Nurses claim a previously unreported coronavirus symptom in tearful CNN interview

In an exclusive interview with CNN, nurses from the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington that saw the first major outbreak of the coronavirus tearfully described trying to care for their charges and revealed new details about symptoms their patients experienced.

As one nurse told CNN's Sara Sidner, the early days were like a "warzone."

During the extensive interview, nurse Chelsey Earnest said she saw symptoms that have not been noted by the media.

"I saw what I described as red eyes," she said.

"I've never heard of red eyes before, why is that?" Sidner pressed. "Is that information just not gotten out to the public?"

"It's something that I witnessed in all of them," Earnest recalled. "They have, like -- you can describe it like allergy eyes. The white part of your eye is not red, it's more like they have red eye shadow on the outside of their eyes. But we've had patients that just had the red eyes as the only symptom that we saw and go to the hospital and pass away in the hospital."

"I've even had the disaster medical control physician say, 'Do they have the red eyes?' And I will say yes. And he'll say, 'I'll find you a bed.' It's just something about this, the way that it affects these patients."

According to CNN's Sidner, red eyes as a COVID-19 symptom is not currently noted on the Centers for Disease Control website.

Describing the night shift when it seemed most of the patients died, she stated it's like "... you're going off to war and you're in a battlefield where supplies are limited. The help is slow to get to you and there's lots of casualties ... and you can't see the enemy. It's an invisible invader. And I described it as chasing the devil, 'cause that's what it was like."

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