VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — 13News Now has an update on Darla Grese. We brought you her story at the beginning of April.
She quit her job as a respiratory therapist at Sentara Norfolk General to head to New York City. She’s been in the Big Apple for the past two weeks.
She’s currently working at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn. Grese said she felt called to the front lines of this battle. She said seeing all the devastation in New York City sparked a calling within her to head to the epicenter of the pandemic in our nation. She has always answered the call to serve. She spent six years in the military and now her job is to help people breathe.
She told Reporter Ali Weatherton that she has only had two days off from work since April 10 because the need for respiratory therapists is crucial.
“I prepared for the worst-case scenario. It’s actually pretty close to what I’ve envisioned," Grese said. "When you walk in the emergency room, it’s full. You have alarms going off and nurses running around.”
Grese is working 12-hour-shifts. She says the word busy is an understatement.
“We are doubling up in patients' rooms and we are doubling up in the ER,” she said. “One bay that should be for one patient is actually for two now. In areas in the hospital that aren’t supposed to be for patients have become patients' rooms,” she explained.
Grese said most of the hospital workers there now are from different areas of the country, like herself. They are there to keep people with COVID-19 alive.
“I’m not one to pat myself on the back but I feel really proud of myself that I am coming here and that I’m able to do this. It’s scary so I am feeling very proud. I’m tired, but I expected that," Grese explained.
She is exhausted and says she’s missing her wife and son. She has a least a month to go on the front lines before she can reunite with her loved ones.
“Keep me in your prayers and stay safe and stay home,” she said.
Grese adds that if people want to send letters addressed to the nurses, doctors and other staff, she will make sure to pass them along. Her email address is mrsgrese757@gmail.com.