San Antonio nurse travels to eye of NYC's coronavirus hurricane

Caissy Goe spent close to two months in New York City, assisting the local medical care response.

SAN ANTONIO — Major Caissy Goe is a clinical nurse specialist in the 11th Field Hospital under the First Med Brigade. In March, she was one of many selected to travel to the Big Apple, where a massive outbreak of the novel coronavirus was just getting underway.

“Here we got to do it and everyone impacted was part of our country,” Goe said. “That is definitely a deployment or opportunity that doesn’t come up frequently.”

But just like any other deployment, she had to leave her family behind, and focus on the task ahead—in the process earning the title of hero. Goe said, “When we got there it was the same set of challenges that people had in this country dealing with COVID-19.”

She worked in New York City’s massive temporary field hospital, the Javitz Center. The goal was figuring out how to keep both healthcare workers, and patients, as safe as possible.

“Each patient had their own space, but they weren’t sealed rooms, so that’s a little different than what you have in a hospital where you can shut your door, have a roof and it has four walls,” she said. “That patient can be kind of isolated from everybody.”

But she endured in coming up with a solution to every problem until she returned to San Antonio after nearly two months.

“We definitely wanted to make sure that we left New York in the best possible position we could,” Goe said.

She said she doesn’t consider herself to be a healthcare hero, but instead says the heroes are those on the frontlines directly dealing with those who caught the virus.

“The providers, doctors, and nurse practitioners and nurses that are working directly with patients that were down at the patient care area are the true healthcare heroes.”

To Major Goe…San Antonio, New York City and America says thank you for your service, and, to us, your are truly a healthcare hero.

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