ROCKLEDGE, Fla. – Fifteen nurses from Rockledge Regional Medical Center traveled to Massachusetts late last week to help handle the state’s surge of coronavirus patients.
Kristine Smith and Solly Salzwedel both work as registered nurses at Rockledge Regional Medical Center and volunteered to work at Morton Hospital, where they are handling coronavirus cases exclusively.
“What I’m seeing up north here is a lot of very sick people,” Smith said. “They are quite ill. We don’t have that influx quite yet. We’ve been lucky so far in our area in Brevard County.”
"I have not seen such a large number of very sick patients with nurses and doctors just struggling, using all their resources to try to make people better," Salzwedel added.
Morton Hospital is located in Taunton, a suburb of Boston. Both Morton Hospital and Rockledge Regional Medical Center are owned by Steward Health Care.
The two were part of a team that arrived on Friday, to a standing ovation from existing staff members.
Florida Nurses greeted arriving at Boston HospitalThis is how a group of Brevard County nurses were greeted when they arrived in Massachusetts, volunteering to help with a surge of coronavirus cases in the area. Rockledge Regional Medical Center Morton Hospital
Posted by Clay LePard News 6 on Tuesday, April 14, 2020
As of Tuesday afternoon, Brevard County had 156 positive COVID-19 cases.
Andy Romine is the president of Rockledge Regional Medical Center.
"While we have seen COVID patients here in Brevard County, we have not seen them to the extent they're seeing up in Boston," he said. "If and when we do see a surge down here in Brevard, not only can we bring those nurses back, we'll have the benefit of receiving nurses form the other part of the country as well."
Salzwedel described working at Morton Hospital unlike anything she has seen in her career.
"When you see it on television, it doesn't have the same impact on a human being as when you're in the thick of it and you're seeing how incredibly ill these patients are," she said. "They're young. A lot of them are not old."
For Smith and Salzwedel, they say they're motivated to help as long as they can.
"That's what keeps me going: seeing patients walk out the door," Salzwedel said.
“This is really why we became nurses,” Smith added. “To help people in their time of need, this is why we’re here. We’ll keep going as long as we need to keep going.”
Romine told News 6 it's not clear how long the nurses will stay in Massachusetts.
“Initially we’re thinking 2 to 4 weeks but this is such a dynamic situation up in Boston and down here as well,” Romine said.
While they are stationed more than a thousand miles away, the nurses have simple advice for people in Central Florida.
“Stay home and don’t get this disease if you don’t have to,” Smith said. “Stay home. Be smart. Wash your hands very often. Don’t go out until you have to go out. I just can’t stress stay home enough. This is a nasty bug.”
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