Episode 1: Patients on ventilators. Hotel instead of home. COVID comes to Jackson South.
READ MORE
Inside the COVID Unit: Battling the Coronavirus Pandemic in Miami
A five-part documentary series that documents what happened beyond the swinging doors of the COVID-19 unit at Jackson South, as Miami emerged as a national hot spot for infection.
Expand All
Episode 1: The Front Line
A small, close-knit community hospital in Miami-Dade County begins to grapple with COVID-19 amid the global pandemic.
Dr. Andrew Pastewski, ICU medical director at Jackson South Medical Center, worries that he might have caught the novel coronavirus as he struggles to get patients off ventilators. Julio Valido, a registered nurse in the ICU unit, is living in a hotel near the hospital after deciding he can’t safely stay in his home and potentially expose his wife and three children to the deadly disease with no cure.
Episode 1 of Inside the COVID Unit explores the sacrifices of front-line workers Andrew and Julio, as they fight to save those struck by the virus, including a father and son who became critically ill within days of each other.
This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 11:19 AM.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHow a Miami ICU’s war on COVID was caught on video
Inside the COVID Unit: Battling the Coronavirus Pandemic in Miami, a five-part Miami Herald/McClatchy documentary, tells the remarkable stories of front-line healthcare workers, their patients and their families in one small public hospital as the coronavirus pandemic hit Florida in 2020.
Granted extraordinary access at Jackson South Medical Center in Miami-Dade County, the Miami Herald and McClatchy documented the hopes and heartbreak of those deep inside the battle against a new and deadly disease. The series, filmed with the help of doctors and nurses working in the Jackson South COVID unit, shows viewers what went on past the swinging doors of the ICU in the months after COVID-19 forced hospitals to close to visitors. Read more about how Inside the COVID Unit was produced.
