LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville nurse in New York City is working every day to save those infected with COVID-19. She's no stranger to helping others, having saved a man on an airplane last Spring.
Stacy Lowe was a surgical nurse at Norton Audubon Hospital. But with the decrease in elective surgeries amid the coronavirus pandemic, she and several other nurses decided to fly to New York where they could work to help others.
A grueling 80-hour work week is something that is not only physically exhausting, but also mentally tough on Lowe.
“We work 21 days straight, 12-hours per day so you really just eat and sleep,” Lowe told WDRB News from her Times Square hotel room.
Her hotel has been transformed into a makeshift hospital for those in a 14-day quarantine while recovering from COVID-19.
“It was very emotional for me to be here just to see the New York City that we don’t know. It was very ... there was nobody outside,” Lowe said.
WDRB first spoke to Lowe in January when she received the Norton Good Samaritan Award after helping to save a man on a flight she was on who was having a stroke.
“It fills a big void in my heart to be able to help others,” said Lowe.
Even while hundreds of miles away in New York, Lowe is feeling the support from healthcare workers in Louisville in the form of flowers and sticky notes of encouragement.
Once her time is done in New York, she and the other Norton nurses can reapply for their positions back at area hospitals in Louisville – but in the meantime, she is focused on those who need her the most.
“It’s got to get better,” Lowe said. “We have to be able to visit and hug our family and friends again. Soon.”
While Lowe can come back to Louisville in a week, she thinks she’ll sign up for another 21 days in NYC to give them some much needed help.
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