Katherine Lockler, Nurse in Florida, Really Bugged by Flu

Katherine Lockler is nurse in Florida who, frustrated after an exhausting 12-hour shift, decided to post a video to social media in which she ranted about the flu season and offered up some hospital horror stories.

That was last weekend and the video has since gone viral, racking up over 5.2 million views.

So what got the Milton nurse so riled up?

Carelessness seemed to be her pet peeve when it came to the flu.

“If a team member of a softball team is sick or injured, you do not bring the entire softball team in to check on them because guess what? You just got maybe 15 new vectors, or carriers of the flu, by them just walking in,” she said, per The Miami Herald.

Lockler said there was “a cesspool of funky flu at the ER right now,” and pleaded with coaches to refrain from bringing their teams to the hospital, as well as for parents to avoid bringing their newborn babies and healthy children to the emergency room.

“And if you don’t have what I call a true emergency, this would not be a time to come to the emergency room.”

Lockler noted that there were “25 to 30 patients sitting for hours in the emergency room waiting room,” some of which were not even medical emergencies.

“They’re waiting along with the flu right next to them so guess what? Five flus came in, 15 flus walk out. It’s great,” she said, per Fox News.

Lockler spoke to WKRG on Thursday about the video, saying she was “frustrated and wanted to share my thoughts and my thoughts weren’t out of anger but frustration that people will get the flu unnecessarily.”

She added that some people might have been offended but at the end of the day the video had gone viral and successfully delivered some valuable information to people.

Meanwhile, it’s reported that Lockler has been reported to the Board of Registered Nursing and her hospital for the video, according to Nurse.org, but an online petition in support of the nurse has been launched and has already gained over 3,300 supporters.