Valley nurse volunteers to battle COVID-19 fight in Detroit

An intensive care unit nurse in the valley volunteered to travel to Detroit, an hard hit area by COVID-19 and now she's back home.

An intensive care unit nurse in the valley volunteered to travel to Detroit, an hard hit area by COVID-19 and now she's back home.

"I would be a liar if I said I wasn't afraid. When I got on the plane I said, "What am I doing?' On the other hand it was hard to sit here and watch when you knew you could do something to help," Laura Enright said.

There she cared for patients for three weeks on 12 hour shifts.

Seeing the sheer number of people battling COVID-19 was tough for her to wrap her mind around she said.

"Almost every single patient was COVID-19 positive, so it wasn't like a COVID unit, it was the whole place," she said.

Enright said she took the extra precautions to keep herself and her patients safe and says she had enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to do her job.

The hardest part though, she said, was that PPE served as a barrier between her and her patients.

"When you really think about the PPE, there is no touch, they don't see your face, your eyes, your touch, it was very impactful, this is really impactful," she said.

For some patients, Enright was the last person they saw before passing away. She says she did everything she could to make sure her patient and their family knew she was there for them.

"When people call us the heroes, no, the heroes are the patients and the families," she said, adding, "It is so uncertain for them and all you cand do is your best and make sure your family member knew you loved them, I stayed with them and we made sure they were comfortable."

Enright got back on Sunday and was tested for COVID-19. She is self isolating until she gets the results back.