Nearly two decades ago, Cassie Champagne’s mother traveled to New York, spending three months helping out in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Watching her mother, a nurse, respond in times of disaster was a major influence in her own decision to enter the profession.

“I was super inspired by that,” said the 44-year-old Champagne, now a nurse at Overland Park Regional Medical Center. “I was just so blown away that all these nurses showed up there.”

Now, Champagne is helping the nation respond to an entirely different sort of disaster.

She was among 20 Kansas City area nurses who recently flew to New Orleans to lend a hand to hospitals overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic — putting themselves at physical risk of contracting the virus. Other nurses have signed up with agencies or disaster relief groups to help in New York, including a former Kansas City police officer who will leave this week and a nurse who was so discouraged in the Big Apple she came home early.

In addition to Overland Park Regional Medical Center, HCA Midwest operates four other hospitals in the Kansas City area. The hospital chain recently asked for nurses willing to help out at Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans. Within days, more than 200 raised their hands, though only 20 have so far been dispatched.

After working two shifts at Tulane, Champagne said she was struck by the severity of the disease caused by the new coronavirus. And oftentimes, there’s little medical intervention nurses and doctors can provide to the suffering.

Sometimes, the best nurses can do is provide emotional and social support, she said.

“A lot of these patients are not sick people outside of this. So a lot of times they don’t need a lot of medicine,” she said. “I think a lot of times what they need is to not be so isolated. One of my patients has been here for 11 days all by himself.”

Aside from helping to relieve the staff at Tulane, Champagne said the experience will help her back in Overland Park, should Kansas City experience the type of surge that is happening in the Big Easy. A new analysis found that coronavirus is killing residents in southeast Louisiana at higher rates than in other parts of the U.S.

“They’re a little bit ahead of us in this whole cycle so I think it’s been a good experience for those of us who came here and are kind of in the middle of it,” she said. But for now, she plans to stay “as long as they need me.”

Cabrina Ridley, a clinical supervisor at Tulane, said the Kansas City crew has been a big boost.

“We are very pleased and enthused to have any and every ounce of help,” she said. “It’s the best thing for the health care services we can provide. When you think about the greatest health outcomes, the more the merrier.”

With hospitals overrun in New York, government officials have pleaded for support.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has asked for help from healthcare workers from across the country. He’s also pledged that New York’s nurses and doctors would return the favor if other hard-hit parts of the nation need assistance later in the pandemic. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio went further and suggested the nation should start a military-style draft to deploy doctors and nurses to cities inundated with COVID-19 cases.

With skyrocketing patient loads, New York has started creating field hospitals at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and in tents in Central Park. The city has also deployed 45 mobile morgues to handle the rising tide of bodies.

Watching the horror unfold in news stories from 1,200 miles away, Derek Ruffin said he and a fellow nurse couldn’t just stand by.

“They’re getting slammed,” he said. “They’re overwhelmed with patients and are short staffed, so we said, hey let’s go help out. We feel bad sitting around here doing nothing.”

A former Kansas City police officer, Ruffin now works as a nurse at Signature Psychiatric Hospital and in emergency rooms at St. Luke’s Health System facilities. He and another Kansas City nurse will leave Wednesday to help at a Bronx hospital.

There’s a part of him that’s nervous about the assignment. But Ruffin likened the challenge to his time on the police department’s SWAT team.

“You just kind of hard charge into everything. You don’t think twice about it,” he said. “A job needs to be done. People need to be helped. And as long as I’ve got the capabilities, I’m willing to lend a hand, whatever’s necessary.”

Ruffin, 49, is working with a nursing agency that’s urgently recruiting staff. He plans to work there for at least two months, staying at a New York hotel and quarantining for two weeks upon his return home. In anticipation of leaving on Wednesday, Ruffin posted a video on Facebook asking if friends would be willing to donate personal protective equipment like gowns and masks — valuable commodities in short supply here and across the country.

They responded by sending hundreds of masks, enough donations to fill his entire trunk.

“I was just overwhelmed with the response of so many people that were willing to donate and give supplies and jump on board,” he said. “It’s been surreal all the people that are willing to help and come together during this time.”

One Kansas City nurse who works for a major hospital system just returned from New York on Thursday — much earlier than she had originally planned.

“Honestly it’s futile for us to be out there,” said the nurse who requested anonymity. “And it’s just so mentally and physically devastating.”

The nurse, who is now quarantined in a Kansas City hotel, said she felt helpless working in a Manhattan hospital overrun by coronavirus patients without the staff, beds or equipment to care for all of them.

“We can’t help these patients because there’s not enough resources and enough staff. We’re basically there to watch them die,” she said.

She said the hospital had more patients than could be cared for by the nurses and doctors on staff. Nearly all the ventilators were in use and the hospital ran low on basics like IV pumps, which automatically regulate the amount of medicine a patient receives.

Those in the hospital consistently deteriorated. Patients who needed oxygen soon needed more intensive breathing therapy like ventilators. And she said more than a dozen patients died each day.

“I never saw anybody discharged,” she said. “I only saw the patients get worse. I only saw the patients dying.”

Kevin Hardy

816-234-4337

Kevin Hardy covers business for The Kansas City Star. He previously covered business and politics at The Des Moines Register. He also has worked at newspapers in Kansas and Tennessee. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas