Traveling nurse says she hears ‘troubling’ COVID-19 stories from friends working in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH — A traveling nurse worked near New York City when COVID-19 surged through the community in the spring. Now she’s concerned with what she’s seeing and hearing happening in her hometown of Pittsburgh.

“It will be a little heartbreaking if I do see it come to that level,” Shaler native Jacquelyn Klocko said.

Klocko is now working in Baltimore, but says she is hearing troubling things from her friends working here. She spent three months seeing the worst of the pandemic inside a suburban New Jersey hospital.

“My coworkers and everybody had it. Some people, staff, died from it,” Klocko said.

Channel 11 spoke with her shortly after she started working there in April. She said staff members in every place she’s worked so far remain hopeful, but there are concerns.

“Whether it was in Jersey, here in Maryland or my friends in western Pennsylvania, people are getting burned out for sure. It’s sad and there’s no real end in sight,” Klocko said.

With the state and region continually breaking records nearly every day, she said the possibility that things will start to mirror what happened in New York is getting closer than she ever imagined. She plans on coming back to the area to work at West Penn Hospital.

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