Nurse opens up about working at NYC field hospital
Field hospital opens in Central Park; nurse practitioner Shelly Kelly speaks out.
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The Samaritan's Purse charity is already treating 12 coronavirus patients just one day after opening its field hospital in New York City's Central Park, nurse practitioner Shelly Kelly told Bill Hemmer Reports" Thursday.
Kelly said the field hospital has been "filling up steadily through the evening last night and all day today" but will continue accepting patients until they reach its 68-bed capacity.
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The field hospital is located across 5th Avenue from Mount Sinai Hospital and is essential as the city battles with the heavy influx of coronavirus patients.
"I think we have come up with some creative ways outside of the box to meet this pandemic head-on here in New York," Oklahoma native Kelly said, "and I'm very impressed with the way people are continuing to get up every morning and go to work, the night shift comes in at night and does the very same thing over and over."
"Yes, we are tired. Yes, we are giving it 110 percent... but I think people are relieved to have the 68-bed hospital open."
"Yes, we are tired. Yes, we are giving it 110 percent every single day and every minute of every day -- but I think people are relieved to have the 68-bed hospital open and have some cushion at Mount Sinai," Kelly added.
Kelly emphasized that her team is taking the proper safety precautions in treating coronavirus patients and that they will continue to be "extremely vigilant."
"I certainly think I have a high level of concern in treating these patients because it puts us all at risk and ... we turn around without knowing, we are sick and possibly expose our coworkers right here in this field hospital," she said.
"We use PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] whether we are in the hot zone or the cold zone and we do a lot of hand washing and stay away from each other as far as we possibly can," Kelly added.
New York City currently has close to 52,000 cases of COVID-19 and many hospitals have surpassed bed capacities and are short on necessary medical supplies such as protective N95 masks for medical workers and ventilators for ailing patients. To date, close to 2,000 New Yorkers have died of the virus.
"I think they are overwhelmed but definitely holding their own at this point," Kelly said of the city's hospitals. "One of their physicians comes over every day and checks on us and gives us updates on how she's doing in her ICU unit at Mount Sinai as well as asking how we are doing here at the field hospital ... so we have a lot of cooperation [with] Mount Sinai to make sure these patients get the best quality of care."
Samaritan’s Purse, the nondenominational evangelical Christian organization, has been operating a similar facility in Cremona, Italy, and began taking patients two weeks ago.
Kelly is joined by 70 physicians, nurses and other medical professionals. It is her first time visiting New York City.
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"The support that we have had here is incredible," Kelly said, while acknowledging that her crew is facing a unique set of challenges.
"The challenges have been very interesting as well in getting this set up in Central Park. So I think everybody in Italy is praying for us and we are praying for them and just so very thankful that we have Mount Sinai in our backyard."
Fox News' Vandana Rambaran contributed to this report.
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