Madhvi Aya worked in the emergency room taking medical histories, ordering tests and asking about symptoms, at Woodhull Medical Center, a public hospital in Brooklyn.
At the beginning of the outbreak, Aya worried about bringing the virus home to her family, the New York Times reports.
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However, within days of her last shift, Aya would learn she contracted coronavirus, according to the New York Times.
According to her husband, Raj Aya, she developed a cough around the time of her last shift on March 12.
Aya, 61, was admitted to a nearby hospital, less than 2 miles from her husband and 18-year-old daughter, who could not visit her, according to the New York Times.
She kept her family updated through text messages.
“I have not improved the way should have been,” she wrote her husband on March 23.
As Aya grew sicker, her texts came less frequently and were shorter, the New York Times reports.
“I miss you mommy,” her daughter, Minnoli, wrote on March 25. “Please don’t give up hope because I haven’t given up. I need my mommy. I need you to come back to me.”
“Love you,” Aya wrote the next day.
“Mom [will] be back.”
Those were Aya’s final words to her daughter.