As residents continue to recover from Hurricane Irma, South Florida is getting support from across the country. And some of that help is making its way into hospitals.
Tenant Healthcare sent dozens of nurses to South Florida to ease the burden on healthcare workers at its sister hospitals in our area.
In Palm Beach County, nurses helped out at West Boca Medical, Delray Medical, and St. Mary's.
Amie Lussier is a labor and delivery nurse who answered the call from St. Vincent Hospital in Massachusetts. "I asked my husband and kids if it was OK that I go. They said 'so there's a bunch of moms that haven't seen their kids, don't know what their house looks like?' and I said 'yeah pretty much,' and they said, 'oh well you should go.' "
One of her patients is Helena Zacharis, who was getting ready to have her first baby. "You're nervous, especially being my first child and you don't know what to expect, it's not fun being a patient. She's (Amie) great, always checking on me, and I think it's great everyone has been really helpful around the country helping everyone out."
Lussier says jumping right into the routine at West Boca was as easy as the decision to come here. "It's sort of like a normal day in a different place. Every time you see a disaster like this on TV and you work in healthcare, you have the skills to help and you are in your clean dry house, safe, so you feel like you want to go help."
Lussier arrived last Thursday and will be back home on Saturday.
Soon after we spoke to Helena, she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.
