WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Registered nurse Alan Grizzard returned home to Winston-Salem after a three-week deployment - doing whatever he could to help in a New York City emergency room.
He says it's hard to find words to describe the overwhelming experience.
"It was life-changing," Grizzard said Monday.
When he first got to New York City, to a hospital in the Bronx, he says it felt surreal - out of a movie.
"It went from being surreal and completely overwhelming to okay, this is the reality we’re living in right now. Here are the steps we have to take to deal with it and manage it," he said, "It's a lot of death and despair. A lot of chaos. A lot of people with their hands up in the air, still trying to figure out how to navigate it, how to negotiate with the sheer volume of patients and the severity of patients that were there."
As the days went on, he and his fellow healthcare workers found ways to manage and hold each other up, despite the tragic scene unfolding around them.
"I would sit past the end of my shift...holding peoples' hands so they didn't have to die alone."
Little signs of hope helped the Winston-Salem man get through each shift.
"We started hearing music over the loudspeaker in the hospital," he said, "They would play 'Fight Song.' One day, it was like eight or nine times, it was like every 20 or 30 minutes, they’ll play Fight Song over the radio and I thought this is a great motivator
"I learned that they played 'Fight Song' every time someone was extubated - every time they could take a breathing tube out if somebody because they got that much better."
Outside of the hospital, Grizzard says he felt that support, and appreciation from those staying home - cheering from balconies. He says, he and many other nurses he worked with got cards with encouraging messages written inside.
"We kept telling ourselves - it's not forever, it's not forever," he said, "Every day we plug away is a day closer to resolution."
After three long weeks, Grizzard was welcomed home by family, friends, and neighbors - who drove by his home with similar messages of support.
"Ths is why we do it," he said, "Because we have to take care of each other and we have to take care of the human race. When you've got people behind you cheering you on like that and rooting for you and meeting your families every need while you're gone...how could I possibly fail them?"
Grizzard isn't required to quarantine upon his return - but says he's social distancing anyway to protect his family.
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