A mother and daughter duo from Arkansas are doing their part to ensure NYC wins the fight against COVID-19.
Uchenna Onyia-Murphy and her 23-year-old daughter, Ona Onyia, traveled from Arkansas to New York to complete a 21-day assignment as nurses but have now chosen to extend their stay by six weeks.
Onyia-Murphy is a nurse practitioner currently working at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens and tells KATV, “Every day you go into work, you don’t know if you’re going to come out OK. You don’t know if you’re going to have COVID and survive it.”
The great thing is, Onyia-Murphy isn’t alone in her journey.
Her daughter is a registered nurse and is currently working in the intensive care unit at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. She shares her experience with KATV saying, “I feel like I’ve seen more deaths in my 21 nights than I’ve ever seen in my entire nursing career.”
Onyia says although they’re both busy, her mother still finds ways to support her. “The other day my mom hand-washed my scrubs because I was so tired and didn’t want to go to the laundromat and she came into my room and hand washed my scrubs for me,” Onyia tells KATV.
Although they are finding moments to keep each other uplifted, Onyia-Murphy does have moments of fear.
“I’m thinking ‘Am I gonna survive this?’, ‘Am I gonna go down with my daughter?’ At the same time, it’s like ‘Woo! We made history, we did it together girl,” shares Onyia-Murphy.
Both mom and daughter are staying in the same hotel, but in separate rooms to practice social distancing.