SAN ANTONIO – Nurses from across the country are in New York to help overwhelmed hospitals treating COVID-19 patients, including Natasha Gonzales from San Antonio.
“I think of just hugging my family, my mom, my husband, my babies, my friends, and just getting through this and knowing that I did the best that I could,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales has been in New York since April 13.
“It’s definitely one of the hardest, most challenging times I’ve ever had in my career, definitely, but in my life,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales said she’s helped so many COVID-19 patients that she’s lost count.
“I just know I’m taking care of them every day,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales said all her patients are adults.
“A lot of us are seeing people that, I mean, they have minutes left,” Gonzales said.
She said some families do not even get to say goodbye to their loved ones.
“I think that’s happening so often because they don’t want to chance, you know, other family members getting it,” Gonzales said.
She said she is not sure when she will return home, but she will have to quarantine for two weeks when she comes back.
“The misconception of ‘it only happens to older people or only happens to immunocompromised people’ is not true. And then people not wanting to wear masks, like, it’s so important,” Gonzales said.
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March. The first case confirmed in the U.S. was in mid-January and the first case confirmed in San Antonio was in mid-February.
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