BROOMFIELD, Colo. (KDVR) — A nurse says she was terminated from her job in Colorado after joining a crisis response team to treat cornavirus patients in New York City.

“My mom is a nurse. My sister is a nurse. My niece is becoming one,” Mallory Mehl said.

Caring for the sick is part of Mallory Mehl’s DNA. She spent the last few years as a board-certified family nurse practitioner at Broomfield Pediatrics.

“I love my patients,” Mehl said.

But as coronavirus hit the United States, Mehl noticed a significant drop in patients coming into her clinic for check-ups.

“I was only seeing between one and three patients a day when the COVID crisis started. So, really, we weren’t being utilized,” Mehl said.

Compelled to do more, Mehl volunteered to be part of a crisis response team to work in New York hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Mehl said initially her employer was supportive of her request for the unpaid leave of absence.

“I thought, ‘I’ve been working there for 2 1/2 years, I’ve been loyal and our census is so low it, wouldn’t be a problem.'”

But Mehl said their tone changed when she arrived in New York. She received an email asking for her resignation.

When she said she did not wish to resign, her position was terminated.

“As of yesterday, I got a letter stating that I had been fired,” Mehl said.

The interim human resources director for Community Reach Center, the company that owns Broomfield Pediatrics, sent Mehl a letter through the mail that says in part, “you had requested an unpaid leave of absence which CRC was unable to grant, given the current circumstances.”

Mehl stands behind her decision, even if that means searching for a new job.

“If you have an employer that’s not supportive, I think in my heart that maybe it’s not the right employer because this is a nation that’s suffering. If we can’t send one employee to go help, then I don’t know what kind of purpose we’re serving.”

FOX31 contacted Community Reach Center directly on Wednesday but we were told they do not comment on personnel issues.