Houston nurses share experience going to New York to help battle COVID-19
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Nurses are on the frontlines in the battle against COVID-19, and when called to help, one of the two local nurses who traveled to New York City to help at the height of the outbreak caught the virus.
"It's so quiet in the hospital. The first two weeks all I hear was intubation, codes here, respiratory therapist here," said Shanedra Davis, a transplant nurse at Houston Methodist.
Davis said this was one of the calmer days in New York City.
When she first arrived on March 30, it was filled with patients.
"Most of them were coding, others were in respiratory distress," said Davis.
Days later, fellow Houston Methodist nurse Tamiracle Adams arrived.
"On one token, I felt like this is what I need to do but, on the other token I was like 'Am I being selfish? Is something going to happen to me? And I leave my son and I leave my husband,' I was really conflicted going," said Adams.
Both mothers were going into a world that was bombarded, but they weren't just there for the patients. They were there for their fellow nurses.
As times got tough, they had each other.
Davis turned the rosary she kept over her bed, and soon things improved.
"You could tell the switch in what was going on. People weren't' coming in on death's doorstep," said Davis.
After three weeks, they headed back to Houston.
Once home, Adams tested positive for COVID-19. She had no symptoms, and she was able to return from quarantine to her son on Mother's Day.
"That was my Mother's Day gift from my 3-year-old," said Adams.
Davis returned to her son, too.
They're both back at work at Houston Methodist, from a journey they said they'd do all over again.
"This is probably the most rewarding thing out of my entire my career," said Davis. One hundred percent, 100 times over I would do the same thing."
