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A donated RV could keep this physician assistant’s mother safe while fighting coronavirus

Thanks to a nationwide program called RVs4MDs, nearly 1,200 medical professionals have been given RVs as temporary homes so they can avoid exposing their families to the coronavirus.

General Manager Dave Masarik (left) and Riticia Augusty, a physician's assistant at a Bronx hospital, observe social distancing as they say goodbye. Augusty was about to drive the 32’ Freedom Elite motorhome, on loan free of charge from the Philadelphia South Clarksboro KOA Campground in South Jersey, back to her home on Staten Island. The campground, along with several other KOAs across the country, has partnered with RVs4MDs, which provides free housing for medical personnel amid the coronavirus crisis. Select KOA campgrounds throughout North America will be offering free RV use for doctors, nurses and other medical staff who are looking for alternate accommodations to avoid exposing their families
General Manager Dave Masarik (left) and Riticia Augusty, a physician's assistant at a Bronx hospital, observe social distancing as they say goodbye. Augusty was about to drive the 32’ Freedom Elite motorhome, on loan free of charge from the Philadelphia South Clarksboro KOA Campground in South Jersey, back to her home on Staten Island. The campground, along with several other KOAs across the country, has partnered with RVs4MDs, which provides free housing for medical personnel amid the coronavirus crisis. Select KOA campgrounds throughout North America will be offering free RV use for doctors, nurses and other medical staff who are looking for alternate accommodations to avoid exposing their familiesRead moreELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer
    by Jason Nark
    Published 

Fresh off a 24-hour shift at a busy Bronx hospital, Riticia Augusty took a road trip to a quiet campground in sleepy South Jersey. Augusty wasn’t planning to relax and light a bonfire. She needed reinforcement in the battle against the coronavirus back home in New York.

That’s why the 39-year-old physician’s assistant from Staten Island was driving a recreational vehicle as big as a school bus, learning what wide turns really meant. The RV was 32 feet long, and she’d never driven one before. Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” played on the radio.

“OK, OK. I got this,” she said, both hands on the wheel. “I think I got this.”

Dave Masarik, manager of the Philadelphia South/Clarksboro KOA in Gloucester County, sat in the passenger seat, giving Augusty pointers.

“If you hit the turn signal, a camera comes on,” he told her.

Augusty is one of approximately 1,140 medical professionals who’ve been given RVs to sleep and live in during the pandemic through a group called RVs4MDs. It sprouted up when medical professionals were looking for ways to stay close to their families without passing along the coronavirus, and RV owners stepped up to donate.

“This is happening in every single state now,” said LaRayne Quale, a North Carolina resident and director of partnerships for the group, seeking out companies and campgrounds to join the cause.

Masarik said Augusty’s RV would normally be rented out to a customer. Hers was the second one he lent to a medical professional so far. She’ll be keeping it until at least July.

“It feels good to be able to help out,” he said.

Quale’s husband, an ER physician, lives in an RV outside the family’s home. Earlier this month, a nurse told The Inquirer she was living in “Bess" — a 24-foot RV donated through the program — in her Cherry Hill driveway.

Augusty didn’t have a name for the RV yet but was certain it would be the only vehicle in Staten Island with Montana license plates.

She works in internal medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, three 24-hour shifts a week. She wore two masks, one atop the other.

“It’s been so hard,” she said. “Not only the influx of patients, but our colleagues are getting sick, too, so we’re very short on people who are able to work. It’s a lot scarier than people think. It’s so easily transmitted."

Augusty said her hospital put her up in a hotel in Yonkers but only for two weeks. She requested the RV because she lives with her mother, a retired nurse, who is 74 and has several health issues. “If she gets it from me, her outcome of survival is very low,” Augusty said. “I can’t do that to my mom.”

She sent RVs4MDs a message about her situation after hearing about the group on the radio. She plans to park the RV in her driveway.

Masarik gave Augusty a crash course in camping life. She learned where the propane plugs in, how the power generator works, and the magical button — “oh my gosh, that’s so cool” — that makes the sides of the RV’s living space expand outward like a transformer. She already knew that “gray water” was from the sinks and shower. The black water was the toilet, and someday it would have to be emptied.

“Wait, it really takes special toilet paper?” she asked.

The biggest concern with any RV, Masarik said, is its rear end.

“They have big butts,” he said.

Augusty’s sister, a nurse still in her scrubs, accompanied her on the road trip and would follow the RV on the way back. She said she wasn’t permitted to speak to the media by her employer. She stood back, though, laughing at Augusty’s crash course in camping life.

“That’s all you," she said of the black water hose. “I’m not touching that.

Before Augusty shoved off and pointed the RV north, Masarik grabbed something out of his office: a four-pack of single-ply toilet paper.

“Honestly, you’re a godsend,” she told him. “I know it’s a little nerve-racking because you’re lending something to me and I’m a stranger to you. You don’t know me and I’m borrowing something of yours that is costly. I will take care of your baby.”

After miming a handshake with Masarik, Augusty took the wheel and hung a wide right, back toward the war.