A group of health care workers from Colorado arrived in New Jersey on Tuesday to help their compatriots fight the coronavirus.

The program is called “Heroes Helping Heroes.” The nurses are from Centura Health in Colorado. They arrived Tuesday at Newark Liberty International Airport to a round of applause.

Among the nurses is ER nurse Mara Doyle – a mother of three. She says that as a nurse, it was an easy decision to come to one of the COVID-19 hotspots such as New Jersey. But she says that as a mother who is not putting her life at risk – it is difficult.

“It’s been horrible leaving the family. I have three kids, but they understand. My husband understands. Wherever the greatest need is, that’s where we are called to,” Doyle says.

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One of the hospitals in New Jersey to be served is Trinitas Hospital in Elizabeth. The hospital has suffered 160 deaths due to the virus.

“We think we hit a plateau,” says hospital president and CEO Gary Horan. “Today we had 162 positives. Yesterday we had 187.”

 

Horan says that the help from Colorado will be very beneficial to his staff.

“It’s going to help them decompress a little bit, reduce some of the fatigue and they’ll be welcomed with open arms,” he says.

St. Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson and St. Peter’s Hospital in New Brunswick will also see relief. St. Joseph’s has 350 COVID-19 patients.

“Our teams have been at this for eight weeks. They’re near exhaustion and just hearing that these ‘angels,’ as we call them, were coming this week uplifted the spirits of all of our employees,” says St. Joseph’s Hospital CEO and president Kevin Slavin.

The relief effort was put together with the help of the Catholic Healthcare Partnership of New Jersey.

“Your unselfish willingness to re-encounter the virus in New Jersey is truly inspiring,” Sister Patricia Cody told the group.

State officials say that there are currently 7,594 COVID-19 patients in hospitals across New Jersey.