Krystle Brydon understood what she was getting herself into. Brydon, a former Clark High School volleyball standout, knew the inherent danger of being an emergency room nurse. She grasped the long hours, chaos, panic, distress and even death.

And she didn’t blink.

Brydon, 34, is currently on a 13-week assignment as a traveling ER nurse at Jacobi Medical Center in The Bronx, N.Y., aiding in an effort to combat the coronavirus outbreak that has devastated the area. As of Saturday, 338,519 have tested positive and 26,584 have died from the novel virus in New York.

Jacobi Medical Center is where Freda Ocran, head nurse of the psychiatric unit, worked before contracting and dying of complications of coronavirus in late March. It’s also the facility where nurses protested a lack of personal protective equipment, saying the shortage put them on “a suicide mission” when performing their jobs. A doctor at the hospital also became ill and ended up in an intensive care unit (ICU).

“This is exactly what I signed up for when I decided to become an ER nurse,” Brydon said. “The crazier the situation, the more I feel called to jump in and help. This is truly my calling, and times like this just make me love my job even more. Working in an ER, you always have to be prepared to handle death and keep pushing through to go help the next patient. That hasn’t changed with COVID. I’m just happy to be able to help in a time when so many people are having to stay put and wait out the storm.”

The tempest that welcomed Brydon in NYC required her to work 12-hour shifts (7 p.m.-7 a.m.), four days a week, and to do so in conditions that, while improved from earlier descriptions of a “war zone,” are still “bad.”

“Currently, there are still many floors in the hospital that they had to turn into ICUs to accommodate all of the intubated patients, and patients continue to die every day,” Brydon said. “Social distancing has helped a ton, but we know the city can’t stay on lockdown forever. This fight is far from over.”

An outside hitter on Clark’s 2003 UIL Class 5A (now 6A) state championship team, Brydon was skeptical initially about reports of a virus inflicting thousands overseas. She figured it was a “bad flu” exaggerated by the media.

Her mindset, though, quickly changed.

One day in February, while working in a Dallas hospital, Brydon cared for a 34-year-old patient who arrived with respiratory issues. Believing it was the flu, the patient — who had no medical history — instead had to be intubated. The patient was on a ventilator for a month, never improved, and died.

“This was someone my own age,” said Brydon, an ER nurse for nearly seven years who lives and works in Austin. “I was one of the last people to have a conversation with this patient.”

With her contract expiring in Dallas and coronavirus cases surging in the United States, Brydon was inspired to help. She started looking for nursing opportunities in New York City, the nation’s hardest-hit area, and received an offer within 48 hours. Brydon packed up her belongings, including her dog, and made a two-day drive to NYC. She arrived on April 19, began working on April 21, and is scheduled to remain until July 21.

“I wanted to go wherever things were the worst and I could provide the most help,” Brydon said. “I’m not sure why, but I’ve never been scared about personally getting COVID. I was exposed to it daily at work in Dallas and am exposed to it even more here in NYC. When caring for patients in NYC, you just have to assume they all have COVID because many who come in with other non-COVID complaints end up testing positive.

“Most hospitals are able to keep suspected COVID-positive patients away from all of the other patients, and that’s just not possible in NYC,” she said. “While I’m not concerned about my own health, I have been careful to keep my distance from friends and family that don’t work in the ER in case I’m a carrier. It was very hard having to miss out on family gatherings when I was still in Texas, because I didn’t want to risk getting my family sick.”

Putting others first has long been one of Brydon’s best qualities, a former high school teammate said. When it came time to travel to the epicenter of a pandemic that nationally infected more than 1.3 million, killed 78,700 and has reached the White House, few were shocked Brydon jumped at the chance.

“She’s always been the type of person to be there for you, and support you, and it didn’t surprise me one bit when she posted (on social media) that she was going to try to do the thing in New York,” said Angie Helvey, a high school teacher and coach in Austin who has known Brydon since at least middle school. “(She’s) very brave, very courageous. That’s how she’s been since we were kids, just 100-percent fearless — and competitive.

“She’s definitely that teammate that was never-give-up, never-surrender type of attitude. Always a leader; pushed through injuries. She’s super woman.”

Heroism aside, Brydon knows how serious coronavirus is. She sees it every time she’s at work and how the disease has seemingly affected every aspect of life, even sports.

“I’ve actually had multiple conversations with friends and co-workers about how sports have been affected by this,” said Brydon, who earned a scholarship to Division I North Florida, played her freshman season, suffered a back injury, transferred to the University of Texas in Austin and played on the school’s national championship-winning club team. “I think back to my senior year of high school, the year we won state. I would have been devastated if that season had been taken away from me.

“I feel so bad for these kids, but I have now seen firsthand how necessary the lockdown and social distancing were. Many of those kids would have watched parents, coaches, and teachers die if school closures and stay-at-home orders hadn’t been put in place. I think Texas did an amazing job with social distancing and is now ready to reopen slowly.”