A retired nurse from Missoula is putting her scrubs back on to help in the battle against COVID-19, but she’s doing it in the middle of the 'hot zone'.
Kim Yarrow worked as a nurse for 20 years before retiring to start her own business.
But as the pandemic was unfolding, she signed on to be a traveling nurse and was quickly assigned to a hospital in Suffolk County, Long Island. She leaves tomorrow Saturday.
“I absolutely think that anyone in nursing feels a sense of calling and I was in a position where I can help and every fiber of my being wouldn’t let me not help if I had the skills and the background and the time to do so," said RN Kim Yarrow.
New York state now has more COVID-19 cases than any single country outside of the United states. Kim told MTN News she knows the numbers and she knows the risk.
"I think that I am realistic that that is defiantly a possibility," said Yarrow. "I am coming equipped with as much as my own PPE as I can and I will take every measure that I can do but beyond that I am no different than anyone else in it so I just have to do my best and take all the measures and expect the worst and. Hope for the best.”
Kim will be there for eight weeks. She’s received donations of PPE gear from friends to take with her. On Monday, New York City's mayor said the city will need an additional 45,000 medical personnel to fight the pandemic sweeping across the city.
