Yuma Regional Medical Center
By Jamie Landers | Arizona Republic
Exactly one month after Dr. Cleavon Gilman was asked not to return to work in the ER at Yuma Regional Medical Center, Corrigan Wright, an ICU nurse, worked her last shift at the hospital.
Corrigan Wright, an ICU nurse, pictured as she worked her last shift at the hospital./Courtesy photo
Except this time, the departure was on her terms.
“There were a lot of things management did that were shocking,” Wright, 35, told The Arizona Republic. “How they were treating nurses and frontline staff was bad — really bad. As we were treating patients and trying to combat the virus, we were noticing trends. We were bringing those trends up to management and it fell on deaf ears.”
The main trend that struck Wright stemmed from the COVID-19 outbreak at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Yuma where more than 1,400 inmates have tested positive, the largest prison outbreak in the state system.
In addition, more than 1,500 employees have self-reported contracting the virus since the pandemic began in March and employees at the Yuma prison have said they believe most of the staff had been infected. No official numbers are publicly available.
As inmates were coming into Yuma Regional for treatment, their accompanying prison guards joined them — without proper masks, Wright said.
