KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An Ottawa, Kansas, nurse is lending a hand in New York due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stacie Kelly took her skills as a nurse practitioner from her metro home to New York eight days ago.
“They’re long. Days turn into nights, but it’s a totally different world here," Kelly said.
Intending on a three-week stay, Kelly told 41 Action News that six weeks is more likely.
“I feel like I was put here for a reason and I need to be here," she said.
Stacie's husband, Mark, and four children, Sullivan, 10, Delaynie, 8, McClain, 6, and Camryn, 4, are all back home in Gardner missing her.
“You know, we obviously, we worry about her," Mark Kelly said, "but I know that she’s doing what she’s meant to do. She was built for this."
Working nearly 16 hour days doing office work and filling shifts at different New York area hospitals, Stacie said nurses there are doing what they can.
“I wish everybody could see how it is here," Stacie Kelly said. "It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen, and we don’t want that back home, we don’t."
Back at home without their loved one, Mark and the four children said they are taking it all one day at a time.
“If mom calls, it’s all hands on deck," Mark Kelly said. "I try to run around and get everyone on FaceTime as fast as I can."
But the Kellys aren't the only family currently separated.
“We’re just such a small piece of that," Mark Kelly said, "but there’s just hundreds of thousands of people around this country doing this and going through this trying to help fight this. So I hope that this attention that we’re getting helps represent all those people that are going through this."
When Stacie Kelly returns home, she will have to quarantine away from her family. For now, it's quick FaceTime calls and virtual hugs and kisses.
