Angelique Padro entered medical school to make a difference. Not just for herself but for the Tampa Bay community who had supported her as the performer Lady Janet for more than 10 years.
She had always seen helping others as the most rewarding aspect of taking the stage, from volunteering for fundraisers to helping others forget their troubles one song at a time. It informed her new career in unexpected ways – and while she still entertains, she now finds herself in scrubs more often than she does in the spotlight.
“I went on the journey of going to school because I wanted a better quality of life, but most of all because I wanted to inspire my other trans sisters,” Padro explains. “To let them know that we are capable of fulfilling any job in any industry.”
After graduating with top honors, Padro completed her clinical training with BayCare, learning hands-on skills directly from Tampa Bay’s leading not-for-profit health care system until she was subsequently hired full time.
She fully expected to love her new field, but didn’t expect to enter it at the height of a pandemic. “It’s very challenging,” she says. “I literally got out of school to start dealing with COVID-19, to something so major – people are really, really sick and we have a lot of testing for the coronavirus. It’s very scary.”
In part, that’s because personal protective equipment (PPE) has been greatly diminished. “Before COVID-19 you could find masks on every door in every room,” she says of her hospital. “People started taking them and even me, working there, I have to sign paperwork to get masks.”
Padro is responsible for working directly with patients and other medical professionals on numerous tasks. They’re completed in 12-hour shifts three days per week, beginning each morning at 6:45 a.m.
She works additional days when able and longer hours when necessary – noting that rest is critical to protect herself and those she’s helping – but fears that rest could soon become a luxury. “It’s do or die and it seems like a lot of people haven’t realized that yet,” she says. “People want to reopen places,” she continues, “but what happens when this gets worse? People that work in the health care field are not machines.”
That’s evident in her empathy. Padro uses it earnestly to reflect on the front lines of the pandemic.
“It breaks my heart that people are dying alone,” she says. “When my mother died I could hold her hand, I could speak to her; families can’t do that with these patients.” It’s her hope that the general public considers health care workers when making decisions about social distancing. “You need to stay home. Hospitals could become overrun and there will not be enough resources to save people,” she says. “It’s going to be choosing which person is going to live and which person’s going to die. I’m really scared, I’m not going to lie.”
Padro asserts that she fully understands and accepts the risks, however serious they become. “If one of our patients gets it, there is the possibility that I will be contaminated,” she explains. “But this is what I signed up for, it’s what I love to do. That’s my duty.”
Read about other LGBTQ workers in Tampa Bay and Central Florida who are making a difference in Watermark’s full “Essential Heroes” feature.
For the latest updates about COVID-19 and its impact on the LGBTQ communities in Tampa Bay and Central Florida, Watermark’s frequently updated coverage here.
