WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Overcoming COVID-19 is a fight and since her time in Brooklyn, Shonna Alexander has only seen one person beat it.
"They play the Rocky theme song music over the intercom for the entire hospital and since I’ve been here I’ve heard the song one time," she said.
She left her home in Winston-Salem two weeks ago.
"New York is the epicenter in the actual hospital I’m at, which is Maimonides Memorial Hospital in Brooklyn, is the 'Ground Zero,'" she said. "They’ve had the most cases in the neighborhood that surrounds that hospital -- the most cases in the entire country."
When she spoke to the Four 2 Five's Maddie Gardner, she had just completed a 13-hour overnight shift taking care of four COVID-19-positive patients.
"All of them had tracheostomy that were connected to ventilators and none of them were really conscious but they were active so we have to medicate them to keep them calm."
Alexander comes face-to-face with the deadly reality of COVID-19 every day. Last night, two people with the virus on her floor died. The personal protective equipment she wears is the only thing standing between her and the germs that could get her sick.
"The only time I take my mask off when I’m at the hospital is when I’m eating and that’s like 20 to 30 minutes in the middle of the night," she said.
Understandably, fighting on the frontline has taken a toll on Alexander.
"I never get emotional. I’m pretty even keel but I think because of how bleak it is when I’m at the hospital, I think probably for the past week I’ve just been a basketcase of tears."
Which is why this video of her opening a package from a friend, that she posted on her Facebook, was uncharacteristic.
"When I was finally able to open it this was what was inside," Alexander said on the video before revealing three cans of Lysol and two bottles of sanitizing wipes.
"These items, this Lysol, these wipes will probably save my life," she said through tears.
PPE and disinfectant help keep Alexander safe so she can victoriously return to the Triad, gloves held high, to her husband and her daughter. Until then, she’ll stay in the fight.
Alexander is supposed to return home on May 8th. She said she is seeing a slight improvement where she is and the hospital she's working at closed some of their COVID-19 units.