Ventura nurses look for additional shelters to prevent spread of virus to family

VENTURA, Calif.-- Local doctors and nurses have the fear of possibly bringing the virus home to their families after working in the front lines of this Coronavirus crisis. One Ventura nurse is speaking out to help find a solution.

“The minute that we click out of our shifts, the fear sets in about how we are going to get into our houses without bringing this virus with to our families,” said Angela Mireles, who is a registered nurse at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura.

Mireles and her colleagues are dealing with the real issue of keeping the virus away from their families after treating community members.

“Our worse fear is to bring this back to them,” said Mireles, “This is something that we signed up for as nurses and we take that responsibility. But when we have a pandemic going this is not something that we learn how to deal with. Nothing can prepare you for something like this until you are stuck in the situation.”

Many in the frontlines have had to resort to sleeping in their cars, or in a sleeping bag in the garage in fear of spreading the virus on to their loved ones.

“So this gets really emotional for me,” said Mireles. “There is many of us who have not hugged our children in weeks. We have a countdown line. Two more days until we get to hug our kids and then we get a patient that is positive with COVID-19 and that timeline starts all over again.”

Mireles is asking for the communities help and possibly donating trailers for healthcare workers to stay in. This would help healthcare workers stay closer to home without breaking the bank since many of their partners are now unemployed.

“I have been able to help coworkers get a couple of RV’s delivered to their properties,” said Mireles. “One of my coworkers dad is on chemo and we need to get these resources to people like that.”

Mireles even suggests bringing trailers to the Ventura fairgrounds.

“Or a big lot like that where we can have security,” said Mireles.

She's calling on local leaders for help.

“I do not know what is going to come out of this, big or small, as long as we are trying to create little waves that make bigger impacts in our community,” said Mireles. “No matter what comes out of this we will still be here for you.”

If you would like to help, you can reach Angela Mireles at mireles4@yahoo.com