LUBBOCK, Texas — As New York City’s Coronavirus death toll nears 14,000, we’ve seen stories of nurses and healthcare workers coming from around the country to help at hospitals.
Alyssa Springfield graduated from Texas Tech University, and was working as a nurse in Fort Worth when she said she felt called to fly to New York City to work at a hospital in Brooklyn.
Springfield is staying at a hotel in Times Square, and said the streets that are normally packed, have gone quiet.
“There’s nobody around,” Springfield said. “And you definitely don’t want to be walking around in scrubs because people are scared to be around you.”
Springfield said at her hospital, they’re short on personal protective equipment, so they’ve had to get creative and wear white painter’s suites. She said they have also converted a pediatric floor into a makeshift ICU.
“We’re having to use transport ventilators which are normally used for like 15 minutes at a time,” Springfield said. “It’s more like days and weeks on end.”
As many hospitals no longer allow visitors, Springfield said she’s doing everything she can to make her patients feel comfortable, and let them know that they’re not alone.
“We’re facetiming families as much as we can,” Springfield said. “Just depending on how critical the patient is, if they’re even awake enough to be able to facetime.”
While some states start to relax restrictions, Springfield said we still need to continue to social distance and wear masks, because there is no cure for COVID-19.
“I personally think it will be worse in the winter,” Springfield said. “I think it might flatten out over the summer a little hopefully but I definitely think it’s going to be worse in the winter and we will see a second wave unless there’s a vaccine created.”
