Visiting nurse wins key to hearts of LI colleagues, community

Nurse Amber Rock came from Iowa to help her New York colleagues during the COVID-19 crisis and when she needed them, they returned the favor.

Rock, 31, drove her 2019 Ford Fusion 1,200 miles from her home in Bettendorf, Iowa, a small city near the Illinois border, to work an eight-week contract at Plainview Hospital beginning April 17. She’d stay in a hotel about 25 miles away.

The Hawkeye State had just over 2,000 confirmed coronavirus cases at that time compared to about 230,000 in New York, according to both state’s health departments. Rock said she was shocked by the severity of the crisis here and to see patients younger than herself in need of critical care.

“It was real when I walked in there and saw people who were super young,” she said.

Coming off her fourth 12-hour shift of the week on April 26, she realized her bag was missing, and with it, the keys to the Fusion.

“I was panicking,” said Rock, who has a husband and two daughters back home, Aurora, 1, and Avery, 6. “My wallet was locked in my car. So, I was like, I literally have no car. I have no money. I can’t even have my husband wire me money because I have no ID.”

She began to cry.

Fellow nurse Steve Clarke of Holtsville, who works per diem in the Northwell Health system, noticed and asked her if he could help. She told him what happened.

“She had a mask on, but you could tell her eyes were watery,” Clarke said. “You could see in her face she was just devastated. I said, ‘I’ll help you figure this out.’”

Other staffers helped look for the bag, but it had essentially vanished. They began brainstorming ways to assist and Clarke put out a call for help on Facebook. A friend of a Facebook friend, Karen Fatta, saw the post and offered to help through her job as office manager at Hassett Ford in Wantagh

Rock figured out how to unlock the car through an app, which at least allowed her to access her wallet. Fatta arranged for the car to be towed to the dealership and a pair of keys made the following morning. A nurse manager drove Rock back to her hotel.

Two key fobs would have to be produced at a cost of more than $600, Fatta said. Once dealership general manager Marc Zergebel heard the story, he offered to not only have the dealership pick up the cost, but to pay for $6,000 worth of meals for hospital workers.

“I said listen Amber, don’t worry about this, we are going to take care of you,” Fatta said. “You have taken enough care of us New Yorkers.”

Fatta and her husband drove the car to Rock’s hotel and the Iowa nurse received her new keys on Monday, which happened to be a much-needed day off.

Finally, Clarke's mother Jennifer Somerville will rent Rock a room for $600 per month, significantly less than the $1,700 a month she was paying to stay in the hotel.

Rock said she feels blessed.

“You always hear that New Yorkers are not the nicest people in the world, but everyone since the moment I got here has been so nice and so willing to help,” she said. “It’s been amazing.”

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.