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Milledgeville nurse heads to New York for COVID-19 relief

The city is reporting about 2,000 people testing positive each day, causing health care workers to be overloaded and burned out. One nurse is looking to help.

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Michael Rice has been in his fair share of hospitals, both as a registered nurse and a patient, but he says these next 30 days will be unlike anything he's ever experienced.

"There's no such thing as a 12-hour shift for a nurse, it just never happens. They say prepare to work 16 hours, 7 days a week," said Rice.

Just a month ago, Michael Rice was in a hospital in Augusta as a patient.

"I've had multiple skin grafts. I was very, very sick -- that was tough on us all," he says.

Rice has hidradenitis suppurativa, a skin condition that has gotten worse over the last two years. He says despite just getting out of the hospital a month ago, he was medically cleared to do the job he loves in the Big Apple.

"For me to do this is kinda like payback," says Rice.

His wife, Allison, said when he told her his plan, her first instinct was to say no, but she says she came to terms with it because that's who her husband is. "Most selfless human being I've ever met. There's nothing he won't do for anyone, even complete strangers in a different part of the country. That's just who Michael is."

Rice will be working in a field hospital in New York City until May 13 and once he comes home, he'll be quarantined away from his wife and their 10-year-old daughter, Gracelyn, for 14 days.

Rice says he and nurses are from all across the country and are staying in a hotel for the next 30 days.

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