Skip to main content
Tuesday, November 10, 2026Nov 10

Cook: Atlas, in scrubs, no shrugs

atlas-in-scrubs-no-shrugs
atlas-in-scrubs-no-shrugs atlas-in-scrubs-no-shrugs
photo Justin Barrows, Alonzo Blackwell, Brandon Lawrence and Colton Duncan, from left, members of Erlanger’s “lift team,” move patient Monica O’Connell from her bed to a chair. O’Connell recently suffered multiple hip fractures in an automobile accident.
photo David Cook

Pretend you’re a nurse at Erlanger.

A teeny-tiny, size 2 nurse. The heart of Florence, but the body of a nightingale.

And your patient weighs 450 pounds. And you need him to get from his hospital bed to the chair.

How do you move him?

Or say there’s a 6’8″ man who’s broken one leg, fractured two arms and cracked his neck. Guy weighs 300. And he’s detoxing, which makes him full of spit and vinegar, ready to fight?