Texas Woman's University grads Courtney Waddle and Maybelle Anderson are among those registered nurses who have flooded into New York City to try to help fight COVID-19.
They had steady jobs at Lone Star Endoscopy in Flower Mound before Texas regulations shut down all elective procedures due to coronavirus.
"Hanging out at the house, I was bored," says Waddle. "You saw it all over the news, they needed help up here (in NYC), so me and a group of girls from work decided to come."
What hit her first was the stark silence of New York City. Nothing open. Streets empty. Silent.
Then she started her 21-day assignment at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. COVID-19 was at its peak, and the patient to nurse ratio was 16 to 1. Nurses normally take care of only a couple of critically ill patients per shift.
Waddle felt so-called to NYC that once her first 21-day contract was over, she decided to stay two more weeks. At first, she worked 21 straight 12 hour shifts, which turned into 14 hour days factoring the commute to and from her hotel.
She's tired. But healthy. And the one thing she's truly felt is appreciated.