US doctor moves back home after a year of camper living due to Covid

Missouri based doctor Tiffany Osborn moved back in with her husband and two children in St Louis, Missouri after a year of living in an camper and caring for Covid-19 patients at a hospital.  Her return to family was possible because of Covid-19 vaccine. 

Dr Osborn is a professor of surgery and emergency medicine at Washington University and she works in the ICU at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, reports the CNN.

According to Osborn, she moved into the camper in their driveway in March 2020 to keep Covid-19 out of their home. The family would visit with Osborn at a distance outside.

"We just want to say we're very appreciative and we feel very blessed that I am back home with my family," Osborn said during an interview to CNN.

"We also would feel remiss if we did not recognize the fact that many people did not make it home to theirs. We just want them to know that we are thinking about them."

"I wasn't thinking I was going to be in (the camper) for a year -- that's for sure," Osborn said.

Getting vaccinated, seeing a decline in Covid-19 cases in their community and continuing to wear personal protective equipment at work made Osborn feel comfortable enough to move back into the house in February.

"When I come home, I still leave my shoes in the garage. I have an area where disrobe, I wear a robe and take a shower," she said.

"We felt like the combination of the vaccine, plus continuing to take precautions, that this risk to my family would be low."

After six weeks of staying in the camper, Osborn started scheduling her time in the ICU and the emergency department together, so she could have free time afterward, she said.

"I would work straight through, take a few days, take a test, and then whatever was left the remainder of the month, I would be back" to visit with family, Osborn said.

Whenever Osborn left work, she would sanitise and clean up before coming outside to sit on the steps of the camper and speak with her family. 

The Osborn family was planning a home extension, but they put that money toward purchasing the camper that Osborn was staying in. She said she felt lucky that they had money saved up to be able to do this.

Osborn's two children, Ashley, 19, and David, 15, said it was an adjustment not to have their mother at home.

"It was really hard because my mom was gone, and I had to sort of step up, and I took on her roles around the house," Ashley Osborn said during an interview.

"I have to be honest; I did not realize how much she did until she left."

Dr Osborn credits her husband for helping her get through the moments when she wanted to give up.

"It was definitely challenging, and, luckily, I had my husband who kept me on the straight and narrow with that as well,"she said. 

Her husband, Jeff, said he supported his wife's camper idea and that the family was fortunate to be able to have this option.

"Having deployed with the military, I sort of saw this as her deployment to be on the front lines to fight Covid," Jeff Osborn told during an interview to CNN.

"I'm really proud of what she's been able to do. And I felt my job was to make sure she was fully successful to help as many people as she could."