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St. Louis nurse deployed to North Dakota to help battle COVID ahead of holidays

Captain Joe Broeckelmann is helping with COVID-19 efforts in a North Dakota hospital

ST. LOUIS — The U.S. Air Force recently sent 60 health care workers to staff overflowing hospital intensive care units in North Dakota.

Among them is Captain Joe Broeckelmann from St. Louis, a husband and father who will be away from his family for Thanksgiving.  

William, 3, and his sister Victoria joined their mom Krista Broeckelmann for her interview with 5 On Your Side.  They have two more siblings, 6-year-old Charles and 2-year-old John, who didn't make appearances on Zoom Tuesday.

Krista and her husband, Joe are both nurses. That's how they met. Working at an emergency room in Lake St. Louis. 

"He joined the military about a month after we got married," Krista Broeckelmann said.

Since then her husband has been deployed to Africa for the Ebola crisis, Afghanistan for war and just recently North Dakota.

"From my understanding North Dakota has the highest morbidity and mortality rate per capita in the world right now," Krista said.

Captain Broeckelmann is one 60 United States Air Force medical personnel sent to help, but the only one from St. Louis. 

"They called him the lone wolf because he is the only one from St. Louis," Krista said.

With 48 hours notice he was off to North Dakota, so he'll definitely miss Thanksgiving with his family and Krista says Christmas is a maybe.

"It's based on the needs of North Dakota, so they don't really have a actual projection on when he could potentially come home," Krista said.

Krista has been through this before. When Joe was deployed to Afghanistan he was gone from October to April. She says the first and last few weeks are the hardest, but that it's all part of military life. 

"This is one of the reasons he joined was to have these opportunities to help save lives and help serve his country," Krista said. "And he gets the opportunity to do this at one time."

Unlike previous deployments, she hopes his fellow US citizens can help him.

"Stay safe. Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Social distance if you can. Stay home so he can come home sooner. The sooner we get COVID under control, the sooner he can come home," Krista said.

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