QUEENS, N.Y. — Captain Ashley Hughes is a reservist in the United States Air Force and a Registered Nurse at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System in Central Texas.
She's also on the front lines in New York City, working to save lives amid the coronavirus pandemic at Queens Hospital.
"It's terrifying, absolutely terrifying," she told me. "because you don't know who has it, who's following guidelines and who might be positive and doesn't know it."
Capt. Hughes got called to the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 last April, she said she's been there and working tirelessly to save lives ever since but said there's nothing else more important right now.
"Patriotism, defending our nation and a sense of duty are all vitally important to me," she said. "We do not live in the land of the free and the home of the brave without women and men who are ready and willing to fight for it."
Ashley is a Central Texas native, born and raised in Gause, Texas, a small town in Milam County and knew she always wanted to help people. At first, she wanted to be a school teacher before settling on medicine and becoming a nurse.
"Being a nurse I was going to be able to allow me to teach, as in teaching patients disease processes and medications and wellness and illness," Hughes said.
Ashley married the love of her life, Jeff Hughes, in 2008. She said they were best friends in high school and although they never dated they knew spending life without each other wasn't an option.
She tried to commission into the United States Navy shortly after getting married but was denied when she found out she was pregnant with her first son, Jovi. Three years later, she tried again and found out she was pregnant with her second son, Jedi. With two children and a family complete, she enlisted a third time in the Navy but they didn't have any spots available.
Determined to serve her country and fulfill her duty, Ashley didn't give up and was finally commissioned in 2016 as a Captain of the United States Air Force, continuing the lineage of her family to serve.
"I have military members in my own family, including my husband," Ashley said when asked why she decided to become a Registered Nurse at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System in Temple. "To be able to serve that population is very unique because they deserve our utmost attention and respect and that's what I provide to them on a one-on-one basis."
Ashley was called into service at the order of President Trump and finds herself in the middle of a pandemic nearly 1,700 miles away in Queens, New York. Her skills as a nurse on full display as she works to save people from a virus like she's never seen before.
"Up and down everyday, you just don't know what you're going to encounter," she admits on a Zoom call before her day even gets started inside the ICU unit. "The hardest parts of what we're doing right now is taking care of a patient for maybe a week or two weeks or even a day and then coming back to find out that they either progressed and got better or didn't get better and passed away."
The experience, she said, is like nothing she's ever had and hopes to never see again.
"It's been eye-opening, extremely eye-opening here. I have dealt with many comorbidities and respiratory problems through my career," Hughes said. "However this has been something that hasn't been seen before and so it's a huge learning curve."
Hughes said she doesn't know when she's coming home to her husband and kids and told me she shipped to New York just 12 hours after her husband returned from his rotation in Korea. She admits she misses him but knows this is her calling and how she gets to serve those in need.
when the call to come home may not be until we all follow the guidelines set forth to be beat COVID-19.
"The best way to protect our communities,"she said when asked her message to the American people, "is to continue to follow guidelines as we reopen."
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