coronavirus new york city

Coronavirus News: 7 On Your Side gets free hotel for nurse who quit job to fight COVID-19

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

7 On Your Side finds visiting nurse a place to stay

Nina Pineda finds lodging for a Colorado nurse who flew across the country to volunteer in New York

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- When a nurse who quit her job to come to help fight coronavirus in New York City needed a place to stay, 7 On Your Side jumped in to help.

With health care workers on the front lines stretched to the brink - nurses from around the country are driving and flying in to help out.

7 On Your Side got a call from Dawn Butler, who came from nearly 1,800 miles away.

Butler is a registered nurse who has worked in intensive care for the last decade at a hospital outside Denver.

She said she has seen the stories from the front lines in the tri-state area and wanted to come and help.

That is when she quit her job and signed on to work at NYU Langone for the next month. Her 14-year-old daughter stayed back home with Butler's mother.

"I'm a really good nurse - I love my patients and it just makes me sick - all of these patients with COVID-19 - alone," she said. "They can't have visitors. They don't have families there."

JetBlue sponsored the flight from the Rocky Mountains to the Empire State. But then Butler hit a wall when trying to figure out where to sleep.

"It's really, really difficult finding a place to stay," she said. "Number 1, money to pay for those places. I found it about $3,000 per month and you have to pay that upfront."

AirBnB was too expensive, so that's when 7 On Your Side started looking for a place for the hardworking nurse.

The Hotel Association of NYC is connecting health care workers with free rooms. The Hudson Hotel on Columbus Circle offered Butler a month stay.

Yet hotels and organizations all over the tri-state are picking up the bill for doctors and nurses.

Butler was appreciative to learn she would be staying at the Hudson Hotel free of charge.

Nurses and healthcare professionals looking for places to stay can get more information from the Hotel Association of New York City and Hospitality Helps.