’s going to work? Do you think it’s worth it?” You know, especially when it was becoming mandatory. Because it is, you know: you don’t have it, you don’t work in our profession. And then especially when it came to vaccinating my child as well, you know, it took a lot of thought.
And then I finally, after thinking it over, I thought, “Well, if anything comes about, at least I know I was doing it to try to prevent something.” You know, I would feel worse if something happened, and I knew I could have prevented it and I didn’t. Like I
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said, I could live with myself better if I knew I was trying to prevent it. And that’s how I looked at it when I decided to vaccinate my family and myself.
DELLINGER: Do you have any idea of what percentage [00:50:00] of patients that are coming in to the ER now that are not vaccinated?
PORTILLO: The ones—
DELLINGER: You know, who become diagnosed with COVID?
PORTILLO: Oh, the ones that are hospitalized. Last that I knew, I think about seventy to eighty percent were unvaccinated—last that I knew, the hospitalized ones. The ones that come through the ER, a lot of them that I’ve been swabbing that have COVID, most of them have been vaccinated because they’re disappointed that they got it. I’m like, “It does happen. But maybe it won’t be that severe.”
DELLINGER: Right. Right, okay. At this point in time, do you feel like the rate of infection and death has slowed from where things were, say at the end of 2020?
PORTILLO: Yes. Yes, I do because now we don’t even have to designate [00:51:00] wards to them. We had several COVID wards, and now we don’t. We just have—you know, we just put them in negative pressure rooms now. And like I said, we don’t have to dedicate a whole floor to them anymore. So, that’s how I know things are better now.
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DELLINGER: Yeah, that’s a big change.
PORTILLO: Yes.
DELLINGER: So, besides the vaccines for illness prevention or reduced illness severity, what are other treatments are available to the public to combat COVID-19?
PORTILLO: Right now our doctors are just doing for symptoms because you know all they tell them is it has to work its course; it should pass. You know, a lot of them are given symptoms like for the nausea and vomiting. They’ll give them medicine for that. They’ll give them some medicine for the cough. The important thing is hydration. You know like even if you don’t want to eat, you must drink. [00:52:00] You know, control your fevers and body aches, you know they come and go. But mostly they’re just treating the symptoms. There’s nothing that’s really—a lot of people are coming in like, “I want steroids. I want antibiotics.” And they’re like (smacks lips), “Unless you already developed COVID pneumonia, these aren’t really going to work.” But it’s mostly just symptom treatment.
DELLINGER: Okay, so OSU Medical Center then is not engaging with the monoclonal antibody treatment?
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PORTILLO: We haven’t been here lately. We did on the first. On the first round we did. We did some, but then we kind of got away from it because we had a lot of reactions. People were having a lot of reactions to it.
DELLINGER: Can you talk about that just a little bit? Like what type of reactions?
PORTILLO: I myself, I only gave the infusion twice in the ER because we didn’t do them in the ER. Our infusion clinic and our same day, they did it. [00:53:00] But the doctors were talking that there was a lot of reactions happening, and they weren’t going to order them anymore. I think people were having, like their heart rates were going too high, or their fevers were going too high from them, and stuff like that. So,—
DELLINGER: That’s interesting because you know the Muscogee (Creek) Nation has a monoclonal antibody clinic.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: Yeah, so that’s—
PORTILLO: Yeah, I’ve seen that.
DELLINGER: You’ve shared something with me even that I want to—I feel like I need to check out more now.
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PORTILLO: Uh-huh.
DELLINGER: I need to research that a little bit more.
PORTILLO: Right. And like I said, I’ve only given the infusion twice in my career. And both times—knock on wood—did okay. [laughs] But that was—
DELLINGER: Yeah, your patients did okay.
PORTILLO: —the only times I did it, and like I said, I haven’t—oh, it’s probably been a year and a half or so since I’ve done that. And I haven’t heard of them ordering or doing it since. So, I guess it’s just kind of optional; if you want to do it, [00:54:00] that’s fine. But I know we’re not doing it, well that I know of. We’re not ordering it.
DELLINGER: And then isn’t there in the works a pill? Or maybe that pill is already out on the market?
PORTILLO: I’ve heard, but I know we are not doing it. I’ve heard of some other places—
DELLINGER: But that’s a pill you take after you’ve—after you get it, right? It’s a pill you take within a certain period of time after you start with the symptoms?
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PORTILLO: Yes, and I think there’s a fine window, kind of like the flu. You know, once you get the flu, there’s like a pill you can—
DELLINGER: The Tamiflu? Kind of like the Tamiflu?
PORTILLO: Something like that, yeah. Yeah, where you’ve only got a short window that you can take it. And yet, it really only shortens your symptoms by like—I don’t know— eight hours, twelve hours? So, I don’t know if this is something similar, but I know right now we are not doing it at our facility.
DELLINGER: Right, but this is all such good information because, again it makes me think, “Okay, people, we need—” You know, people need to be researching these things [00:55:00] and not just taking for granted what we hear in the news,—
PORTILLO: Exactly.
DELLINGER: —or what the media puts out or, you know, things like that. PORTILLO: Exactly.
DELLINGER: So, yeah, that’s good. All right, we’re going to go back to the first year of the pandemic.
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PORTILLO: Okay.
DELLINGER: How do you think the state of Oklahoma handled the pandemic? As a frontline medical worker, have you felt supported by decisions coming out of the state capitol?
PORTILLO: Oh, about as much as can be, I guess. Like I said, pretty much in us and every other state, I mean, I don’t think anyone was truly prepared for it. And like I said, I don’t know what happened to the PPE. I don’t know how that happened. But eventually we did have enough, and we weren’t the only ones having to reuse. And I mean, it could have been worse. So, [00:56:00] yeah, they did okay. [laughs]
DELLINGER: Okay. What are your thoughts about the COVID-19 pandemic shifting to a global endemic?
PORTILLO: Well, it’s probably inevitable, you know. Whenever we saw the news that, you know, about Italy, and China, and all that, we were like, “Oh, yeah. It’s going to be everywhere.” It was inevitable, you know, because everyone travels, and so—
DELLINGER: Are the folks that you work with there in your ER, like the doctors, are people even having conversations? Because I know we’re not to that point yet, especially in this country we’re not to that point yet. But is that something that people are starting to
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talk about, that it looks like this is the direction that we’re going in and we’re always going to have COVID in our existence?
PORTILLO: Yeah, we’ve pretty much accepted the fact [00:57:00] it’s not going away anytime soon. We’re like, “It’s here. There’s more strands. And it’s going to mutate.” It’s going to mutate, you know. It’s not going away anytime terribly soon. But hopefully the strand will keep weakening, and it won’t be as severe as the initial, we hope. So, we accept the fact that it’s here for a little bit.
DELLINGER: Yeah, okay.
PORTILLO: And we just plan to keep being cautious. And that’s what they keep telling us. They’re like, “It’s still here. Protect yourselves.”
DELLINGER: Uh-huh, okay. Well, I’ll tell you what, we’re down to our last two questions. And I’m actually going to flip these questions. I’m going to do them in reverse order than I would normally do them.
PORTILLO: [laughs] Okay.
DELLINGER: And so, I want to go ahead and ask you because I know we talked about you brought some notes with you, just some things that obviously were important to you that maybe you wanted to share here today. And so, [00:58:00] I’m going to give you the
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opportunity now if you would like to share anything else about your experiences with COVID-19.
PORTILLO: Oh, you know, it’s —it was interesting. You know you never—I never thought I’d live through a, or see a pandemic. And the things I’ve seen, you know, you can’t un-see it. And I don’t know, its life changing—very life changing—and it’s sad. Because like I say, I have known several people that passed from it. And like I said, they were my age. And I don’t know, like I said, it’s very sad. I feel for many of those people.
DELLINGER: Something just popped into my head.
PORTILLO: Uh-huh?
DELLINGER: Did you [00:59:00]—I mean, obviously you saw many, many patients pass away from COVID. Have you experienced coworkers who got ill with COVID and passed away?
PORTILLO: I did. None passed away. One of my coworkers, I think she’s like sixty. She was close to sixty and she got it. She wasn’t in bad health, but she got very ill on the first one. And she was gone from work probably about a good eight weeks. In fact, she’s called one of those long haulers?
DELLINGER: Mm, uh-huh.
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PORTILLO: She still has—it did a little bit of heart damage; it did some lung damage to her. And yeah, she’s going to have long-term effects from it.
DELLINGER: Yeah, and we didn’t even talk about that. That is another part of all of this, too.
PORTILLO: Yeah, and I heard I have another coworker that’s in her nurse practitioner clinicals. And she was just talking about [01:00:00] how they’re seeing so many lasting effects in children and other people from having COVID, like hearing damages. And I
mean, not only did they just have COVID, now they’ve got long-term effects from it. So, this is interesting what all’s happ—what all we’re going to see as a lasting result of it.
DELLINGER: Right and more people. Was that coworker able to come back to work then?
PORTILLO: Yeah, she’s back at work. But it took a long time for her to recover. But like I said—
DELLINGER: Right, so a lot of people with short-term and long-term disability.
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PORTILLO: Uh-huh, and she still has headaches, and this is a couple of years ago. She still has headaches, and sometimes she’ll have—she’ll say like a foggy memory is how she refers it to. So, it’s interesting.
DELLINGER: Yeah.
PORTILLO: I hate it for them. So, you know, technically they recover, but will they fully recover? Don’t know. May not. [01:01:00]
DELLINGER: Anything else?
PORTILLO: I don’t think so. [laughs]
DELLINGER: Okay, well you definitely have shared a lot here. So, for this last question, we’re thinking about future generations of Muscogee—and we’ll say other peoples, too— who may find themselves forced to engage with a global health and economic crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. And we just talked about how possibly COVID’s never even
going to go away. But what words of advice do you have for them about surviving and living with such a destructive illness and world event?
PORTILLO: Well, I think, for one, [01:02:00] one thing people didn’t do is I don’t think they—they didn’t take it serious enough. Like when they told people social distancing and all that was helpful, they didn’t. They still went to their events, and they still did
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whatever they wanted. And then they got sick. And some of them, it cost them their life because of it. You know, had they have just not gone to this activity or had stayed home [laughs] or something, they might still be alive, or they might not have got as sick. And like I said, a lot of people didn’t take it serious enough.
You know, and some people, they still as of now still won’t take a vaccine or whatever. I mean, I don’t see the harm in it. There’s all these conspiracy theories, but ultimately it’s their health. So, whatever they want to believe is, I guess, is their right. But, you know, [01:03:00] you should value your health. And like I said, you just ultimately have to value your health. You know, if a mask is going to save your life, don’t be too prideful. You know a lot of people are like, “Well, I don’t want to wear a mask. It’s against my right,” or whatever. And what does it matter if it’s going to save your life? So someone’s not going to see you smile. [laughs] You know? Like I said, I wear two masks; I breathe through eight layers. [laughs] It’s going to be fine. I don’t have any brain damage or anything from it. [laughs] And I don’t know, it’s—I can’t think of anything else.
DELLINGER: Okay. Well, Mrs. Portillo, again thank you so much for taking time out of your day off [Portillo laughs] to be here with me today and to do this very important and informative [01:04:00] interview. And I wish you continued health and wellbeing. And thank you for your service.
PORTILLO: Oh, thank you.
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END OF INTERVIEW
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