Wonder Woman, Superman, the Flash! Characters like those have superpowers and save people, but they are limited by fiction. Nurses are real people doing superhuman achievements every day, often with little recognition. To pay homage to the most trusted profession, Allegheny Health Network (AHN) in Pittsburgh, PA, partnered with Marvel to produce a comic book worthy of real heroes. The Vitals: True Nurse Stories (2020), includes three stories based on personal accounts from the children of nurses on the front lines of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The first story follows a nurse who shaves her head to eliminate one more distraction in getting ready for work. The second story takes place on a COVID-19–wing, where nurses work together to revive a dying patient. The third story is from a patient’s perspective as he thanks a nurse for letting him video chat with his family. “I’m just doing my job,” the nurse replies.
AHN also published heartwarming videos of nurses’ children celebrating their parents and the work they do. AHN and Marvel dedicated the comic book campaign to nurses who prove that “superheroes are anything but fiction.