Aleixandrea Macias is but one of many nursing staff on the frontline of COVID. Her photo and story went viral as she explained what it was to be working in the ICU on the frontlines. Her employer is Krucial Staffing in Overland Park, KS which has been sending medical staff to fill the caps where needed. Heroes all. The 24 year-old nurse from Brownsville, Texas, in her own words, explained the devastation the medical teams face inside the COVID ICUs in a Facebook post this year: “I have never seen anything like this before, never taken care of someone that is so healthy but at the same time so deathly sick. I've been working in a makeshift ICU for days now because there were no other nurses to staff the area. There are not enough staff even though we get new people daily, not enough experienced staff (because who on earth can be experienced for this level of sick?!), not enough supplies. I can't count the times I have heard "well we could try and do this but we don't have this". I'm not an ICU nurse at all, but neither is hardly anyone else working these units now. Of course we can't share patient info, but being in an ICU setting I am keeping my same patients day after day until they die. No one has left our unit yet except in a body bag. I've struggled to find my purpose being here … I have been translating Spanish for days for these people, in my own broken Spanish because anything is better than them understanding nothing. I've seen patients arrive on our unit not yet sedated or vented but in extreme respiratory distress and beyond frightened. I have explained what COVID is doing to their body, what the risks are of being intubated vs not, and I have listened as these people have called their family members for the very last time prior to being intubated. If I can leave here with anything at all, I can know that I helped give them those last moments with their family … These people are not old. They are young. Many with no medical problems. Strong people, physically fit. One who even worked 5 jobs at a time until Covid ravaged his body. This virus kills people. They all die at some point, it's just been a game of seeing how long we can keep them half alive. I feel like our efforts are futile, but I still try so hard and get so upset because I know that if it were Julio or anyone in my family laying there I would want the same done.” The nation thanks you, Aleixandrea. (PHOTO: Aleixandrea Macias) #WhosYourHero #NationalHeroesDay