An NHS nurse forced to send her 10-year-old asthmatic son to live in the countryside to protect him from coronavirus said she feels like her heart has been ‘ripped out.’
Myka Alex, 31, sent her son Kade to live with his grandparents because she feared she could pass the deadly illness onto him, due to her job as a practice nurse at a GP surgery.
The mother-of-two, who also works as a nurse in a care home, took the heart-breaking decision to take Kade away from her home in Devon on Mother’s Day, after she realised she couldn’t promise him that her job wouldn’t put his life at risk.
NHS nurse Myka Alex, pictured, has taken the agonising decision to send her son Kade to live with her parents in Devon due to the coronavirus pandemic as he suffers from asthma
Ms Alex, pictured with her two children, Elodie, centre, and Kade, right, was forced to make the agonising choice because of her son’s medical condition
Ms Alex and her partner are both key workers. She is a nurse in a nursing home and he is employed in a pharmaceutical company
Ms Alex invoked the wartime spirit by sending her son to the country to stay with her parents.
At the start of the Second World War, some 1.5 million women and children were evacuated from cities such as London because of the threat posed by aerial bombardment.
Some NHS and other frontline workers have moved into tents or are staying in alternative locations in an effort to reduce the risk of passing on Covid-19 to their loved ones.
Telecoms engineer John Lendon, who works in Chelmsford but lives in Thornaby-on-Tees, is staying in the tent when he returns home to prevent a relative with asthma from contracting the disease.
Kade, who was diagnosed with asthma when he was three, is now staying with her paretnts in the North Devonshire countryside until the pandemic subsides while she, her partner Simon, 33, and their daughter, one, remain living at home.
Ms Alex said: ‘My son’s asthma is not the best controlled.
‘He has been hospitalised four times in his life because of it and has stayed in hospital for about three days at a time.
‘He was recently started on a new medication and he coughs constantly, even in his sleep.
‘A couple of days before the schools closed down he burst into tears and said ‘I’m going to die’.
I told him: ‘Don’t be silly. Coronavirus doesn’t harm young people.’
‘But every day there are more cases, and young people can die.
‘Last weekend I realised that I couldn’t promise him if he gets it he will survive, and I told him that he would have to go and live with granny and granddad.
‘It was a really hard thing to do and he started crying.
‘I was worried that it would seem like I am choosing one child over the other, because I have a daughter who hasn’t got asthma who is staying with me.
‘When I dropped him there with all his stuff like a little evacuee, I had to leave him crying.
‘I felt absolutely like my heart had been ripped out and I wished I hadn’t chosen to work in a job where I had to do this.
‘I had to pull into a lay-by and cry, and then the next day I had to go to work.’
Ms Alex, and her family, have been temporarily spilt up as a result of the coronavirus pandemic
Ms Alex made the half hour car journey to her parent’s village and dropped Kade off at their house on March 24, two days after her Mother’s Day revelation.
She is staying in touch with her son through video calls during the lockdown and has told him he will be there until the number of coronavirus cases in her area start reducing on the other side of the peak.
Ms Alex’s mother, an ex-teacher, is home-schooling him during the stay, with Ms Alex sending through what schoolwork she can when she is not working.
While she is not in direct contact with patients with coronavirus in her job, the risk remains that some patients may have the disease but aren’t yet showing symptoms.
She said: ‘You can ask all the safety questions to the patients that we see, but some people are still asymptomatic, or in the incubation period, or not entirely honest.
‘My job is a way of life: it’s not something that I can just hang up.
‘I felt like I was choosing my job over my son, but I know that my son is safe where he is.
Ms Alex said she talks to her son everyday over a video call to keep up Kade’s spirits
‘And if I can keep him safe, as well as help one hundred patients through carrying on working, it seems like a good compromise.
‘Both my workplaces have been very supportive and flexible during this strenuous time and my hours and shift times have been changed to fit around my family life.
‘We live in the town and my parents’ village is in the middle of nowhere.
‘We video call every day, but I think it’s really difficult for Kade.
‘I think he is hurt and worried and no doubt he’s worried that I might still get it.
‘My daughter is nearly two and her little job in the morning is to go into her brother’s room to wake him up, but now she goes in there now and he’s not there – I’m worried she’ll forget that’s what she used to do.
‘She video calls him with me, but it’s not the same as seeing her brother every day.
‘At the moment my parents are having a great time with him and my dad has always been a big kid himself, but weeks in they’re going to be exhausted. ‘
Kade and Elodie, pictured, will be keeping in contact over video link while the 10-year-old continues in isolation
Kade made this mother’s day gift for Ms Alex on the day he was sent to stay with her parents
Ms Alex and her partner and are both key workers. Her partner works in a in a pharmaceuticals factory, and are juggling parental responsibilities for their daughter during the lockdown.
She said: ‘My partner is more stoic than I am and says what we’re doing is for the best.
‘I’ve had family members offer to pay my rent for me so that I can be at home which I am so grateful for, but it’s not just about the monetary things.
‘I feel that as a healthcare worker I have a duty of care to work through this difficult time.
‘We were hoping to bring Kade back when they review the lockdown in just under three weeks, but looking at the number of cases it’s going to be longer than that now.
‘I can’t wait to run up the path to my parents’ house and have him with me again.
‘It’s going to get worse before it gets better. But it will get better.’
Chanice Cushion, who works at Southend Hospital in Essex, urged Britons to do all they can to minimise the spread of the virus as she shared her heartbreak at having to move away from her daughter, two.
She posted the clip on Facebook yesterday and said that she had made the decision with her partner to protect their daughter and her vulnerable mother-in-law, who has chronic asthma.
Describing how her daughter was ‘going about her day as normal’ as she packed to leave, Chanice welled up and explained how she told her ‘mummy’s going away for a little while’.
She said: ‘She’s a two-year-old, she doesn’t understand. I left home earlier, and I said ”mummy’s going away for a little while. Mummy’s got work.”
‘And she said, ”Mummy, I come”. I said ”no baby, you can’t. I said I’m going to Nanny’s house and Nanny’s going to stay here with you.”
‘So today’s my first day of 12 weeks away from my kid, and it’s very hard. So I said my goodbyes to her and, as a normal parent would do, started to cry.
‘She just looked at me and went ”Mummy, why are you sad”. I didn’t know how to answer it, so I just replied with ”Mummy is sad”.
‘She grabbed her sleeve and she was wiping my tears away with her sleeve and said ”don’t cry Mummy”.’
Paramedic Danny Hughes, from Newhaven, East Sussex, moved out of his family home and into a campervan to protect vulnerable members from exposure to coronavirus
Paramedic Danny Hughes, 28, from Newhaven, East Sussex says he deals with patients who have the virus every day and decided to isolate himself because several members of his family are vulnerable, including one who is pregnant.
He has moved out of his family home and into a campervan for the duration of the crisis.
However, according to the Brighton Argus, Mr Hughes has now developed coronovirus symptoms.