North Alabama nurses fighting on the front lines against coronavirus

Of them.

Healthcare workers don't stop for the holidays, especially those who have been caring for covid-19 patients now for over nine months straight.

My co-anchor pat simon sat down with two nurses on the frontlines of covid.

They spoke candidly not just about their challenges and fears, but their hope for the future.

Tia marie stevenson - rn huntsville hospital "when april came around we were like.

.."

Elyse foster - rn huntsville hospital "chaos" tia - deer in the headlights elyse - just pure chaos i can't even describe.

It was fear because nobody knew what this was.

You were getting email after email policy was changing this time oh certain things and came out we were changing this policy.

We don't close units down for the flu.

We don't cancel elective surgeries for the flu.

This disease is extremely real and honestly it's scary.

What it does to a person we still don't know everything about it.

Tia - it was scary to be quite frank.

I was scared out of my mind.

This whole experience is very eye-opening elyse - i am elyse foster.

And i am a nurse here at huntsville hospital.

Tia - my name is tia marie stevenson.

I am a registered nurse here at huntsville hospital.

Elyse - there were several of us that send our families away.

I sent mine to my parents down in south alabama for a good 4 to 5 weeks in april.

And it was hard.

Tia - i am very close to my mother and my father.

At one point i was seeing them pretty often.

I would go to their home but that's kind of slowed down now.

Elyse - this isn't what we signed up for we signed up to heal people.

And this is the hardest thing.

Tia - it's kind of forced us to you know work on how we adjust to every situation because unpredictable happens every day.

Elyse - and from what several doctors have told me and things like that it's only gonna get worse as the holidays go.

I have had more nurses in rooms holding hands of people that are dying that i've ever seen.

Tia - i know this sounds bad but it's kind a like there's another one they're dropping like that we're losing patients like that and it's really sad.

It's really sad.

Elyse.- you want to be there with a loved one do you want to hold her hand.

But that i want people to understand that's what we're doing and that's not going to make up for the fact that you're not there with mom or dad or your brother or a sister, but we are trying our hardest tia - weget attached to them a lot of them especially the one with those who have been here for a while.

Yeah it's like family.

Elyse - it has taken a toll on everybody mentally.

Tia - and a lot of times our families don't really understand.

Yeah we could talk to them about it but they don't understand because they're not here.

Elyse - i've gone home many mornings crying and i know a lot of my coworkers have, but we him we do lean on each other tia - this is very emotional and sometimes you just wanna hug that's it.

Elyse - there was one particular patient that was here for 23 months, and i know she was on our facebook page a couple months ago for leaving.

She's been a pretty important person to kind of let us know that you can recover from this even after such a long period.

Elyse - i cannot even describe what all these nurses have done.

They have impressed me more than anybody.

Tia - if i'm not helping somebody with your health, i hope i somehow brighten up their spirits while they're here.

There's a light at the end of this.

If we all work together and wear our masks, and do what we're supposed to do, we will get through this.

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Special thanks to nurses foster and stevenson and huntsville hospital for taking the time to speak to us to give us a better perspective of what they face every day during the ongoing pandemic.