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Daughter of late PBA veteran Ric-Ric Marata finds herself in COVID-19 frontlines in US

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Rick Olivares

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/life/05/20/20200212-janika-marata.jpg"/><figcaption>For New York City nurse Janika Marata, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been like trudging to the frontlines of a war zone. Handout</figcaption></figure></div>For Janika Marata, the youngest child of the late PBA star Ric-Ric Marata, every day — at least since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — has been like trudging to the frontlines of a war zone.Ric-Ric Marata played eight years in the PBA before hanging up his high tops. Before he embarked on his PBA stint, he was one of the first Filipinos to play abroad. He was recruited by the Vancouver Nighthawks after a strong showing in an invitational tournament with Swift in the now defunct Philippine Amateur Basketball League, where the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds participated. Marata’s Canadian stint lasted only a few months as he learned his then girlfriend and eventual wife, Chatt, was pregnant with their first child, RJ. The couple had a second boy, Nikko, before they had Janika. All three Marata children reside in the United States.The job of treating the sick finds Janika feeling afraid every time she steps out of her door and frustrated when infirmed patients’ conditions go south. And yet, like many other frontliners across continental USA, they are committed in their mission to save lives.“I am working as an operating-room nurse in a private hospital in New York City,” says Janika, 26. “I am working in a city that is an epicenter of this virus. (It) has been such a physically grueling and emotionally exhausting experience.”“Our roles and policies change almost on a daily basis, as we learn more and more about the virus. Staff are being redeployed to different parts of the hospital, and specialized areas such as operating and recovery rooms are being turned in Covid intensive care units due to patient overflow,” she adds. Janika could have chosen a cushy job after graduating cum laude at College of Mount Saint Vincent. But her mother, a nurse, and her late father’s illness that led to his passing inspired Janika to become a nurse. “My mom would come home and tell stories of the patients she was treating. It was also hard for her, but she wasn’t complaining,” she says. “It was just all part of the job. And how she faced it also inspired me to become a nurse,” Janika recounts. “And being unable to help my dad . . . That also spurred me on.”At one point, Janika realized that she was working in the same unit where her father was confined. “I didn’t realize right away, but I had to pause for a moment,” she says of the memory.Memories of their day-to-day jobs, have to be fleeting. “Sometimes I feel like I am in auto pilot, but you have to. If you get bogged down thinking of the patients who are dying, then you become affected. You cannot have to attend to the next one,” Janika says.“People are dying or deteriorating and as horrible as it sounds, you have to not only do something, but also move on for the next person’s sake.“At the start of the huge wave of infections, we were like the blind leading the blind because no one knew how to treat the virus as it is something new. “No one still knows, but we are getting a better grip of it.”When patients do recover, the hospital staff plays the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” to send them off. New York City has been the worst hit in the US, let alone in the world. As of May 20, there were 353,000 confirmed cases with 61,681 recoveries, and 22,843 deaths. That is more than double the next hardest hit state, neighboring New Jersey. When the conditions were really bad, Janika worked 12-hour shifts. Now they have gone back to eight hours. “We are slowly getting back to doing elective surgeries as they were cancelled for almost two months,” she says.This has afforded her time to prepare physically and mentally for the job at hand. “I usually work out to get the endorphins running and to release some of the stress,” she says. “Or I call up my mom (who is working as a nurse in Las Vegas).”Janika relates this routine in New York where every day, people across the city clap and cheer the healthcare workers at exactly 7 p.m. “You don’t know how much this means,” she says.While the conditions are getting better, people haven’t let their guard down. They are also bracing themselves for a possible second wave. “I am hoping there is none, but just the same, I and everyone else here will approach it the same way we do every day,” Janika says.“We will try to save as many people’ lives, and that is something you realize more than ever during this pandemic. Life is precious.”For more sports coverage, visit the <a href="https://sports.abs-cbn.com/">ABS-CBN Sports website</a>.

For New York City nurse Janika Marata, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been like trudging to the frontlines of a war zone.

For New York City nurse Janika Marata, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been like trudging to the frontlines of a war zone.