EDMOND, Okla. (KFOR) – After spending more than a month fighting the novel coronavirus on the front lines, an Oklahoma nurse is back home.
“I would do it again. I would do it again,” said Oklahoma nurse Kym Langford.
Langford battled the COVID-19 pandemic head-on at a hospital in Harlem, one of the country’s first hot spots for the coronavirus.
“I’m finally able to take this mask off,” she said after work. “It’s been a long night.”
Despite difficulties and mask lines on her face, it wasn’t all bad.
Some of Langford’s most vivid memories were of the recoveries.
“These younger patients I had were so sick and I thought, ‘oh my gosh … you know please, please, please, don’t die.’ And then I’d come back in and I’d ask immediately, ‘Is he still here?’ And they’d say, ‘Yes, he’s still alive,'” she said.
Those little moments kept her going, like a parade of supporters that drove by her hospital.
Kym returned home two weeks ago, greeted with a big family hug.
She tested negative for the virus before returning back to Oklahoma.
“It seems crazy, you know? I’m like, wow, I was gone and it seemed like it went really fast, but a lot of life happened here while I was gone too,” said Langford.
She’s now catching up on what she missed in Oklahoma, while reflecting on her patients and co-workers inside that Harlem hospital, knowing their work won’t go unnoticed.
“With the influx of nurses from all over the US coming and kind of helping in this crisis, I do believe the death toll was less because of our help. I really do,” she said.
