#Charlie/Renwick
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day 9 of drawing jrwi characters daily till riptide is back
RAHHHH i drew renwick for that animatic and i had to make a full thing with him because yeah <33 charlie please bring him back pretty please ToT i miss him </3
p.s he might be renwick the ravenous but i'd saved this piece of art as renwick the ravishing- *gets smacked by a brick*
ko-fi || commissions
#jrwi fanart#just roll with it#jrwi suckening#the suckening#lish.art#jrwi#jrwi the suckening#renwick the ravenous#renwick jrwi#jrwi renwick
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The Suckening #12: The Twilight Zone:
Thoughts and quotes below, a wild first half of the finale
- I’ve put this off for too long it’s time to do this
- Oh hi le frog
- God Condi and bizly having to switch accents is so funny it sounds SO WRONG CONDI CANT DO IT AND BIZLY IS JUST DOING HIS OWN VOICE
- Love that the plan hinges on Taylor launter??
- Shilo being so adamant about not punching Emizel but then just doing it, I love them
- But oh god shilo has to talk to Theo because he looks like emizel
- Love music coming up when they’re going over the plan and then immediately cutting out when Arthur said demons instead of dangs
- “I know you hit it off with Viv” “my homegirl yeah” ARTHUR??
- “Who is it?” “It’s me” “…alpha” I cannot believe this
- ARE YOU SERIOUS MRS TAYLOR LAUNTER HAS A HELICOPTER????? CHARLIES DEFEATED SIGH WAS SO FUNNY
- SHARKBOY GAUNTLET????? WHAT IS HAPPENING
- “Good boy” “…..” “HA I WAS GONNA SAY GOOD MAN”
- I shouldn’t be sad that emizel can’t actually talk to Theo
- Also it scares me every time charlie asks what phone they’re using
- “I already told him about the plan to change faces” “then WHY THE HELL AM I DOING THIS?” “I don’t know I forgot”
- “This is such a classic Theo move I love you” :((((((
- Awwww them all being so excited emizel is the phantom flipper is so fun
- Bizly losing his mind over the dangs new plan is so funny
- Forgot how Edwards voice sounded god
- THEY HAVE TO LEAVE THE ROOM? Oh god
- “You know the plan, to be yourself” oh god
- Emizel you’re doing so bad this is awful
- 6 different Edwards??
- Why have they heard about shilo?
- Oh god this whole scene is like playing in my head I can see it so clearly
- Chester Chesser is such a cool name
- Paul with the unseen one freaky little dude I like him
- Ok yeah I love Paul he’s so fun
- You know who I miss though? Grefgore :( where is my boy
- Chet is insane??? Oh my god. The energy here is unmatched. Love Charlie and Condi just immediately going into laughter
- God the audio design is incredible in this campaign, the overlapping voices for Charlie is so good I love it
- “People think I’m weak do you think I’m weak?” “…you say that out loud in front of everyone?” OH GOD
- Paul and Chet being Emizel’s buds is so on brand I love it
- RENWICK!!!!!!!! HES COMMENTING!!!
- Oh it’s masquerade breakers that are competing
- …….and deacon rounded them up
- Interact with the show???
- “If there’s any invisible around” SO SMART ARTHUR
- Paul?? Oh they’re like the cameras. That’s really cool
- It’s fortnite, it’s fucking fortnite. Ok Charlie ok
- “I’d like to start-“ “ok shilo” “crying”
- Arthur is so cool I love him
- Oh there are humans—oh god it’s the dangs yikes that’s horrible
- “But I am walking the same amount of time!” “No” “….yuh-huh!”
- Charlie’s manic laughter was so fun who does shilo see?
- FORTNITE BUILDER!
- Love that they just keep saying minecraft and Charlie is like nah it’s fortnite building
- “Fortnite vampire” thanks Charlie
- OH GOD BIZLY IS LOSING IT
- ARTHUR IS POPPING OFF LETS GOOO
- “Now you’ve met the real devil” HOLY SHIT???? ARTHUR??
- OH!!! THIS IS WHERE THE WINGS COME IN THIS IS SO COOL LETS GO ARTHUR
- A wolf you say? Oh god the squirrel
- 3 roll off in a row?? That’s epic
- Uhhhh shilo? Please be ok
- LETS GOOOOOOO SHILO
- HE HAS A FRIEND!!!!
- Grangle!! Love him
- “Can I talk to satan?” “I’m not a say no dm am I? Oh god” PLEASE WHAT A MOOD
- HELICOPTER!!!!!! THE LAUNTERS ARE HERE
- Bizly losing his mind when Chet started talking is perfect I love Chet so much
- WEYLIN TWINS TIME!!!!!
- I LOVE THEM!!!!!!! HI HI HI HI HI
- IM CRYING THIS ENTIRE ENCOUNTER WITH CHET AND EMIZEL IS HILARIOUS
- “Hands too fast can’t stop them” Everyone breaks down laughing
- WHAT???? WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH EDWARD AND EMIZEL RIGHT NOW
- THE HELICOPTER HITS THE BARRIER????? WHAT??
- HE DIED????? RIP TAYLOR OH MY GOD
- NO HE SURVIVED LETS GOOOOOO HES NOT EVEN INJURED!!!!!
- Oh, :( one of the old people. It’s the people who know about the masquerade
- “Can you take me home?” “Yeah I’ll take you home” oh I’m gonna sob
- “I just walk with him for a while” “and then what?” “I don’t know. I keep walking. I don’t know where to take him” “ok, just keep walking” “Ben can you tell me about your family or anything you like?” And he just pointed out a bird in the trees :(( NOW HIM AND SHILO ARE TALKING ABOUT BIRDS IM NOT OK
- :( I agree with bizly this is the saddest thing Charlie has ever done
- I get why bizly said this destroyed him because I agree Ben’s whole situation is so incredibly sad
- Gotta wait to do part 2 but that was a phenomenal first half of the finale I loved it!!
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still listening to the finale rn and im realizing renwick is just how i talk. "Very very epic style!!" did charlie slimecicle stalk me and take all my videogame 1 liner voicelines
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RENWICK IS BACK!! thank you so much charlie slimecicle i'm obsessed with this guy
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I made some South Park OCs coz I was bored The first one is Charlie Camelot -He's a wannabe goth boy -Literally searched up goth names on the internet and decided on 'Renwick' after two hours -Gets pissy if he's called anything else -Total cat person. Cats swarm to him -Loves smoking and coffee -Writes gothic poems for fun -Convinced Craig is a goth in disguise -Has an unexplained crush on Token The second one is Shelby McClain -She's another sentient ad like Leslie -She was introduced into the school shortly after PC Principal killed Leslie -She acts a bit more human, but she still lies and deceives -She enjoys tricking people into buying things by saying they're better than they really are. -She flirted with Cartman once to get him to spend his money on a phone app. -Regrets it -Usually hangs out with Bebe and Wendy What do y'all think? I'd love to get these guys in a South Park OC Rp sometime so if anyone's interested hmu with a message or something!
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RITZY
1930
Ritzy is a three act comedy by Viva Tattersall and Sidney Toler. The original production was produced by L. Lawrence Weber and staged by Sidney Toler. The play was first known as Dress Parade.
The play takes place at the Georgian Hotel in New York City, in the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The stage setting depicted the entire apartment, including bathroom and kitchen.
The story concerns Edgar Smith, insurance man, who learns that his wife Nancy has inherited $200,000. For a day they spend their new-found wealth and grow into snobs before learning it's all a mistake. Meanwhile Edgar has met rich friends and sold a million dollar policy, so the blow doesn't fall too hard.
Sidney Toler (1874-1947) is probably best remembered as the actor who played Charlie Chan on screen in 22 films between 1938 and 1946. In 1930, he was married to Vivian Marston. A month after her death in 1943, he married divorcee Viva (nee Vera) Tattersall, a British-born actress and co-author of Ritzy.
The original cast featured Ernest Truex (as Edgar Smith) and Miriam Hopkins (as his wife, Nancy). Truex later had a prolific film and television career. Hopkins would be nominated for an Oscar in 1936 for playing the title role in Becky Sharp. The supporting cast includes Sydney Riggs, Josephine Evans, Katherine Renwick, Effie Afton, J.H. Brewer, and John Junior.
The world premiere of Ritzy was on February 3, 1930 at Nixon’s Apollo Theatre on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Both the stars were recently acting on the London stage, and were welcomed back to the US by the press. The theatre advertised that “You Can Have Dinner at Home This Week” because of their 8:30pm curtain time. The show was billed as “A New Comedy About Swankomania”.
RITZY & SWANKY
In 1930, the term Ritzy was seemingly everywhere due to Irving Berlin’s hit song “Puttin’ on the Ritz”. The informal adjective ‘Rtzy’ implies luxury that's a little over the top. It was coined around 1910, inspired by the famously elegant Ritz Hotels that César Ritz opened starting internationally in the late 19th century. In the USA, the play was performed in just two cities: New York and Atlantic City, both of which had Ritz-Carlton Hotels. The New York hotel was demolished in 1951. The Atlantic City Ritz (built in 1921, above) still stands as a condominium.
The definition of swanky is someone or something that is fancy and stylish and often very expensive. 1913, from the Germanic root ‘swank’ meaning "to swing, turn, toss". Perhaps the notion is of "swinging" the body ostentatiously, similar to swagger.
The play opened on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre on February 10, 1930 and ran for 32 performances.
“As a study of how to spend 200,000 non-existent dollars, its trifling plot (which brewed busily but not so merrily for two hours) hardly needed the services of two players as competent as Mr. Truex and Miss Hopkins, though what it would have done without them is also something of a problem.” – NEW YORK TIMES
After the play closed, there was talk of a tour, but none materialized. Instead, the play was offered for regional production.
The Broadway production of Ritzy introduced a new way to get theatre tickets: telephone! No longer would patrons need to que up at the box office or deal with brokers.
Miriam Hopkins returned to the Great Wooden Way in December - but on celluloid - in the motion picture Fast and Loose playing at the Steel Pier.
By July 1930, Sidney Toler was back at the Atlantic City Apollo, this time acting in David Belasco’s It’s A Wise Child. But that’s another blog!
#Sidney Toler#Ritzy#Viva Tattersall#Broadway#Broadway Play#Longacre Theatre#Nixon's Apollo Theatre#Miriam Hopkins#Ernest Truex#Boardwalk#L Lawrence Weber#Ritz#Swanky#1930
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Before Mary Pickford there was Anna Beth Sully, the first Mrs.Douglas Fairbanks (mother of his only child Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), to the left seated next to Charlie Chaplin, across the table is Douglas Fairbanks.
Dinner party given by Jeanie MacPherson 1918 - guest of honor Douglas Fairbanks, for the success of his film “A Modern Musketeer”.
Also seated Mrs. Allan Dwan, John Brownie, Mrs O’Neill (mother of Jeanie MacPherson) Jeanie MacPherson, Ottaway Treen, Allan Dwan, Mrs. Renwick Knox.
#charlie chaplin#douglas fairbanks#anna beth sully#mrs. douglas fairbanks#jeanie macpherson#allan dwan#1918
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eski model listesi
bunu temizleyip yürürüz diycektim ama çok varmış o yüzden eski ünlülere isimlere bakmak için buraya bırakıyom kalsın sdfojdsoğjısıdjğods
ay daraltçam bu ne aq
- A -
Aaron Johnson - Leo Constantine
Aaron Tveit - Ezekiel Wymond
Abbey Lee Kershaw - S
Adam Brody - Cedric P. Powell
Adelaide Kane - Alana Windsor
Aidan Turner - Blaise Lynch
Alicia Vikander - Lily Marzia Lewis
Alona Tal - Claire Jenkins
Alycia Debnam Carey - Faith Franchot
Amber Heard - Edith Mori de Oliveira & Aureola Diana
Amy Poehler - Apple Corin
Ana de Armas - Riley Polanco
AnnaSophia Robb - Olivia Maeve
Andrew Garfield - Christen Austen
Andrew Lincoln - Desmond
Andy Samberg - Milo Dexter
Anna Christine Speckhart - Maria Sparrow
Anna Kendrick - June Lynwood
Ansel Elgort - Landon Scotty
Armie Hammer - Nikolai Fedosov
Ash Stymest - Wilford Grayson
Ashley Benson - Lexie Mallaith
Astrid Berges-Frisbey - Anthea Harrison
Aubrey Plaza - Zoya Everdene
- B -
Barbara Palvin - Annie Lancaster
Bella Heathcote - Fern Weinberg
Bill Skarsgård - Hermes Wolfhart
Boyd Holbrook - Hugo Montague
Bradley Cooper - Adonis Dard
Brett Dalton - Aldous Riordan
Brian J. Smith - Ä°.
Brit Marling - Euria Madlyn
- C -
Candice Accola - Evanora Eckhart
Carey Mulligan - Ophelia Delfino
Charlie Cox - Darcy Hemingway
Charlie Weber - Wardell Jon
Chloe Bennett - Miroslawa Waljewski
Chris Pine - Azure Welkin
Chris Pratt - Dux Stanton
Chris Wood - Atlas
Christian Bale - Mars Brant
Christian Cooke - Conor Lynton
Chyler Leigh - Cassandra Evans
Claire Holt - Karyna Gwen
Clark Gregg - Christopher Hart
Courtney Eaton - Night Haven
- D -
Daisy Ridley - Monica Myles
Dakota Johnson - Barbie Riley
Dan Stevens - Damien Delacroix
Daniel Radcliffe - Michael Genim
Daniel Sharman - Clementine Quinton
Danielle Campbell - Calista Apostolou
David Tennant - Hunter Chandra
Dianna Agron - Isis Chamberlain
Domhnall Gleeson - Jules E. Lincoln
Dominic Cooper - Quentin J. Lloyd
Dominic Sherwood - Dimitri Wolf
Douglas Booth - Vasco Delacour
Dylan O''brien - Nathaniel Hawkins
Dylan Sprayberry -Ove Stanford
- E -
Eddie Redmayne - S
Ebba Zingmark - Eloine Heaven
Eiza Gonzalez - Veronika Boleslava
Eleanor Tomlinson - Calleigh Gardenar
Elizabeth Debicki - Pippa Voughan
Elizabeth Henstridge - Gwendoline Cler
Elizabeth Olsen - Corinne Constantine
Eleanor Tomlinson - Calleigh Gardenar
Ella Purnell - Dolu
Elle Fanning - Rosie Van Laren
Ellen Page - Lydia Carrington
Elodie Yung - S
Emeraude Toubia - Elena Dimitriou
Emma Stone - Alexandra Zaleski
Emilia Clarke - Maya Davenport
Emilie De Ravin - Astrid Blanche
Emily Bett Rickards - Ocean Highmore
Emily Blunt - Lilla Arverne
Emily Browning - Ava Marlowe
Emily Deschanel - Hannah Montiel
Emily Didonato - Vera Isabel
Emmy Rossum - Vivian Gardner
Emily Rudd - Antje Griet
Erin Richards - Glory Constance
Eva Green - Verena Gray
Evan Peters - Viktor Chekov
Evangeline Lilly - Blue Marchand
Ewan McGregor - Acse Lemoine
Ezra Miller - Eugene Irwin
- F -
Felicity Jones - Macey Raphaelle
Felix Kjellberg - Silvestre César
Finn Jones - Buster
Freya Mavor - Olivia Fitzgerald
- G -
Gabriel Luna - José Espina
Gaia Weiss - Freya Kjellfrid
Gal Gadot - Cerys Ryan
Garrett Hedlund - Vitto Carlevaro
Gemma Arterton - Sabetha Belrossa
Georgina Haig - Calypso
Gigi Hadid - Mitchie Finnegan
Gina Rodriguez - Ida Castillo
Grace Phipps - Mia Kayleigh
Gustaf Skarsgård - Vincent Valente
- H -
Haley Bennett - Graciela de la Fuente
Hannah Simone - S
Harry Lloyd - Valentin Veaceslav
Hayden Christensen - Kristoff E. Petrov
Hayden Panettiere - Skyla Chavira
Hayley Atwell - Carmela di Chimici
Henry Cavill -Â Chester Norton
Hunter Parrish - Francis Rousseau
Hwang Jung Eum - Hana Godfrey
Ian De Caestecker - J.C. Murphy
Isabel Lucas - Helen Ambrosia
- J -
Jack O''Connell - Roy Whesker
Jai Courtney - Téo Teixeira
Jake Johson - Tony Thompson
James Franco - N/ash Carrington
James McAvoy - Sebastian Van Laren
Jamie Chung - Irene Weitz
Jane Levy -Â Elsie Rodgers
Jasmine Sanders -Â Liesje Lijsbeth
Jason Statham - Rafael Romero
Jay Baruchel - Cal J.W. Fox
Jeffrey Dean Morgan - Zed O''Callaghan
Jenna-Louise Coleman - Cecilia D. Chandler
Jennifer Morrison - Penny Black
Jensen Ackles - Florian W. Hoffman
Jeon Jeongguk - Jeon Jeongguk
Jeremy Renner - Dorian Dixon
Jesse Soffer - Grover Alen
Jessica De Gouw - Vera Guthrie
Ji Sung - Yong Jae Sun
JoAnna Garcia Swisher - Pacifica
Joe Gilgun - Desmond Gallagher
Johanna Braddy - Reva Keegan
John Krasinski - Jesse Wescott
Jon Kortajarena - Aaron Anderson
Josefine Frida Pettersen - Dolu
Jude Law - Andrei Pavlov
Julian Morris - Wesley Franklin
Julianne Hough - Madelyn Weaver
- K -
Karen Fukuhara - Yuki Nakashima
Karen Gillan - Emma Fray (<33)
Kate Mara - Tuesday Beckett
Kate Mckinnon - Myrna Morgenstern
Katherine McNamara - Norene Harland
Kaya Scodelario - Quinn Jenae
Keira Knightley - Mystral Roux
Kevin Zegers - Damon Wallner
Kit Harington - Joel Paxton
Kristen Bell - Vivien Rouge
Krysten Ritter - Iris Thorne
- L-
Lauren Cohan - Wonder B.
Leighton Meester - Anastacia Bouvier
Leonardo diCaprio - Jerry Arlexa
Lily Collins - Frankie Chandra
Lily James - Anaïs V. Grimaldi
Lindy Booth - Camilla Weitz
Lindsey Morgan - Zenobia
Lizzy Caplan - Ramona Fade
Logan Lerman -Â Harley Langley
Luana Perez - Elizabeth Burton
Lucy Hale -Â Sheri Payne
Lyndsy Fonseca - Daisy de la Vina
- M -
Mads Mikkelsen - Ä°
Maeve Dermody - Athena Zoega
Maia Mitchell -Â Lynda Stine
Margot Robbie - Josie Lesniewski
Maria Valverde - Valerija Roque
Marie Avgeropoulos - Ljubica Solvej
Marion Cotillard - Marika Lamora
Martin Wallström - Fabio Chepe
Mary Elizabeth Winstead - Amelie Steiner
Matt Hitt - Douglas Roswell
Matt McGorry - Corbin Renwick
Matthew Daddario - Diego Mendoza
Matthew Gray Gubler - Patrick Descoteaux
Max Irons - Marc Janko
Max Riemelt - Ziggy Hildebrand
Melanie Martinez - D
Melissa Benoist - Charlotte Evans
Melissa Fumero - Catherine Winters
Michael Fassbender - Franco Locatelli
Miguel Ãngel Silvestre - Rico A. Moreno
Min Yoongi - Min Yoongi
Morena Baccarin - Tulip Talitha
- N -
Natalie Dormer - Gem Julep
Nick Blood - Isaac Wyatt
Nick Offerman - Alfred Castillo
Nico Mirallegro - Jack Daniels
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau - Theos Volantis
Nina Dobrev - Emmaline Winslow
Norman Reedus - Harley Harford
Noomi Rapace - Yulia Utkin
- O/Ö -
Olesya Rulin - Ceku Balım
Olga Kurylenko - Zelda Croft
Olivia Holt -Â Rylee Cantrell
Oscar Isaac - Aldo C. Ferreiro
- Q -
- P -
Paul Rudd - Marco Polo
Paula Patton - Winter Willford
Penelope Mitchell -Â Caitlyn Weatherly
- R -
Rachel McAdams - NavoÅŸ Lancaster
Rashida Jones - Jean Cardellini
Rebel Wilson -Â Lauren Dwyer
Reeve Carney - Dylan Breckendridge
Richard Madden - Tristan Windsor
Rinko Kikuchi - S
Rosario Dawson - Eve Blanchett
Rosamund Pike - Daniela Carlevaro
Rose McIver - Skyler Freestone
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley - Leona Lane
Ruth Negga - Lara Tailler
- S -
Sabrina Carpenter - Louise Linn
Sam Claflin - Mathias Clayton
Sarah Gadon - Nina Buchvarov
Sarah Hyland - Marceline Apostolou
Sebastian Stan - Maximillian di Chimici
Seychelle Gabriel - Leila Beaumont
Scarlett Johansson - Diamontina Dixon
Shailene Woodley - Joy Cappella
Shantel Vansanten - D
Shelley Hennig - Nora Simmons
Sophia Bush - D
Sophie Cookson - Rain Gisbourne
Summer Glau - Rhea Crisanta
- T -
Taron Egerton - Caleb Lysander
Tatiana Maslany - Margo Wiggins & Felicia Makovecz
Taylor Marie Hill - Milla Alexander
Taylor Swift - Melanie Phoenix
Teresa Palmer - Dora Desjardins
Theo James - Keiro Padmore
Tom Ellis - Hector A. Whittemore
Tom Felton - Alpha Rigorous
Tom Hardy - Dito Delfino
Tom Hiddleston - Newton F. Windsor
Tom Holland - Flynn Holdsworth
Tom Mison - Armitage Cromwell
Toni Garrn - Audrey Tyler
Torrey Devitto - D
Travis Fimmel - Forrest Dickson
Tuppence Middleton - Mia Santiago
- U/Ü -
- V -
Victoria Justice - Lotus van Boven & Selo
- X -
Xavier Samuel -Â August FridtjofÂ
- W -
Will Smith - Dante di Mercurio
Willa Holland - Ethea Middlesworth
- Y -
- Z -
Zendaya - Izzy McGowan
Zoe Kazan - D
Zoë Kravitz - Thalia Hardy
Zoe Saldana - Kiara Kingsley
Zooey Deschanel - Hailey Montiel
Zoey Deutch - Myra Blackbourne
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Fiction: Patent THIS
From the self-published 49-page masterpiece Beer and Bioelectronics: Memoirs (Plural) of a Part-time Science Bro, by Dr. Toomani Katzenstuff. Excerpted by Zandra Renwick Art by Leigh Legler
“Chaaaaarlie!” I bellowed, thundering up from the yard, brandishing the potato overhead like an incendiary weapon, a live grenade or molotov cocktail. My bathrobe flapped open and my fuzzy slippers slapped the backs of my heels in staccato machine-gun rhythm: fhlap fhlap fhlap fhlap!
My roommate sat on the couch hunched over an open box of junk cereal, full spoon halfway to his mouth heaped with toxic star and moon shapes marketed as having something to do with fruit. Under his cowlicked bedhead hair, he peered at me through cokebottle spectacles, which in this era of lunchtime surgeries were an affectation, myopia as lifestyle choice. “What’sup, roomie?”
Figuring with his terrible eyesight he might not recognize the lumpy ovoid item in my hand as a potato instead of my customary fresh morning egg straight from the backyard chicken coop, I stomped over (fhlap fhlap fhlap) and thrust it under his nose. “Does this look like an egg? That industrial chemical slop you guzzle for breakfast may be all right for some people, but you know I need organic protein in the morning.”
Even to me it sounded more indignant whine than righteous fury. But I was fed up with his additive manufacturing experiments disrupting my genetic modification trials. The world’s food situation was chaos on a global scale, and though Charlie and I shared the same funding (a sickly generous private research grant), the same house (cheapest we could find, and a landlord who put up with random power surges and backyard farming), and the same vision for the future (cheap global access to sustainable, accessible nourishment) … it sometimes felt like we approached everything from opposite sides of the same canyon.
My words must’ve hit home though; Charlie’s spine had gone ramrod straight and he was staring at the potato. “One of your chickens laid that?” he asked.
I harrumphed. “Not just this. A weird-coloured tomato. A small ear of corn. Something I swear is a butternut squash, though how that poor hen–”
“One of your chickens laid that?” he asked.
To read the rest of this story, check out the Mad Scientist Journal: Autumn 2019 collection.
A pioneer in underground research of applied bioelectronic husbandry, Dr. Katzenstuff has been largely ignored by contemporary biographers. Memoirs is an effort to right this incalculable wrong.*
*no animals were harmed in the making of this work
Zandra Renwick’s fiction has been translated into nine languages, performed on stage, and optioned for television. She writes in a triangulated midpoint between Portland (Oregon), Austin (Texas), and the heart of Canada’s capital city (Ottawa). More at zandrarenwick.com.
Leigh’s professional title is “illustrator,” but that’s just a nice word for “monster-maker,” in this case. More information about them can be found at http://leighlegler.carbonmade.com/.
“Patent THIS” is © 2019 A. C. Renwick Art accompanying story is © 2019 Leigh Legler
Fiction: Patent THIS was originally published on Mad Scientist Journal
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Canada Black Roster: Spencer Smith (OJHL), Reid Valade (OHL), Josh Lawrence (QMJHL), Jean-Luc Foudy (OHL), Jack Finley (WHL), Kyle Crnkovic (WHL), Charles Beaudoin (QMJHL), Ozzy Weisblatt (WHL), Will Cuylle (OHL), Quinton Byfield (OHL), James Hardie (OHL), Pier-Olivier Roy (QMJHL), Tyler Tullio (OHL), Daemon Hunt (WHL), Aidan de la Gorgendere (WHL), Jamie Drysdale (OHL), Zack Terry (OHL), Donovan Serbango (OHL), Ryan O’Rourke (OHL), Ryan Helliwell (BCHL), Garin Bjorklund (AMHL), Joe Vrbetic (NOJHL)
Canada Red Roster: Ridly Greig (WHL), Kyle McDonald (OHL), Elliot Desnoyers (QMJHL), Jacob Perreault (OHL), Stephen Halliday (USHL), Matthew Maggio (OHL), Evan Vierling (OHL), William Dufour (QMJHL), Payton Mount (WHL), Josh Barnes (CCHL), Justin Sourdif (WHL), Cole Shepard (BCHL), Seth Jarvis (WHL), William Villeneuve (QMJHL), Nolan Seed (OHL), Jack Thompson (OHL), Jake Murray (OHL), Kaiden Guhle (WHL), Michael Bianconi (OHL), Lukas Cormier (QMJHL), Dylan Garand (WHL), Will Cranley (OHL)
Canada White Roster: Luke Evangelista (OHL), Théo Rochette (QMJHL), William Veillette (QMJHL), Cameron Butler (OHL), Connor McClennon (WHL), Dyland Robinson (OHL), Xavier Bourgault (QMJHL), Riley Piercey (OHL), Jake Neighbours (WHL), Cameron Tolnai (OHL), Cole Perfetti (OHL), Mavrik Bourque (QMJHL), Colby Ambrosio (USHL), Owen Power (USHL), Michael Renwick (OHL), Charlie DesRoches (QMJHL), Jérémie Poirier (QMJHL), Luke Prokop (WHL), Ronan Seeley (WHL), Lleyton Moore (OHL), Tristan Lennox (OJHL), Sebastian Cossa (WHL)
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Nesting (7/?): Hey Sister
Summary: Destiel's having a baby! (No mpreg, promise) Ben wants to be happy. He really, really does.
Read it on AO3
When Dad called him in to the library, Ben was sure he was in trouble.
It wouldn’t be because of his not-so-great math test—Dad understood about that. But if Balthazar had told him about the books he was reading, and the nightmares he was having because of them…
But Dad was smiling and holding hands with Cas, so it couldn’t be that bad.
“Hey buddy.” Dad gestured for Ben to come over, and he sat next to Dad. “We’ve got some exciting news.”
“What’s up?” Ben asked.
Dad squeezed Cas’ hand. “We’re having a baby.”
Ben stared at them. “Can angels—”
“No!” Cas said quickly. “At least, not in male bodies. Neither of us our pregnant, Ben.”
“Oh, you’re adopting?”
“Not exactly,” Dad explained. “Your Uncle Gabriel’s been very kind and agreed to help create a child for us, one that has parts of Cas and parts of me. It’s a soul that…”
“One that suffered in life,” Cas supplied. “They requested a second chance.”
“Do you know who it was?” Ben asked, intrigued.
“No, and we won’t. My Father has made sure of that.”
“Okay. That’s…that’s cool, I guess.”
“Cool? That’s all you got to say about a new brother or sister?” Dad demanded.
Ben brightened. “They’ll be my brother or sister?”
“Of course, you’re my kid, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but we don’t have the same mom. I guess they’re half, but—”
“Ben,” Cas interrupted him. “Do you consider your Uncle Adam only your half-uncle? Or any of my siblings less your family?”
“No.” Ben fidgeted. “I just meant you could call the baby yours, but it doesn’t have to be mine.”
Dad seemed to understand what he was trying to say, and he tugged him under his arm. “You’ll be a big brother in nine months if you want,” he told Ben gently. “You’ll be this baby’s family. Okay?”
“Okay.” Ben swallowed hard. “That is awesome. Will you teach me, Dad?”
Dad pressed a kiss to his head. “I’ll teach you everything I know.”
The next few months went smoothly. Dad and Cas started planning out how to take care of a baby and help run the Men of Letters at the same time. It was Uncle Sam that told them not to be idiots and take time off so that they could both be there for the baby.
(When Ben was born, his mom had to put him in daycare after he was three months old. That was as long as she could ask her parents to watch him.)
Everyone in the Bunker helped make the baby’s room. Cas painted some Enochian symbols over the crib. When Ben asked him what they meant, he explained that it was a lullaby. “Our child is not a Nephilim precisely,” Cas told him, “but this is an important song. I want my child to remember that they come from Heaven.”
(When Ben was five, he was given a worksheet with ‘Draw Your Family’ on it. He drew a man in a car far away from him and mom. He didn’t even know if his father drove a car. Maybe he drove a motorcycle.)
Ben started asking Mom if he could stay home on his weekends with Dad. “I have too much homework,” in September. “My friend’s having a birthday party,” in October.
He never said “I feel like I’m just in the way.” Never mentioned out loud that he felt like everyone was excited about this baby except for him.
When he did go to the Bunker (and he still wanted to go, because he loved Dad and Cas and the rest of their family), he kept reading the same books he’d started. They were terrifying, and if Aunt Charlie or Uncle Sam or Grampy had noticed what he was reading they would have probably burned the books for being inaccurate and overly horrific. But Ben was in the library by himself a lot of the time, and no one noticed.
The breaking point came about four months in. Dad and Cas were talking about names for the baby.
“Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?” Meg asked.
“Does that matter?”
“There are names that are considered more ‘boy’ names than ‘girl’ names,” Hannah said wisely.
Cas hid a smile. “We know, Hani. And of course our child could be born transgender, which we won’t know yet.”
Gabriel nodded. “I offered to tell them the sex for a starting point, but they said no.”
“We want it to be a surprise.” Dad looked at a list in front of him. “Why don’t we start with the boy names? I think that might take longer.”
“Well, your son’s already got my name,” Uncle Adam joked. Ben looked up, his head feeling heavy. “What?” he asked.
“My middle name’s Benjamin,” Uncle Adam explained.
“Now you know it was for me, idiot,” Uncle Benny argued. “Makes way more sense that way.”
Dad groaned. “This joke has never been funny. Literally ever.”
No, it really wasn’t. Because Dad hadn’t had anything to do with Ben’s name. He didn’t even know it when Ben was born.
Ben waited for the conversation to shift back to other names and slipped quietly out of the room. He laid down on his bed, trying to calm down.
Don’t be jealous, he told himself firmly. They’re not doing it to insult you, or forget you. Don’t be dumb…
He still didn’t feel like going out and joining the rest, even though it was Linda’s turn to do the cooking.
Ben rolled over on his side. Maybe he’d read more of the scary books…but reaching for them was too tiring, and before he realized it he was asleep.
He woke with a scream to someone shaking him.
“Ben! C’mon kiddo, wake up!”
Ben’s eyes flew open and he looked into his dad’s worried face. The monsters had felt so real…
“Ben? Buddy, you okay?”
“Yeah,” Ben said hoarsely, but it wasn’t true, and Dad knew it. He pulled Ben close and for a second Ben let himself lean against him, let Dad rub his back.
“What’s going on, buddy?” Dad whispered.
Ben tried to pull away, and Dad let him go after a second. “It’s nothing. I just had a nightmare.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Normally Ben would want that. He could talk to Dad, and Dad could tell him what parts were possible and which parts weren’t, and promise that he would never let any of it become real anyways because he loved Ben and he was here and would take care of him.
Ben shook his head. “I’m okay. You need to rest.”
Dad raised his eyebrows. “It’s ten o’clock, Ben. What do I need to rest for?”
“The baby.”
“Ben, the baby’s not coming for months.”
“Yeah, but you need to start getting used to sleeping when you can,” Ben explained. “You’ll need to sleep well, and focus on you and Cas so your relationship doesn’t fall apart, and I’m fine and I’m old enough to deal with things by myself—”
“Ben, stop!” Dad took him by his shoulders. “Son, what are you talking about?”
Ben tried to talk, but he was shaking too badly. Dad hugged him tight again, and this time Ben couldn’t stop himself from crying.
“Oh Ben,” Dad whispered. He started to rock back and forth. “It’s okay, it’s okay…”
“It’s not okay,” Ben tried to say, but it came out in a garbled sob.
Dad kissed the top of his head. “Ben, sweetheart, I didn’t realize you were having so much trouble with this. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t w-worry about me.”
“Of course I’m going to worry about you. It’s my job; I’m your Dad.”
“You weren’t always.”
Dad didn’t let go, but he stopped rocking.
“And I know Mom didn’t tell you,” Ben said quickly. “But with this baby—it feels like you want to be a real dad, and have a real family. And I’m just a reminder that you weren’t. I don’t want to make you feel bad, and I don’t want to be in the way.”
Dad didn’t say a word at first. He just hugged Ben so tight he could hardly breathe.
“You are my son,” he promised finally. “My real son, and I love you so much it scares me some times. I never thought I could love someone so completely. I loved you before Cas, you know that? I met you first. And even then, when I didn’t know you were mine, I loved you. I was so proud of you.”
Ben pressed his face into Dad’s shoulder.
“I do wish I’d known about you,” Dad continued. “I wish I’d been in a place where your Mom would have trusted me. Where I would have been able to be in your life, and had the emotional maturity to do that. But that didn’t happen, and I’m just grateful that I have gotten to be in your life since. That you love me. That means everything to me, Ben.”
“And yes, I’m having a baby with Cas. But I’m not doing it because I feel guilty about you. Cas wanted to have a child together because he loves you too, and wanted to have another child. You’re not in the way at all, buddy. And I wish that I could have given you what I will give this baby. But after the kind of life I’ve had…I want to be a good father for all my children. I have different chances with you and the baby, but I will take advantage of every last one, and if that means I go between playing video games with you and bottle feeding Little Bit, I will. Okay?”
Ben cuddled closer, and Dad pulled him onto his lap. “I love you, Ben,” he repeated. “And I will always love you.”
“Love you too,” Ben whispered.
They sat there for a while.
“Ben, what was your nightmare about?”
Ben blushed, grateful that there wasn’t much light coming from the hall. “I…it was just a bad dream.”
“Ben…”
“I might have been reading some books before bed.”
Without letting go of Ben, Dad leaned over and switched the light on. The book was sitting on Ben’s night table; he’d forgotten to hide it.
“Ben!” Dean picked the book up. “Ben, this is one of the Renwick books!”
“Yeah. I’m sorry!”
“Ben, these aren’t accurate at all. I thought Sam got rid of them!”
Ben brightened. “So…so witches can’t put marks on you for werewolves to find you?”
“No!” Dad shook his head. “Ben, how many have you read?”
“Maybe…maybe eight or ten?”
Dad groaned.
“Am I grounded?”
“I think you’ve been punished enough,” Dad said, glaring darkly at the book. He switched the light back off, and Ben’s grip tightened around him.
Dad rubbed his back. “Do you want to come lie down with me and Cas?”
“I’m twelve, Dad.”
“I know that.”
“Um…yes please?”
Dad picked him up and Ben clung to him. Cas was reading when they came in, a worried look in his eyes. Once Dad laid Ben down next to him, he passed Ben a plate with a sandwich and two cookies.
“Do you want milk or water?”
“Milk please,” Ben said, feeling unaccountably shy.
Cas snapped and passed Ben the conjured glass. Ben ate quietly as Dad lay back, humming softly. When he finished, Cas took the plate from him.
“Thanks Cas,” he said. Then—“you know you’re my dad too, right?”
Cas smiled gently, and hugged Ben. “I do,” he promised, “and you are the son of my heart. That will never change.” He switched off the light and lay down.
Ben lay between his dads. The room was dark, and for a second he felt a stab of fear. What if the books were real…
Dad put an arm around him. “We’re right here, buddy. Nothing’s gonna hurt you.”
Ben smiled. “Dad? Cas?”
“Yes, Ben?”
“I’m excited for the baby again.”
“I am delighted,” Cas said. “Perhaps you would do us a favour and choose the name? We can’t settle on one.”
“Sure!”
And five months later, when the little baby girl was born, Ben was the third person to hold her, and he named her Mary Jo (he’d thought about Xena, but Cas said no).
“Hi MJ,” he whispered (apparently nicknames were an important part of being a big brother). “I’m Ben, your big brother. I know you’re awesome already, and I love you. I won’t always be around, but I promise I’ll be there whenever you need me. And I’ll let you watch Predator. But you’re not reading the bad books.”
#spn fanfiction#spn au#destiel#destiel baby#ben braeden#mary jo winchester#ben braeden is dean's son#hurt/comfort#dean is a good dad#cas is a good dad#AWOBS verse#nesting#acme146 fanfiction#crosspost from AO3
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Tomorrow evening, over 80 members of the NewBridge project, including myself, will open an exhibition of recent works on a revolving basis to celebrate the end of our time in the current building. Promises to be a treat! Artists: Maria Abbott | Paula Adams | Lucien Anderson | Keano Anton | Neil Armstrong | Deborah Bower | Rachael Clewlow | Katy Cole | Jon Cornbill | Dean Crawford | Stacey Davidson | Michael Davies | Charlie Dearnley | Oscar Dempsey | Oliver Doe | Graham Dolphin | Jennifer Douglas | Taryn Edmonds | Graeme Durant | Juliet Fleming | Mat Fleming | David Foggo | Sophie Foster | Adam Goodwin | Greyscale | Aaron Guy | Theo Harper | Jo Hislop | Julia Heslop | Peter-Ashley Jackson | Rebecca Jackson | Martin Kellet | Angela J. Kennedy | Nick Kennedy | Claire Lavender | Left Leg Gallery | Edwin Li | David Lisser | Kate Liston | Toby Lloyd | Ant Macari | Louise Mackenzie | Andrew Maughan | Christian Mieves | Rene McBrearty | David McDonald | Rosie McLachlan | Peter Merrington | Leah Millar | Zoe Molloy | Ilana Mitchell | Arnaud Moinet | Rosie Morris | John Jo Murray | Kelly Pearson | Matthew Pickering | Pulled Print Club | Paul Raymond | Ginny Reed | Sadie Renwick | Eddy Robinson | Lesley-Anne Rose | Alice Rout | Kuba Ryniewicz | Janina Sabaliauskaite | Sabina Sallis | Helen Shaddock | Joe Shaw | Rosanna Skett | Lee Smith | Cecilia Stenbom | Kate Stobbart | Sebastian Trend | Sarah Tulloch | Olivia Turner | Dave Tweedy | Adinda van t’ Klooster | Tony Wiles | Matthew Wilkinson | Julia Wilmott | Andrew Wilson | Holly Wheeler | Thomas Whittle | Louise Winter | Wunderbar
#Art#NewBridge#The NewBridge Project#Newcastle#newcastle-upon-tyne#Newcastle upon Tyne#North East#contemporary art#contemporaryart#fine art#studio
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Charlie had bristled the minute Tweek addressed him by his real name.
"Non!" He snapped. "You do not address me zhat way! You may call me Renwick when you speak to me!"
After that outburst of anger, he sighed and lit his cigarette, taking a drag on it. All the while he was following Tweek.
"And just where is zis oh so 'special place' zhat you are going to where I cannot go, mm? Are you going to be a part of zhat goth group again?"
His words were light but there was jealousy behind them. He couldn't help but be jealous at how Tweek was on such friendly terms with the goth kids when he himself had basically been kissing their asses and got no attention from them.
shin-holly:
“Hey you” Charlie called after him. He gave a small huff. “Peu de nuisance. You’re ze kid who’s trying to make it goth recently, right?” He let out a scornful giggle, lighting a cigarette. “I have seen you around. You who looks like ze living embodiment of an exploded firework.”
“Just what are you trying to accomplish? Being a goth isn’t something you can pick up and put down when you feel like it”
Tweek stopped in his tracks once Charlie called out to him, and he closed his eyes as he listened to his footsteps approaching. Just go, the familiar voice in his head prompted. Forget him.
“What… Charlie?” Tweek mumbled, opening his eyes only when Charlie stepped around him to look directly into his eyes. Tweek felt a sharp pang go through his heart at the accusation, and already he could feel his face reddening as he averted his eyes.
“I-I’m..– not t-trying to– a-accomplish anything– I…”
Charlie continued to speak, and Tweek swallowed, his body trembling beneath his large and heavy black coat. One would think Tweek would have grown used to the scornful and judging stares, the whispers, gossip, rumors. They all had started immediately as soon as the Goth kids took him under their wing, and Michael had given Tweek the very coat he wore now. Most kids didn’t approach Tweek, nor talk to him, but whenever Tweek was within Charlie’s presence, the other boy was always very direct.
Walk away! The voice hissed, causing Tweek to flinch and jump, and hectically the blonde began to speak.
“L-look man, I got-gotta go. Just-leave-me-alone-o-okay?” Tweek began to move around him once more. “I-I mean it, dude,” he said over his shoulder, listening to Charlie’s footsteps trailing behind. “You can’t go w-where I’m going!”
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Lost On The Frontline
America’s health care workers are dying. In some states, medical staff account for as many as 20% of known coronavirus cases. They tend to patients in hospitals, treating them, serving them food and cleaning their rooms. Others at risk work in nursing homes or are employed as home health aides.
Some of them do not survive the encounter. Many hospitals are overwhelmed and some workers lack protective equipment or suffer from underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to the highly infectious virus.
Many cases are shrouded in secrecy. “Lost on the Frontline” is a collaboration between The Guardian and Kaiser Health News that aims to document the lives of health care workers in the U.S. who die of COVID-19, and to understand why so many are falling victim to the pandemic.
These are some of the first tragic cases.
Lost On The Frontline
This project aims to document the life of every health care worker in America who dies from COVID-19. If you have a colleague or loved one we should include, please share their story.
Lighthearted Nurse ‘Lit Up the Room’
(Courtesy of Alisa Bowens)
Linda Bonaventura
Age: 45 Occupation: Licensed practical nurse Place of Work: Wildwood Healthcare Center in Indianapolis Date of Death: April 13, 2020
Even on bad days, Linda Bonaventura’s lighthearted sense of humor made people feel better, her sister Alisa Bowens said.
Bonaventura dedicated her career to children with special needs and seniors. She did her best to keep her spirits up while working 16-hour days.
Read More
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OSHA Probing Health Worker Deaths But Urges Inspectors To Spare The Penalties Apr 22
True Toll Of COVID-19 On U.S. Health Care Workers Unknown Apr 15
“We like to say she was laughter,” Bowens said. “She lit up the room.”
In a statement, Ethan Peak, executive director of Wildwood, called Bonaventura a dedicated nurse who “would do anything for her residents and co-workers.”
As the list of patients and employees with COVID-19 grew longer at Wildwood, Bonaventura refused to live in fear, Bowens said.
Bowens recalled the day her sister confessed she was spraying herself with Lysol to kill the germs on her clothes. She did the same for a co-worker. A Wildwood spokesperson said the nursing home had sufficient personal protective equipment for employees.
The sisters, in one of their last conversations, told each other they would be at peace if death came during the pandemic. A short time later, Bonaventura tested positive for COVID-19. Just a week after coming down with a sore throat and fever, she died.
“She believed in fate,” Bowens said. “We shared that belief. But it was still a shock.”
— Cara Anthony | Published May 15, 2020
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Nurse’s Death Ripples Through The Heart Of An Extended Community
(Courtesy of Courtney Christian)
Sheila Faye Christian
Age: 66 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Care Pavilion Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Philadelphia Date of Death: April 19, 2020
So many people are mourning the death of Sheila Christian, her daughter set up a website to comfort them all.
Christian was a longtime friend of Tina Knowles-Lawson ― the mother of Beyoncé — who posted about the loss on Instagram.
But Christian was also a superstar at the center where she worked for 26 years and among those who knew her. She was the kind of person who brought lunch to a new co-worker and hosted a baby shower for someone without close family, according to her daughter and a memorial board.
At the outset of the COVID crisis, Christian was not given personal protective equipment, her daughter, Courtney Christian, 30. She said her mother received a mask only in late March. A lawyer for the center acknowledged Christian’s death and said federal guidelines were followed but didn’t respond to specific questions about protective gear.
Christian was diagnosed April 2. She endured more than a week of fever, chills and coughing, but seemed to be on the mend. She had been cleared to return to work when she collapsed at home. An outpouring of grief followed, her daughter said.
“She just helped and cared for so many people,” she said. “People I had never met.”
— JoNel Aleccia, Kaiser Health News | Published May 15, 2020
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At Work, Church And Home, Army Veteran Gave It His All
(Courtesy of Shlonda Clark)
Roy Chester Coleman
Age: 64 Occupation: Emergency medical technician Place of Work: Overton Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana Date of Death: April 6, 2020
Shlonda Clark calls her father her “favorite superhero.”
It was one of Roy Coleman’s many roles. For the past 11 years, the Army veteran and EMT worked as a housekeeper at the VA hospital in his hometown. He was a church deacon, Sunday school teacher and usher. He also volunteered with special-needs adults.
Roy had a big family, with three children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
“He was funny, he was kind, he was giving,” said Mabel Coleman, his wife of 40 years.
“If he didn’t like you, something was wrong with you,” added Clark.
Coleman fell ill March 23. After three trips to the emergency room, he was admitted March 27, with a fever and labored breathing.
“It was the last time I saw him,” Mabel said.
He tested positive for COVID-19 and died at the hospital where he had worked.
His family said he was concerned about the lack of personal protective equipment. The VA medical center said by email it “has and continues to use PPE in accordance with CDC guidelines.”
— Katja Ridderbusch | Published May 15, 2020
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Beloved Doctor Made House Calls, Treated Patients Like Family
(Courtesy of the Giuliano family)
Michael Giuliano
Age: 64 Occupation: Family practice physician Place of Work: Mountainside Medical Group in Nutley, New Jersey Date of Death: April 18, 2020
For 39 years, Michael Giuliano practiced old-fashioned family medicine.
He made house calls. He visited his patients in the hospital rather than asking another physician to check in on them. He saw generations of the same family.
“Some patients would show up here at the house,’” said Giuliano’s wife, Marylu, a nurse and the office manager of his solo practice. “Patients would call and he’d say, ‘Come on over, I’ll check you out.’ He always went above and beyond.”
A father of five and a grandfather of four, Giuliano was jovial, with a quirky sense of humor and love of Peanuts characters, especially Charlie Brown. He liked to tell patients, “I’ll fix you up.”
“He treated all of his patients like family,” said Nutley Mayor Joseph Scarpelli.
When COVID-19 hit the U.S., Giuliano ordered N95 masks, his family said, but suppliers were out and sent surgical masks instead. Giuliano wore two at a time.
The week of March 16, Giuliano saw four patients with respiratory symptoms who later tested positive for COVID-19. About two weeks later, he tested positive.
Giuliano continued to see patients from home using telemedicine until he was hospitalized. He died 11 days later.
— Michelle Crouch | Published May 15, 2020
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He Tried To Reassure His Family Until The End
(Courtesy of Sheryl Pabatao)
Alfredo Pabatao
Age: 68 Occupation: Orderly Place of Work: Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, New Jersey Date of Death: March 26, 2020
After 44 years of marriage, Alfredo Pabatao still bought his wife, Susana, flowers.
“They were that type of couple that you rarely see nowadays,” their youngest daughter, Sheryl Pabatao, 30, said. “They set such a high standard for us, their kids — that may be the reason why I’m still single.” She said her father was a patient man who could fix just about anything.
The Pabataos came from Quezon City, just outside Manila, in the Philippines. Alfredo worked at a car dealership, and Sheryl said she and her siblings grew up comfortably.
But the couple wanted more for their five children, and immigrated to the United States in October 2011. “The first year that we were here, was really, really tough,” Sheryl remembered. Her oldest two siblings, already adults by the time the Pabataos’ immigration application cleared, had to stay behind.
Alfredo found a job as an orderly at a hospital in New Jersey, where he worked for nearly two decades. In mid-March, he told his family he had transported a patient with signs of COVID-19; he fell ill days later. In a statement, his employer wrote: “We have policies and procedures in place to protect our team members and patients that are all in accordance with CDC guidelines.”
Sheryl said the family’s last conversation with her father was via FaceTime, with him on his hospital bed. Connected to oxygen, he insisted he wasn’t gravely ill. He made jokes and even demonstrated yoga poses to reassure his wife and children. He died soon after.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published May 15, 2020
(Return to top.)
A ‘Selfless’ Mother Who ‘Always Had The Right Words’
(Courtesy of Sheryl Pabatao)
Susana Pabatao
Age: 64 Occupation: Assistant nurse Place of Work: Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus, New Jersey Date of Death: April 30, 2020
Susana Pabatao became a nurse in her late 40s, after her family immigrated to the United States.
It eased some of her longing for her own mother, whom she had left behind in the Philippines, her daughter, Sheryl Pabatao said. “It helped her to know that she was helping other people — something that she couldn’t do for my grandmother,” Sheryl said. Susana treated her older patients as if they were her own parents, she added.
Susana was warm, selfless and a constant source of comfort. Sheryl said, “My mom always had the right words.”
Susana’s husband, Alfredo Pabatao, began showing symptoms of COVID-19 in mid-March, and Susana became ill soon after. Sheryl, who described the two as “inseparable,” said: “When my dad got sick, it’s like part of her was not there anymore.”
Alfredo was hospitalized, and Susana spent her last days at home resting and speaking with him on FaceTime. Sheryl, who lived with her parents, said she overheard the two console each other one morning. “My mom was telling my dad, ‘We’ve gone through so many things, we’re going to get through this.”
Alfredo died on March 26. Susana died four days later.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published May 15, 2020
(Return to top.)
Air Force Doctor Had Served In The White House
(Courtesy of the Medical Center of Annandale)
Steven Perez
Age: 68 Occupation: Internal medicine physician Place of Work: Medical Center of Annandale in Annandale, Virginia Date of Death: May 7, 2020
When George H.W. Bush announced his 1988 run for the presidency, Steven Perez was one of the doctors who gave him a clean bill of health.
An “Air Force brat” who was born in the United Kingdom, Perez served as a flight surgeon and medical director in the Air Force Medical Service Corps before practicing as a physician in the White House from 1986 to 1990, according to a statement from his family.
“It was the honor of his life,” his son, Benjamin Perez, said.
Perez went into private practice in San Antonio in the early ’90s before opening his own clinic in Northern Virginia. He also taught at the University of Virginia.
According to his family, he made a promise to God and “never refused medical aid to the poor who came to his office, even accepting yams as payment on occasion.”
Perez’s family describes him as a proud grandfather to his three grandchildren (with two more on the way); he loved the University of Southern California Trojan football, the Dallas Cowboys and the Nationals.
“He could make anyone laugh, knew just what to say, and showed profound love for his friends and family,” his family wrote in an obituary. “Every person he met felt like they were the reason he was there.”
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published May 15, 2020
(Return to top.)
She Jumped At Chance To Lend Her Nursing Skills To Her Beloved New York
(Courtesy of the Sell family)
Rosemary Sell
Age: 80 Occupation: Pediatric nurse practitioner Place of Work: New York City public schools Date of Death: April 17, 2020
Rosemary Sell was a New Yorker through and through. Born in Washington Heights in northern Manhattan, she went to nursing school in Greenwich Village and raised her five boys on the Lower East Side.
In the 1960s, she traveled to Berlin, where she worked as a nurse for the British army and met her future husband, Peter. A lifelong love of travel was born. Gregarious and high-energy by nature, she loved meeting new people. “Wherever she’d go, she’d make a new friend,” said her son, also named Peter.
In later years, Sell spent much of her time in Florida. But she jumped at opportunities to lend her nursing skills to her home city and see her grandchildren and friends.
In February, she was contacted by a firm that places nurses on temporary assignments. Her children were concerned about the encroaching pandemic, especially given her age. “But they need a nurse,” she responded. She traveled to New York to fill in as a nurse at several schools citywide just as the pandemic took hold. The firm, Comprehensive Resources, did not respond to questions on protections for its contractors.
Sell began developing symptoms in mid-March, just before the citywide school closure went into effect. She returned home to Florida, where she died from pneumonia caused by COVID-19.
Before Rosemary died, she had been hatching her next adventure with a friend: to travel to India. She wanted to see the Taj Mahal.
— Noa Yachot, The Guardian | Published May 15, 2020
(Return to top.)
A Hands-On Pharmacist Who Made The Big City Feel Smaller
(Courtesy of Zair Yasin)
Ali Yasin
Age: 67 Occupation: Pharmacist Place of Work: New York City Pharmacy in East Village, Manhattan Date of Death: May 4, 2020
Ali Yasin was a small-town druggist in a big city filled with impersonal, chain-store pharmacies. He found a way to operate a robust business and still be on a first-name basis with his customers. Over the years, he became their medical consultant, insurance whisperer and friend.
Jen Masser said she stumbled into Yasin’s pharmacy the first time, covered from hands to elbows in hives. “Something is happening, see someone right away,” Yasin advised. “This could be a serious disease.” He turned out to be right, encouraging her to keep seeing doctors until she finally got the proper autoimmune diagnosis.
Born in Pakistan, Yasin moved to the United States in 1979 and worked in various pharmacies before opening his own in 2001. He ran it with the help of his four sons.
In March, after serving customers in hard-hit Manhattan in his typical hands-on manner, Yasin contracted a cough and tested positive for COVID-19. By month’s end, he was in the hospital on a ventilator. He died May 4.
The storefront window of the Yasin family pharmacy is pasted with condolence cards. Son Zair Yasin said the outpouring has been immense: “I didn’t realize until he was gone how many people he touched.”
— Kathleen Horan | Published May 15, 2020
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Nurse Wouldn’t Abandon Her Patients Or Let Family Worry
(Courtesy of the Isaacs family)
Marsha Bantle
Age: 65 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Signature Healthcare in Newburgh, Indiana Date of Death: May 1, 2020
Marsha Bantle’s family begged her to quit after a resident in the nursing home where she worked was diagnosed with COVID-19.
But Bantle wouldn’t leave. “My patients can’t leave their rooms, they can’t see their families. They really need me right now,’” she told her cousin Carol Isaacs.
Bantle tried to reassure relatives she would limit her exposure, but, on April 17, her temperature spiked. Bantle, who lived alone, holed up at home. She finally called her family when it was clear she needed to be hospitalized.
“That’s Marsha for you,” her cousin John Isaacs said. “She didn’t want us to worry.”
Even while hospitalized, Bantle was selfless, said Shay Gould, the ICU nurse who cared for her. She offered to turn off her medication pump to save the nurse a trip. She asked for other patients’ names to pray for them.
After about a week, Bantle had a stroke, likely brought on by the COVID-19 infection. Within days, she died.
Since April, the nursing home has had 52 positive cases and 13 COVID-19 deaths, including Bantle’s. In a statement, Signature Healthcare said: “The loss of any of our residents or staff, for any reason, is devastating.”
— Michelle Crouch | Published May 12, 2020
(Return to top.)
Pharmacist, Feeling Sick, Didn’t Want To Let Patients Down
(Courtesy of the Boynes family)
Sean Boynes
Age: 46 Occupation: Pharmacist Place of Work: AbsoluteCare Medical Center & Pharmacy in Greenbelt, Maryland Date of Death: April 2, 2020
When the coronavirus began circulating in the Washington metropolitan region, Sean Boynes went to work.
“Patients need their medicine,” he told his wife, Nicole.
The medical center where he worked bills itself as “a medical home for the sickest of the sick”; many of its patients struggle with chronic illness and poverty. Boynes was the Greenbelt branch’s first pharmacist.
He was an “incredible, loving guy,” said Dr. Gregory Foti, chief of innovative operations at AbsoluteCare.
Boynes was a proud Howard University alumnus and had three degrees — a bachelor’s of science in biology, a master’s in exercise physiology and a doctorate in pharmacy — from the institution.
In early March, Boynes and his wife began feeling sick. Boynes didn’t want to stop working but thought “taking a sick day might be OK,” Nicole said. He also took a break from being a jungle gym to his eight- and 11-year-old girls. Nicole called him “Super Dad.”
Nicole got better, but Sean, who had asthma, saw his breathing deteriorate.
On March 25, Nicole dropped him at the hospital doors. The medical staff confirmed COVID-19. The family never saw him again.
Foti said AbsoluteCare follows CDC recommendations, such as providing staff with face masks, and declined to comment on where Boynes became infected. He said “it was literally impossible to tell” where Boynes had contracted the virus.
To honor him, AbsoluteCare is naming the Greenbelt pharmacy after Boynes.
— Sarah Jane Tribble, Kaiser Health News | Published May 12, 2020
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A Spry EMT, He Made ‘The Ultimate Sacrifice’
(Courtesy of Toni Lorenc)
John Careccia
Age: 74 Occupation: Emergency medical technician and rescue squad chief Place of Work: Woodbridge Township Ambulance and Rescue Squad in Iselin, New Jersey Date of Death: April 17, 2020
“That’s not the way you throw a curveball!” John Careccia famously declared to his grandson at a family picnic, according to his daughter, Toni Lorenc. Careccia then threw the ball so wide that it broke a window in her shed.
“That’s how you throw the batter off,” he said, brushing off the mishap.
“Typical Pop-Pop,” Lorenc said. “He had so much confidence in himself.”
Careccia, who worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for 30 years, harnessed his self-confidence into a second career. Inspired by two EMTs who saved his son’s life, he became a volunteer EMT in 1993. A consummate educator, he taught CPR, mentored young EMTs and gave catechism classes at his church, Lorenc said.
A spry 74, Careccia responded to 911 calls as chief of his rescue squad, a volunteer position. On a March 25 call, he evaluated a coronavirus patient, said Ed Barrett, squad president. Careccia died of COVID-19 several weeks later.
At his firehouse memorial service, Careccia was summoned over a loudspeaker for his “last call.”
“Having heard no response from Chief Careccia, we know that John has made the ultimate sacrifice,” said Steve Packer, a previous squad president. “His leadership, dedication, compassion and friendship will be greatly missed.”
— Melissa Bailey | Published May 12, 2020
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Police Officer Turned Nurse Practitioner Was Pursuing A Doctorate
(Courtesy of Dennis Graiani)
Kevin Graiani
Age: 56 Occupation: Family nurse practitioner Place of Work: Rockland Medical Group in Garnerville, New York Date of Death: March 30, 2020
Kevin Graiani always wanted to work in health care, according to Dennis Graiani, one of his three sons. But his mother told him he needed a pension, so he became a cop.
Kevin, who grew up in the Bronx, served five years on the New York City Housing Authority police force, then 15 on a suburban police force in Spring Valley, New York. He was a “brilliant officer,” said Lt. Jack Bosworth of Spring Valley.
Known for his dry sense of humor, Kevin often rattled off quotes from movies. He played bagpipes for the Rockland County Police Emerald Society, a law enforcement group. When he retired from police work, he began nursing school and became a nurse practitioner in 2018.
Kevin, who worked at a private practice, became sick on March 10 and was later diagnosed with COVID-19, Dennis said.
He loved learning and was set to finish classes this summer for his doctorate of nursing practice, said Lynne Weissman, his professor and program director at Dominican College.
He was an “extremely bright student” with a 3.7 GPA, Weissman said.
She has nominated him for a posthumous degree.
— Melissa Bailey | Published May 12, 2020
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School Nurse ‘Was A Mother To Many’
(Courtesy of the Howard family)
Marilyn Howard
Age: 53 Occupation: School nurse Place of Work: Spring Creek Community School in Brooklyn, New York Date of Death: April 4, 2020
Marilyn Howard was known for her generosity and never missing a party. Born in Guyana, she came to the U.S. as a teenager. She helped raise her five brothers, putting her ambitions on hold. “She was a mother to many,” her brother Haslyn said.
In her mid-30s, she turned to her own career goals. She steadily racked up four nursing degrees and recently had begun studying to become a nurse practitioner.
Howard, who lived in Queens, New York, was a school nurse in Brooklyn, where she regularly treated children with chronic illnesses associated with poverty. The week before the pandemic shuttered schools, a fellow nurse had a fever and cough.
Days later, Howard developed the same symptoms. After initially improving, she took a sudden turn for the worse April 4. As her brother drove her to the hospital, her heart stopped. She was declared dead at the hospital.
In tribute, hundreds turned out on Zoom to mark Nine-Night — a days-long wake tradition in the Caribbean — where loved ones shared photos, sang songs and recounted Howard’s effect on their lives.
The pandemic has since ripped through Howard’s extended family, infecting at least a dozen relatives. (One cousin was hospitalized but was released and is recovering.) The family has evolved into a sprawling triage team, monitoring one another’s temperatures, delivering food, charting emergency contacts and nearby hospitals.
Howard’s brothers hope to start a foundation in her name to help aspiring nurses in the U.S. and West Indies. “The best way to honor her spirit and her memory is to bring more nurses into this world,” said her brother Rawle. “We need more Marilyns around.”
— Noa Yachot, The Guardian | Published May 12, 2020
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Post-Retirement, She Tirelessly Rejoined Workforce
(Courtesy Bethany MacDonald)
Nancy MacDonald
Age: 74 Occupation: Receptionist Place of Work: Orchard View Manor, a nursing home and rehabilitation center in East Providence, Rhode Island Date of Death: April 25, 2020
Nancy MacDonald tried retiring, but couldn’t make it stick.
For 20 years, she was a middle school teaching assistant and cheerleading coach. At home, she loved painting rocks and watching “Blue Bloods” and “American Idol.” She was married with two adult children.
A lifelong Rhode Islander, Nancy was a people person, her daughter, Bethany MacDonald, said. “She always wanted to help others.”
So, in 2017, it was natural that she’d go back to work, this time at a nursing home.
As Orchard View’s COVID case count escalated, MacDonald worried. Still, she kept coming in — washing and reusing her N95 respirator and having her temperature taken daily.
Tim Brown, an Orchard View spokesperson, said the facility has “extensive infection control,” satisfying government guidelines. He would not say how often employees receive new N95s.
On April 13, MacDonald began coughing. By April 16, she was hospitalized. Her COVID test came back positive. She died 10 days later ― almost a week after her last conversation with her daughter.
“I said, ‘Mama, we love you,’” Bethany said. “The last words she said to me were, ‘I love you, too.’”
— Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News | Published May 12, 2020
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Despite Danger, Semi-Retired Nurse Kept Caring For ER Patients
(Courtesy of the Miles family)
Sheena Miles
Age: 60 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Scott Regional Hospital in Morton, Mississippi Date of Death: May 1, 2020
At age 60, Sheena Miles was semi-retired. She usually worked every other weekend, but as COVID-19 emerged in Mississippi, she worked four weekends in a row from mid-March to mid-April.
“I’ve got a duty,” she told her son, Tom Miles.
The economy where she lived is dominated by poultry plants, and the county has been a coronavirus hot spot. Sheena was diligent with protective gear, wearing her mask and doubling up on gloves, Tom said. She stayed home when she wasn’t working.
“Losing Sheena has been a tragic loss, as she had been a part of our hospital for 25 years,” said Heather Davis, a hospital administrator.
Sheena took ill on Easter Sunday. By Thursday, Tommy Miles, her husband of 43 years, drove her to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.
Two long weeks passed. The family was allowed to say goodbye in person, and on their way into her room, an ICU nurse told them that years ago Sheena had cared for his infant daughter. “‘Your mom saved her life,’” the nurse said.
“That was a little comfort in the storm,” Sheena’s son said.
— Michaela Gibson Morris | Published May 12, 2020
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A Nurse Who Was Living Her Dream Of Working In The U.S.
(Courtesy of Venus Donasco-Delfin)
Anjanette Miller
Age: 38 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Community First Medical Center and Kindred Chicago Lakeshore in Chicago, and Bridgeway Senior Living in Bensenville, Illinois Date of Death: April 14, 2020
As a child, Anjanette Miller dreamed of becoming a nurse in the U.S. She studied in her native Philippines and worked briefly in Saudi Arabia before fulfilling her wish in 2001.
Miller settled in Chicago and worked as a supervising nurse at three facilities. Her sister, Venus Donasco-Delfin, said Miller got along well with co-workers who shared her work ethic.
“At work, I think, she was strict, but beyond work, she’s a great friend,” Donasco-Delfin said. One of five siblings, she was the “pillar of the family” and supported relatives back home.
“I studied psychology for two years,” Donasco-Delfin said, “but she kept calling me [in the Philippines] and said, ‘No, Venus. … You have to pursue nursing. You will make a difference.’” Donasco-Delfin, now in Canada, became a nurse.
Miller started feeling sick in mid-March and was diagnosed with COVID-19 in early April. She self-isolated, chronicling her illness on YouTube and Facebook. She was hospitalized April 5 and died nine days later.
Miller had hoped to retire to the Philippines and pursue her other passion, filmmaking. Last year she traveled back home to shoot scenes for a project. “The movie she was making is about her life story,” Donasco-Delfin said. “But it’s not finished yet.”
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published May 12, 2020
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He Took The Time To Put Patients At Ease
(Courtesy of Holy Name Medical Center)
Jesus Villaluz
Age: 75 Occupation: Patient transport worker Place of Work: Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey Date of Death: April 3, 2020
After Jesus Villaluz died from COVID-19 complications, colleagues lined the hallway at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey, to say goodbye. They’d never done that for anyone else.
“Jesus knew many and meant a lot to all of us, so this gesture felt like the right thing to do,” said hospital spokesperson Nicole Urena.
The hospital, and surrounding Bergen County, have been hit hard by the pandemic. By May 8, Holy Name had treated more than 6,000 COVID patients, 181 of whom died.
Villaluz worked at Holy Name for 27 years. In a Facebook post, the hospital memorialized Villaluz’s generosity: He once won a raffle and shared the winnings with colleagues, an anecdote New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy repeated at a news conference. Family members declined requests for an interview.
Co-worker Hossien Dahdouli said Villaluz’s compassion for patients was exemplary. He never rushed anyone, took the time to chat with patients and was always concerned for their privacy and safety, Dahdouli said.
Years ago, after Dahdouli had a sad day caring for deteriorating ICU patients, he asked Villaluz why he always appeared so happy.
“He said, ‘My worst day at work is better than someone’s best day as a patient.’”
— Anna Almendrala, Kaiser Health News | Published May 12, 2020
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Family Vacations And Reggae Gave Rhythm To His Life
(Courtesy of Nina Batayola)
Don Ryan Batayola
Age: 40 Occupation: Occupational therapist Place of Work: South Mountain Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Vauxhall, New Jersey Date of Death: April 4, 2020
April 4 was the day Don and Nina Batayola had planned to leave for London on a 10-day European vacation. Instead, that was the day Don died of COVID-19.
The Springfield, New Jersey, couple loved to travel ― on their own or with their children, Zoie, 10, and Zeth, 8. Disney World. Road trips to Canada. Every year for a week they would savor the beach on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
Don’s love of reggae music prompted a trip to Jamaica to visit Bob Marley’s birthplace.
The Batayolas, both occupational therapists, moved to New Jersey from the Philippines 13 years ago to pursue their careers.
“He loved to help,” Nina said. “He had such the ability to make everybody smile or laugh.”
Don worked with at least one patient and a handful of colleagues who subsequently tested positive for COVID-19, and in late March, he developed symptoms. Nina came home from work for lunch on March 31 to find him struggling to breathe. She dialed 911.
He was hospitalized, then she also developed COVID symptoms. Self-isolating at home, Nina talked with Don once a day. She thought he seemed stronger but, on the fourth day, his heart suddenly stopped.
— Michelle Andrews | Published May 8, 2020
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Even On ‘The Saddest Day … She Could Make You Laugh’
(Courtesy of Kim Bruner)
Brittany Bruner-Ringo
Age: 32 Occupation: Nurse Place of Work: Silverado Beverly Place in Los Angeles Date of Death: April 20, 2020
When it was Brittany Bruner-Ringo’s turn to pick the family vacation, it was always New Orleans. A city so full of life.
And that is how family described the 32-year-old who left the Oklahoma plains for the excitement of Southern California.
“She always made the best of things,” her mother, Kim Bruner, said. “It could be the saddest day, and she could make you laugh.”
Bruner-Ringo worked at a dementia care center. On March 19, she admitted a patient flown in from New York. She suspected he might have COVID-19, and she was nervous. For fear of frightening the patients, she hadn’t been allowed to wear a mask or gloves, she told her mom by phone that night. (A spokesperson from her employer said, “We have no issues in our environment using appropriate masking and gloves and have followed CDC guidelines throughout this pandemic. We have always had adequate PPE to protect our residents and associates.”)
The following day, the patient grew worse. Bruner-Ringo checked into a hotel to isolate from her roommate. She later tested positive for COVID-19, but when she developed symptoms did not complain ― even to her mom: “She would say, ‘I’m fine. I’m going to beat this. Don’t worry about me.’”
Bruner, a veteran nurse herself, called the hotel front desk for help getting an ambulance to her daughter. She had just hung up with her daughter, who insisted she was fine, while struggling to breathe.
— Samantha Young, Kaiser Health News | Published May 8, 2020
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He And His Wife Shared A Lust For Travel ― And A COVID Diagnosis
(Courtesy of LaKita Bush)
Joshua Bush
Age: 30 Occupation: Nurse and nursing student Place of Work: Benton House of Aiken in Aiken, South Carolina Date of Death: April 17, 2020
Joshua Bush never let his wife, LaKita, forget that she was five hours late for their first date.
“He never held back telling the truth,” LaKita said, with a doleful laugh.
They met online in 2011, each attracted to the other’s lust for travel. For Joshua’s 30th birthday, they took a cruise to Bermuda. He yearned to go farther afield to Tokyo to revel over anime.
Joshua began his nursing career after high school, eventually ending up at Benton House of Aiken, an assisted living facility. Joshua and LaKita, who works in human resources for a hospital, thought it was allergy-related when they both fell ill in late March. Benton House had no confirmed COVID cases at the time, LaKita said. Even still, the staff was taking precautions.
A doctor prescribed Joshua flu medication, but his symptoms — fever and aches but no cough — worsened, and he was admitted to a hospital in Augusta, Georgia, on April 4.
“That was the last time I saw him alive,” LaKita said.
Over the next few days, both tested positive for the coronavirus. Joshua was sedated in the hospital for two weeks and died on April 17. LaKita recovered at home.
Joshua was earning a bachelor’s degree in nursing at the University of South Carolina-Aiken. May would have marked the couple’s fifth anniversary.
— Sarah Varney, Kaiser Health News | Published May 8, 2020
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Her Sudden Death Blindsided Husband And Autistic Son
(Courtesy of Vincent Carmello)
Karen Carmello
Age: 57 Occupation: Licensed practical nurse Place of Work: Maryhaven Center of Hope in Port Jefferson Station, New York Date of Death: April 16, 2020
Karen Carmello had an intimate understanding of working with intellectually disabled patients.
Her 26-year-old son, Steven, has autism. According to her husband, Vincent, the two spoke by phone every day. Steven would recall exactly what he did, and Karen listened intently.
“She could do no wrong in his eyes, ever,” Vincent said. “It’s a very special bond, but it’s one that she earned.”
Sharing the news of her death was shattering: “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do — letting him know.”
When Karen took ill, she discovered that a patient in her ward had tested positive for COVID-19. She was hospitalized March 23. Eight days later, she sent Vincent her last text, at 2:17 a.m., before going to the ICU.
On April 16, hospital staff called and asked whether Vincent would be comfortable signing a do-not-resuscitate order. He hadn’t been able to see his wife, so he didn’t completely grasp how grave her condition was.
“I thought, ‘OK, this must be a formality,'” he said. “I authorized it. And I got a call within two hours that she passed. I was stunned.”
— Shoshana Dubnow, Kaiser Health News | Published May 8, 2020
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His Facebook Posts Left Clues Of A Tragic Timeline
(Courtesy of Felicia Dodson-Hill)
Maurice Dotson
Age: 51 Occupation: Certified nursing assistant Place of Work: West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin, Texas Date of Death: April 17, 2020
Maurice Dotson’s sister knew something was wrong when her older brother didn’t post his daily Facebook update.
“We knew he was good as long as he posted every morning,” Felicia Dodson-Hill, of Jacksonville, Arkansas, said.
Dotson, 51 ― a certified nursing assistant for 25 years at the West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin — had begun caring for COVID-19 patients.
He sounded positive on Facebook, posting on March 30: “We are going through scary, difficult times, but better days are coming.”
Days later, family in Arkansas couldn’t reach him.
“We had been trying to get in contact with him since April 1st,” his sister said. “On April 3rd, he posted that he had to go to the hospital ― that he was not feeling good.”
Dodson-Hill said the hospital sent him home. Her mother finally reached him on April 6 or 7.
“He told my mom he didn’t have the energy to barely talk,” Dodson-Hill said.
Dawunna Wilson, a cousin from Hazen, Arkansas, said Maurice called an ambulance on April 8. Results from his coronavirus test done at the hospital came back positive the next day. “From there, it was pretty much downhill,” Wilson said.
— Sharon Jayson | Published May 5, 2020
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Community Salutes Nurse Who Loved Baseball
(Courtesy of Leigh Ann Lewis)
Barbara Finch
Age: 63 Occupation: Licensed practical nurse Place of Work: Southern Virginia Regional Medical Center in Emporia, Virginia Date of Death: March 29, 2020
When Barbara Finch got excited, she’d scrunch her hands into fists and wave them around like a kid at Christmas. She did it when the Atlanta Braves scored, or while watching her grandkids play baseball, her No. 1 passion outside work.
Finch spent her 37-year nursing career in the emergency department of the hospital in Emporia, Virginia (population of about 5,000), where one of her four children, Leigh Ann Lewis, worked as an EMT.
Lewis knew her mother was well liked: Patients she transported from the hospital would rave that Finch had been sweet and compassionate.
Finch fell ill on March 17 and died in an ICU 12 days later. As a hearse carried her casket to the graveyard, Lewis said, people lined the way at driveway mailboxes, churches and stores, holding signs that read, “We love you,” “Praying for you,” “Hugs.” At her hospital, employees released balloons to the sky.
“It seemed like, in our area, she knew everybody — either she worked with them, or they were a patient of hers at some point,” Lewis said. “It was a very, very large outpour of love and comfort and solidarity.”
— Melissa Bailey | Published May 8, 2020
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‘He Loved To Work,’ With No Plans To Retire
(Courtesy Giancarlo Pattugalan)
Tomas Pattugalan
Age: 70 Occupation: Internal medicine physician Place of Work: Private practice in Jamaica, Queens, New York Date of Death: March 29, 2020
Tomas Pattugalan’s kids had been encouraging him to retire. Even after 45 years of medicine, Pattugalan wasn’t ready to slow down.
“He loved his patients. He loved to work. He loved to help others,” said Giancarlo, his son. “He had an enormous capacity to give of himself.”
A father of three, Pattugalan grew up in the Philippines, emigrating to the U.S. in the 1970s. He was a devout Catholic — attending Mass weekly ― and “karaoke master,” Giancarlo said.
In early March, Pattugalan began testing patients for COVID-19. His medical history, including a family history of strokes and high blood pressure, heightened his own risk. So after tests of two patients returned positive, he got tested himself. On March 24, he learned he had the coronavirus.
“He made a joke and said Prince Charles had tested [positive] too, and he was sharing royalty,” Giancarlo said. “He was making light of it, not trying to get any of us worried.”
Pattugalan had a cough. Then came wheezing. His oxygen levels dropped. He tried hydroxychloroquine, an experimental treatment touted by President Donald Trump that has yielded mixed results. Nothing helped.
On March 29, Pattugalan agreed to seek hospital care. He died that day.
— Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News | Published May 8, 2020
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Says Widow Battling Cancer: ‘He Was My Backbone’
(Courtesy of Melissa Castro Santos)
Darrin Santos
Age: 50 Occupation: Transportation supervisor Place of Work: NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center in White Plains, New York Date of Death: April 4, 2020
Melissa Castro Santos had just started a new treatment for multiple myeloma when her husband, Darrin, got sick.
For nearly two weeks, he isolated in their bedroom, but after he began gasping for air, he went to the hospital. He died of COVID-19 days later.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Castro Santos said.
As a transportation supervisor, Santos delivered health care workers and equipment between hospitals in the New York metropolitan area. He loved his job, Castro Santos said, and was known to drive doctors wherever and whenever they were needed, through heavy traffic and snowstorms.
Castro Santos, who has been battling cancer since 2012, said her husband doted on their three teenagers, all avid athletes. He arranged his work schedule to attend as many of their games as possible. When he couldn’t make it, she would call him on FaceTime so he could catch glimpses of the action.
Unable to hold a funeral, they arranged for burial five days after Santos died. Friends lined the streets in cars in a show of support as the family drove to and from the cemetery.
Now Castro Santos is confronting cancer without her husband. “He was my backbone. He was the one who took me to chemotherapy and appointments.”
— Anna Jean Kaiser, The Guardian | Published May 8, 2020
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An Animal Lover Who Loved Aerospace, She Died Alone At Home
(Courtesy of Aubree Farmer)
Lisa Ewald
Age: 53 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit Date of Death: April 1, 2020
Lisa Ewald was a nurse to many living things, human and otherwise.
When her neighbor Alexis Fernandez’s border collie had a stomach blockage, Ewald hooked the dog up to an IV four times a day. “She was this dedicated nurse who nursed my dog back to health,” Fernandez said.
Ewald also loved gardening, aerospace and comic book conventions.
Ewald told Fernandez that a patient she had treated later tested positive for COVID-19, and that she was not wearing a mask at the time. Two days later, after seeing the patient, she got sick. After delays in accessing a test, she learned on March 30 that she was infected with the coronavirus.
A hospital spokesperson acknowledged that staff who treat coronavirus patients have a higher risk of exposure, but said there was “no way to confirm” how a staff member contracted the virus.
On March 31, Ewald didn’t answer when Fernandez texted her. The next day, Fernandez and a hospital nurse went to Ewald’s home to check on her and found her unresponsive on the couch.
“I said, ‘Aren’t you going to go take her pulse or anything?’” Fernandez said. “The nurse just said, ‘She’s gone.’”
— Melissa Bailey | Published May 5, 2020
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An Ardent EMT Who Seemed To Have Nine Lives
(Courtesy of Ben Geiger)
Scott Geiger
Age: 47 Occupation: Emergency medical technician Place of Work: Atlantic Health System in Mountainside and Warren, New Jersey Date of Death: April 13, 2020
Scott Geiger wasn’t always enthusiastic about school, but at age 16 he brought home a tome the size of two phone books. It was a manual for emergency medical technicians, and he devoured it, said his younger brother, Ben Geiger.
Scott was certified as an EMT at 17. He never married or had kids, but did not seem to miss those things.
“He was so focused on being an EMT and helping people in their most vulnerable and desperate moments,” Ben said. “That’s really what made him feel good.”
Scott loved playing pool each week with friends. He was a loyal New York Jets football fan, content to joke about their follies and watch them lose. He was quiet. And he seemed to have nine lives, his brother said, surviving hospitalizations for epilepsy as a kid and blood cancer around age 40.
When the coronavirus began to tear a path through northern New Jersey, he faced his EMT work with resolve. He downplayed his symptoms when he first fell ill in late March, but wound up spending 17 days on a ventilator before he died. The family has had to mourn separately, with the brothers’ father, who lived with Scott, in quarantine, and their mother confined to her room in a nursing home that has COVID-19 cases.
— Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News | Published May 5, 2020
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Caring Nurse ‘Always Put Herself Last’
(Courtesy of Lisa Lococo)
Theresa Lococo
Age: 68 Occupation: Pediatric nurse Place of Work: Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York Date of Death: March 27, 2020
Theresa Lococo spent most of her life at the hospital, working as a pediatric nurse for almost 48 years.
“There wasn’t a day that goes by she wouldn’t come home and tell me about her patients,” said her daughter, Lisa Lococo. “She had to be forced to take her vacation days.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio publicly saluted her lifelong service to New Yorkers, saying, “She gave her life helping others.”
Theresa had dogs — “sometimes too many,” Lisa said — and lived with her son, Anthony, in the home she owned for decades. She loved cooking and watching cooking shows, reading and following soap operas.
Theresa wasn’t tested for COVID-19. But Kings County Hospital, in Brooklyn, was hit hard by the coronavirus.
Days before dying, she described nausea. Friends recalled a cough. Her supervisor encouraged her to stay home, her daughter said.
Lisa called her mother on March 27, just as Anthony was dialing 911 for help.
“She always put others first,” Lisa said. “She always put herself last.”
— Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News | Published May 5, 2020
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He Was Full Of Life And Planning For The Future
(Courtesy of the Luna family)
Felicisimo “Tom” Luna
Age: 62 Occupation: Emergency room nurse Place of Work: Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey Date of Death: April 9, 2020
Tom Luna was a joker, a lively and outgoing man who thrived on the fast-paced and varied action of the emergency room. He also adored his three daughters, something clear to all who knew him.
“Tom was a fantastic emergency nurse. He was well liked and loved by his peers,” Gerard Muench, administrative director of the Trinitas emergency department, said in a statement. “His greatest love was for his wife and daughters, who he was very proud of.”
His oldest daughter, Gabrielle, 25, followed his path to become an ER nurse. When Tom fell ill with the coronavirus, he was admitted to the hospital where she works. At the end of her 12-hour night shifts, she made sure he had breakfast and helped him change his clothes. She propped a family photo next to his bed.
Tom’s wife, Kit, also a nurse, said that when some of his symptoms appeared to let up, they talked about him recovering at home. He was a planner, she said, and was already talking about their next family vacation, maybe to Spain.
— Christina Jewett | Published May 5, 2020
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Air Force Veteran Went ‘Above And Beyond For Patients’
Michael Marceaux and his wife, Dunia, when he graduated from nursing school in 2018 (Courtesy of Drake Marceaux)
Michael Marceaux
Age: 49 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Christus Highland Medical Center and Brentwood Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana Date of Death: April 16, 2020
After Michael Marceaux retired from the Air Force, he went back to school. In 2018 he launched a new career as an emergency room nurse.
“Everyone who worked with him said he was so happy,” said Drake Marceaux, one of his four sons. “He was willing to go above and beyond for patients.”
As the coronavirus spread throughout Louisiana, Michael developed a cough and fever. Soon afterward, he tested positive for COVID-19.
“He didn’t seem too worried,” Drake said. “He just wanted to make sure not to give it to other people.”
A spokesperson with Christus Health said Michael would be missed for “how he always had a positive attitude, even after a hard shift. His laughter brought joy to others.” The spokesperson declined to answer questions about workplace safety conditions.
Drake said he wanted his father to be remembered for how much he was loved.
His funeral was livestreamed on Facebook. “At one point, there were 2,000 viewers watching his service,” Drake said. “As much as he didn’t want attention, it gravitated toward him.”
— Victoria Knight, Kaiser Health News | Published May 5, 2020
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She Loved To Give Gifts And Never Forgot Her Hometown
(Courtesy of Courtesy of Donald Jay Marcos)
Celia Lardizabal Marcos
Age: 61 Occupation: Telemetry charge nurse Place of Work: CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles Date of Death: April 17, 2020
Whenever she traveled to her hometown of Tagudin in the Philippines, Celia Lardizabal Marcos showered family with gifts and delighted in planning weekend outings for everyone, said her eldest son, Donald.
And when she returned home to California, she brought presents for her sons. “She always thought of how her family could be happy,” he said.
Trained as a nurse in her home country, Marcos emigrated to the United States in 2001 and settled in Los Angeles. Three years later, she became a telemetry charge nurse, a specialist who tracks patients’ vital signs using high-tech equipment.
On April 3, she was one of three nurses who responded after a suspected COVID patient went into cardiac arrest. Wearing a surgical mask, she intubated the patient. Three days later, she had a headache, body aches and difficulty breathing.
Her symptoms worsened, and she was admitted April 15 to the hospital where she had worked for 16 years. That was the last time Donald spoke to his mother. Two days later, she went into cardiac arrest and died that night.
Her sons plan to honor her wishes to be cremated and buried in Tagudin, alongside her parents.
— Christina M. Oriel, Asian Journal | Published May 5, 2020
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‘Hero Among Heroes,’ Doctor Cared For Generations Of Patients
Francis Molinari (right) with his siblings (from left) Janice, Albert and Lisa (Courtesy of Lisa Molinari)
Francis Molinari
Age: 70 Occupation: Physician Place of Work: Private practice in Belleville, New Jersey; privileges at Clara Maass Medical Center Date of Death: April 9, 2020
In late March, Dr. Francis “Frankie” Molinari told his sister Lisa he was “down for the count,” with chills, fever and trouble breathing.
“Frankie, you know what you have,” she recalled telling him.
“Yes.”
Two days later, he collapsed at home and was rushed to Clara Maass Medical Center. Colleagues stayed by his side as he succumbed to COVID-19.
“We take solace in the fact that he was cared for by colleagues and friends who deeply loved and respected him,” his sister Janice wrote in a blog. “He died a hero among heroes.”
Molinari, a New Jersey native who was married with an adult daughter, was the oldest of four siblings. His sisters describe him as a positive guy who loved music, fishing and teasing people with tall tales: He went to medical school in Bologna, Italy, and he liked to say he had played pinochle with the pope.
Molinari practiced medicine for over four decades, caring for generations of patients in the same family. His family suspects he contracted the coronavirus at his private practice.
“A friend had once described us as four different legs of the same table,” Janice wrote. “Now I’m stuck on the fact that we are only a three-legged table. Less beautiful, less sturdy. Broken.”
— Laura Ungar, Kaiser Health News | Published May 5, 2020
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5-Foot-Tall ‘Fireball’ Was A Prankster To Her Sons
(Courtesy Josh Banago)
Celia Yap-Banago
Age: 69 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri Date of Death: April 21, 2020
Celia Yap-Banago was a 5-foot-tall “fireball,” said one co-worker. She had moved to the U.S. from the Philippines in 1970 and worked for nearly 40 years for the HCA Midwest Health system. Her family said she was planning for retirement.
Her son Josh said she showed her love through practical jokes: “You knew she loved you if she was yelling at you or if she was pranking you.”
“She was very outspoken,” said Charlene Carter, a fellow nurse. “But I later learned that’s a really good quality to have, as a nurse, so you can advocate for your patients and advocate for yourself.”
In March, Yap-Banago treated a patient who later tested positive for COVID-19. Carter said Yap-Banago was not given personal protective equipment because she was not working in an area designed for COVID patients. She spent her final days in isolation to protect others.
A spokesperson for HCA Midwest Health said that medical staff received adequate personal protective equipment in line with CDC guidelines.
Josh said she spoke with reverence of her patients and their families. “She was always focused on the family as a whole, and that the family was taken care of, not just the patient in the bed,” he said.
— Alex Smith, KCUR | Published May 5, 2020
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In Ministry And Rescue Missions, ‘He Put His All Into It’
(Courtesy of the Birmingham Family)
Billy Birmingham Sr.
Age: 69 Occupation: Emergency medical technician Place of Work: Kansas City Missouri Fire Department Date of Death: April 13, 2020
Bill Birmingham Jr. fondly remembers the year his father took on a new career. The whole family studied, even acting out scenes to ensure Billy Birmingham Sr., a minister, was ready for his emergency medical technician exam.
“He put his all into it,” the son recalled.
Billy Birmingham passed the test. And from the late 1990s on, he served as an EMT and a minister.
His family rallied again for his doctorate in pastoral theology. During nearly four decades as a minister, he founded two churches.
“He had a heart for other people,” his son said. “Whatever he could do for other people, he would do it.”
As an EMT with the Kansas City Fire Missouri Department, he was exposed to the novel coronavirus. The cough came in March.
“‘I’m just tired.’ That’s what he kept saying,” his son said. His dad went to the hospital twice. The first time he told the staff about his symptoms and underlying health conditions, then they sent him home.
The second time he arrived in an ambulance. Just over two weeks later, his final hours arrived.
Hospital staff set up a video chat so his family could see him one last time.
— Cara Anthony, Kaiser Health News | Published May 1, 2020
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Jovial Man Trained Scores Of Doctors In Obstetrics, Gynecology And Kindness
(Courtesy of Ashley Ulker)
Luis Caldera-Nieves
Age: 63 Occupation: OB-GYN doctor Place of Work: University of Miami and Jackson health systems in Miami Date of Death: April 8, 2020
“Somos felices.” That was Dr. Luis Caldera-Nieves’ signature signoff after a cesarean section or patient visit or at the end of a difficult shift. “We’re happy,” he meant, and often, when he was around, it was true.
Caldera-Nieves, a popular OB-GYN, trained scores of doctors and helped bring thousands of babies into the world in his 25 years at the University of Miami and Jackson health systems.
Born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, he worked as an Air Force doctor before joining UM, said longtime co-worker Dr. Jaime Santiago. Caldera-Nieves was so devoted to his patients that he often gave them his private phone number — and his wife’s, Santiago said.
Because he was so jovial, he earned the nickname “the Puerto Rican Santa Claus,” Santiago said.
“He was truly loved and admired by everyone who worked with him, and will be remembered for his humor and never-ending positive energy,” said Dr. Jean-Marie Stephan, who trained under Caldera-Nieves.
In a statement, UM and Jackson confirmed Caldera-Nieves died from complications of COVID-19 and said they “grieve the loss of our esteemed and beloved colleague.” He is survived by his wife and six adult children.
— Melissa Bailey | Published May 1, 2020
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A Cluster Of Illness Robs Community Of Another Fearless EMT
(Courtesy of Vito Cicchetti)
Kevin Leiva
Age: 24 Occupation: Emergency medical technician Place of Work: Saint Clare’s Health in Passaic, New Jersey Date of Death: April 7, 2020
When Kevin Leiva died of COVID-19 in early April, it was a second crushing loss to his close-knit team of EMT workers. Their colleague, Israel Tolentino Jr., had died one week before.
“People were scared that everyone was going to die from it,” said Vito Cicchetti, a director at Saint Clare’s Health, where the men worked. “After Izzy died, we all started getting scared for Kevin.”
Leiva, according to an obituary, “was always worried about his crew.” He was “very proud” of his work and was recalled to have said “becoming an EMT was an act of God.”
He met his wife, Marina, online while they were in high school. She moved a thousand miles to build a life with him. He loved spending time at their home, playing guitar and tending to his tegu lizards, AJ and Blue.
As COVID-19 ramped up, the station’s three ambulances each handled up to 15 dispatches a shift, roughly double the usual number. In a busy 12-hour shift, EMTs often responded to calls continuously, stopping only to decontaminate themselves and the truck.
Leiva “always had a joke” that helped to defuse stressful situations and bring his co-workers together, Cicchetti said.
— Michelle Andrews | Published May 1, 2020
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Firefighting And ‘Helping People’ Were In His Blood
(Courtesy of the Terre Haute Fire Department)
John Schoffstall
Age: 41 Occupation: Paramedic and firefighter Place of Work: Terre Haute Fire Department in Terre Haute, Indiana Date of Death: April 12, 2020
John Schoffstall grew up around firehouses, and it was at his own firehouse in Terre Haute, Indiana, that he was exposed to the coronavirus.
A paramedic and firefighter with the Terre Haute Fire Department for almost 12 years, Schoffstall died April 12 at age 41. Deputy Chief Glen Hall said investigations by the county health department and his own department “determined John contracted the virus from another firefighter in the firehouse.” Four other firefighters “had symptoms but none progressed.”
“We respond every day to potential COVID patients,” Hall said.
Jennifer Schoffstall, his wife of 18 years, said her husband went to the hospital March 28.
“His breathing was so bad in the ER, they just decided to keep him,” she said. “He regressed from there.”
Hall said Schoffstall’s “biggest hobby was his family,” with a son, 17, and a daughter, 13.
Schoffstall’s father had been a volunteer firefighter, Jennifer said, and her husband signed up for the New Goshen Volunteer Fire Department when he turned 18.
“He loved the fire service and everything about it,” she said. “He loved helping people.”
— Sharon Jayson | Published May 1, 2020
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Boston Nurse, A Former Bus Driver, Was A Champion For Education
(Courtesy of Teadris Pope)
Rose Taldon
Age: 63 Occupation: Nurse Place of Work: New England Baptist Hospital in Boston Date of Death: April 12, 2020
Rose Taldon was just 5 feet tall. But when she bellowed out the window, her kids ran right home.
“She didn’t take any crap,” said her daughter, Teadris Pope.
Taldon raised three children with her husband on the street where she grew up in Dorchester, Boston. She was respected as a strong black woman, earning a nursing degree while working in public transit for 23 years. Described as stern, she still was quick to tickle her eight grandkids.
Taldon was generous: Even as she lay in a hospital in April, exhausted from the coronavirus, she arranged to pay bills for an out-of-work friend, her daughter said.
It’s unclear whether Taldon caught the virus at her hospital, designated for non-COVID patients. Hospital officials said three patients and 22 staff have tested positive.
Once her mother was hospitalized, Pope couldn’t visit. On Easter morning, a doctor called at 2 a.m., offering to put Taldon on a video call.
“I just talked until I had no words,” Pope said. “I was just telling her, ‘We’re so proud of you. You worked so hard raising us. … You’ve gone through a hell of a fight.'”
An hour later, her mother was gone.
— Melissa Bailey | Published May 1, 2020
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Unflappable First Responder With An Ever-Ready Smile
(Courtesy of Vito Cicchetti)
Israel Tolentino Jr.
Age: 33 Occupation: Emergency medical technician and firefighter Place of Work: Saint Clare’s Health and the Passaic Fire Department, both in Passaic, New Jersey Date of Death: March 31, 2020
When Israel Tolentino Jr. arrived for his EMT shift one morning in March, he seemed fine. Then he got a headache. Then a fever came on, and he was sent home, said Vito Cicchetti, a director at Saint Clare’s Health.
Izzy, as he was called, was an EMT who fulfilled his dream to become a firefighter. In 2018, the former Marine took a job with the Passaic Fire Department but kept up shifts at Saint Clare’s.
He was husband to Maria Vazquez, whom he’d met at church, according to nj.com. They had two young children.
The work pace could be brutal during the pandemic. In a 12-hour shift, Tolentino and his partner were dispatched to one emergency after another, each typically lasting under an hour but requiring nearly that long to decontaminate their gear and truck.
Izzy died in hospital care. The coronavirus tore through his EMT team. Most eventually recovered. But his friend and co-worker Kevin Leiva also died.
Izzy’s unflappable, cheerful presence is missed, Cicchetti said: “No matter how mad you were, he’d come up with a smile and you’d be chuckling to yourself.”
Cicchetti hasn’t replaced either man: “I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet.”
— Michelle Andrews | Published May 1, 2020
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Their Decade-Long Dream Marriage Ends In Nightmare
(Courtesy of the Detroit Fire Department)
Capt. Franklin Williams
Age: 57 Occupation: Firefighter and medical first responder Place of Work: Detroit Fire Department in Detroit Date of Death: April 8, 2020
Capt. Franklin Williams stood at the altar on his wedding day and pretended to hunt for the ring. He patted his chest, then his pants legs and looked up at his soon-to-be wife with a million-dollar smile.
He was always clowning and “so silly,” said Shanita Williams, his wife, recalling how he wanted to make her laugh. Williams, 57, died from complications of the novel coronavirus on April 8 — one month before the couple’s 10-year wedding anniversary.
Williams had been on an emergency call with a verified COVID patient before falling ill, according to Detroit Fire Department Chief Robert Distelrath. He died in the line of duty.
Crews are equipped with personal protective equipment including a gown, N95 mask and gloves. But it’s easy for a mask to slip ― “when you’re giving [chest] compressions, your mask isn’t staying in place all the time,” said Thomas Gehart, president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association.
When Williams fell sick on March 24, he moved to the guest bedroom and never returned to work.
“I’m thankful and thank God for having him in my life,” Shanita said, adding that she keeps hoping this is a nightmare and she’ll soon wake up.
— Sarah Jane Tribble, Kaiser Health News | Published May 1, 2020
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A 9/11 First Responder, He Answered The Call During The Pandemic
(Courtesy of the Valley Stream Fire Department)
Mike Field
Age: 59 Occupation: Volunteer emergency medical technician Place of Work: Village of Valley Stream on New York’s Long Island Date of Death: April 8, 2020
Mike Field had a strong sense of civic duty. An emergency medical technician, he was a first responder with the New York Fire Department (FDNY) on 9/11. He was also a member of his community’s all-volunteer fire department since 1987.
After he retired from FDNY in 2002, he took a job making and posting street signs with his local public works department. He continued to volunteer with Valley Stream’s fire department and mentoring the junior fire department. When he wasn’t responding to emergencies or training future emergency technicians, he led a Boy Scout troop and volunteered for animal causes.
“Here’s somebody who cares about the community and cares about its people,” said Valley Stream’s mayor, Ed Fare, who had known Mike since the seventh grade.
Stacey Field, Mike’s wife, said he found his calling early, after his own father experienced a heart attack. “When the fire department EMTs came and helped his dad, he decided that’s what he wanted to do,” she said.
Their three sons ― Steven, 26; Richie, 22; and Jason, 19 — have followed in their father’s footsteps. Steven and Richie are EMTs in New York; Jason plans on training to become one as well. All three volunteer at the same fire station their father did.
In late March, Mike and fellow volunteer responders were called to an emergency involving a patient showing symptoms of COVID-19. Field died on April 8.
— Sharon Jayson | Published April 29, 2020
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Nurse Fought For His Life In Same ICU Where He Cared For Patients
(Courtesy of Romielyn Guillermo)
Ali Dennis Guillermo
Age: 44 Occupation: Nurse Place of Work: Long Island Community Hospital in East Patchogue, New York Date of Death: April 7, 2020
In 2004, Ali Dennis Guillermo, his wife, Romielyn, and their daughter came to New York from the Philippines to find a better life.
Everything fell into place. The former nursing instructor landed a job at Long Island Community Hospital, often working in intensive care or the emergency room. He enjoyed the intensity of ER work, his wife said. As years passed, the couple had two sons and settled into a close-knit Filipino community.
As COVID-19 emerged, Guillermo was posted to the step-down floor, working with patients transitioning out of intensive care.
A lot of the nurses on his floor had gotten sick with the virus, his wife said, and “everybody was scared.”
And then, Guillermo felt achy, with a fever that soared to 102. He went to the hospital and X-rays were taken, but he was sent home. Within days, his blood oxygen level plummeted.
“My nails are turning blue,” he told his wife. “You should take me to the ER.”
He was admitted that night in late March, and they never spoke again.
In the ICU unit where he’d often worked, Guillermo was intubated and treated. Nearly two weeks later, he died.
— Michelle Andrews | Published April 29, 2020
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An Eager Student, He Aimed To Become A Physician Assistant
(Courtesy of Catrisha House-Phelps)
James House
Age: 40 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Omni Continuing Care nursing home in Detroit Date of Death: March 31, 2020
James House had a voracious appetite for learning about and a fascination with the human body.
His sister, Catrisha House-Phelps, traces it back to childhood visits to a dialysis center where their father received treatments. “That was what tugged at his heart,” she said. “He just always wanted to know ‘why.’”
House-Phelps said her brother adored his five children, treasured his anatomy and physiology books and got a kick out of the residents he cared for at Omni Continuing Care. “He thought they were family; he just said they were funny people,” she said. He had hoped to go back to school to become a physician assistant.
House came down with what he thought was the flu in mid-March. His sister said he tried to get tested for COVID-19 but was turned away because he was not showing textbook symptoms and had no underlying health issues. On March 31, after resting at home for over a week, House returned to work. Hours later, he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.
He texted his sister with updates on his condition. “I’m about to be intubated now,” he wrote. It was the last message he sent her.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 29, 2020
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She Loved A Parade And Catering To Patients
Pamela Hughes and her daughter, Brie (Courtesy of Angie McAllister)
Pamela Hughes
Age: 50 Occupation: Nursing home medication aide Place of Work: Signature HealthCARE at Summit Manor in Columbia, Kentucky Date of Death: April 13, 2020
Pamela Hughes lived her entire life in rural Columbia, Kentucky, but longed for wide, sandy beaches. For vacation, Hughes and her daughter, Brie, 26, eagerly drove 14 hours to Daytona Beach, Florida, or Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
After high school, Hughes worked at Summit Manor, a nursing home in Columbia, for 32 years. She knew which residents preferred chocolate milk or applesauce with their medication; she remembered their favorite outfits and colors. Hughes’ shy demeanor vanished each December when she and co-worker Angie McAllister built a float for the town’s Christmas parade competition.
“We built 10 floats over 10 years,” McAllister said. “We got second place every year.”
Even after several residents tested positive for the coronavirus, Hughes dismissed her worsening cough as allergies or bronchitis. The nursing home was short on help and she wanted to serve her patients, Brie said.
Days later, the public health department suggested her mother get tested. She tested positive, and her health worsened — food tasted bitter, her fever soared, her hearing dulled. On April 10, Hughes was taken by ambulance to a hospital, then by helicopter to Jewish Hospital in Louisville. Barred from visiting, Brie said goodbye over FaceTime.
— Sarah Varney, Kaiser Health News | Published April 29, 2020
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The Family Matriarch And ‘We’re Failing Miserably Without Her’
(Courtesy of Ginu John)
Aleyamma John
Age: 65 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Queens Hospital Center in New York City Date of Death: April 5, 2020
Aleyamma John’s family wanted her to retire. Her husband, Johnny, an MTA transit worker, had stopped working a few years earlier. He and their son Ginu urged her to follow suit. “We told her, ‘I’m sure Dad wants to see the world with you — you need to give him that opportunity,’” Ginu said.
She demurred. “I think she found fulfillment in being able to serve,” Ginu said. “She was able to hold people’s hands, you know, even when they were deteriorating and be there for them.” She began her career as a nurse in India 45 years ago; she and her husband emigrated to the United Arab Emirates, where their two sons were born, and moved to New York in 2002.
Ginu said his mother, a devout Christian, found joy in tending to her vegetable garden and doting on her two grandchildren. She cooked dishes from her native India and filled the Long Island home she shared with Johnny, Ginu and Ginu’s family with flowers.
In March, as Queens Hospital Center began to swell with COVID-19 patients, John sent her family a photo of herself and colleagues wearing surgical hats and masks but not enough personal protective equipment. Days later, she developed a fever and tested positive for the virus. Johnny, Ginu and Ginu’s wife, Elsa, a nurse practitioner, also became ill.
When John’s breathing became labored, her family made the difficult decision to call 911. It would be the last time they saw her. “We’re 17 days in, and I feel like we’re failing miserably without her,” Ginu said.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 29, 2020
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‘A Kind Man’ Looking Forward To Retirement
(Courtesy of Jesse Soto)
Thomas Soto
Age: 59 Occupation: Radiology clerk Place of Work: Woodhull Medical Center, a public hospital in Brooklyn, New York Date of Death: April 7, 2020
After more than 30 years at one of New York City’s busy public hospitals, Thomas Soto loved his job but was looking forward to retiring, said his son, Jesse Soto, who lived with him.
At Soto’s busy station near the emergency room, he greeted patients and took down their information.
“Everybody saw him before their X-rays,” Soto, 29, said. “He smiled all day, made jokes. He was a kind man.”
As COVID patients began to overwhelm Woodhull and other emergency rooms across the city, Soto said that at first his father didn’t have any protective gear.
He eventually got a mask. But he still grew very sick, developing a high fever, body aches and a wracking cough. After a week, Soto said, “he couldn’t take it anymore.”
He went to Woodhull, where he was admitted. When they tried to put him on a ventilator two days later, he died. The hospital did not respond to requests for comment.
— Michelle Andrews | Published April 29, 2020
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‘Blooming’ In Her First Job On Path To Becoming A Nurse
(Courtesy of the Viveros family via GoFundMe)
Valeria Viveros
Age: 20 Occupation: Nursing assistant Place of Work: Extended Care Hospital of Riverside, California Date of Death: April 5, 2020
At 20 years old, Valeria Viveros was “barely blooming,” developing the skills and ambition to pursue a nursing career, said Gustavo Urrea, her uncle. Working at Extended Care Hospital of Riverside was her first job.
Viveros, born in California to Mexican immigrants, grew attached to her patients at the nursing home, bringing them homemade ceviche, Urrea said. About a month ago, as he watched her cook, play and joke with her grandmother, he noticed how much her social skills had grown.
When she would say “Hi, Tío,” in her playful, sweet, high-pitched voice, “it was like the best therapy you could have,” Urrea recalled. Viveros, who lived with her parents and two siblings, was enrolled in classes at a community college.
Viveros felt sick on March 30, went to a nearby hospital and was sent home with Tylenol, Urrea said. By April 4, she couldn’t get out of bed on her own. She left in an ambulance and never came back.
“We’re all destroyed,” he said. “I can’t even believe it.”
On April 5, county health officials reported a coronavirus outbreak had sickened 30 patients and some staff at her nursing home. Trent Evans, general counsel for Extended Care, said staffers are heartbroken by her death.
Viveros was “head over heels in love with the residents that she served,” he said. “She was always there for them.”
— Melissa Bailey | Published April 29, 2020
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Surgical Technician Made Friends Everywhere She Went
(Courtesy of Jorge Casarez)
Monica Echeverri Casarez
Age: 49 Occupation: Surgical technician Place of Work: Detroit Medical Center Harper University Hospital in Detroit Date of Death: April 11, 2020
Monica Echeverri Casarez was in constant motion, said her husband, Jorge Casarez. The daughter of Colombian immigrants, she worked as a Spanish-English interpreter in clinical settings. She was the kind of person whose arrival at a mom and pop restaurant would elicit hugs from the owners. She also co-founded Southwest Detroit Restaurant Week, a nonprofit that supports local businesses.
Twice a month, she scrubbed in as a surgical technician at Harper University Hospital. “She liked discovering the beauty of how the body works and how science is clear and orderly,” Casarez said. She was organized and intuitive, qualities that are assets in the operating room. On March 21, she posted a photo of herself in protective gear with the caption: “I’d be lying if I said I wan’t at least a bit nervous to be there now.” Since many elective surgeries had been canceled, Echeverri Casarez was tasked with taking the temperatures of people who walked into the hospital and making sure their hands were sterilized.
Soon after, Echeverri Casarez and Casarez began feeling ill. Quarantined together, Echeverri Casarez tried to make the best of the situation. She baked her husband a cake — chocolate with white frosting. She died a few days later.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 24, 2020
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A Whip-Smart Neurologist Endlessly Fascinated With The Brain
(Courtesy of Jennifer Sclar)
Gary Sclar
Age: 66 Occupation: Neurologist Place of Work: Mount Sinai Queens in New York City Date of Death: April 12, 2020
Gary Sclar was a whip-smart neurologist who loved comic books, “Game of Thrones” and “Star Wars,” said his daughter, Jennifer Sclar. He was deeply compassionate with a blunt bedside manner.
“My dad was fascinated with the brain and with science,” Jennifer Sclar said. “His work was his passion, and it’s what made him the happiest, besides my brother and me.” Set to retire in June, he was looking forward to writing about politics and neurology.
Gary Sclar saw patients who were showing COVID-19 symptoms and knew his age and underlying health conditions ― he had diabetes — put him at risk for developing complications from the illness. His daughter pleaded with him to stop going to the hospital.
In early April, he mentioned having lost his sense of smell, and on April 8 he collapsed in his home. He was hospitalized a few days later and agreed to be intubated. “I don’t think he realized, like, that this was the end,” Jennifer Sclar said. “He brought his keys. He brought his wallet.”
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 24, 2020
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An Exacting But Loving Aunt, She Was A Mentor Until The End
(Courtesy of Jhoanna Mariel Buendia)
Araceli Buendia Ilagan
Age: 63 Occupation: Intensive care unit nurse Place of Work: Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami Date of Death: March 27, 2020
For Jhoanna Mariel Buendia, her aunt was a constant ― if distant — presence. Araceli Buendia Ilagan emigrated from their hometown Baguio, in the Philippines, to the U.S. before Buendia was born, but she remained close to her family and communicated with them nearly every day.
“She was one of the smartest people I ever knew,” Buendia, 27, said. Buendia Ilagan, who at one point looked into adopting her niece so she could join her and her husband the United States, encouraged Buendia to become a nurse, and talked her through grueling coursework in anatomy and physiology. Buendia is now a nurse in London.
Buendia Ilagan was also demanding. “Whenever she visited the Philippines, she wanted everything to be organized and squeaky-clean,” Buendia said.
The last time the two spoke, in late March, Buendia Ilagan didn’t mention anything about feeling ill. Instead, the two commiserated over their experiences of treating patients with COVID-19; as always, her aunt offered her advice on staying safe while giving the best possible care. She died four days later.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 22, 2020
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A Beloved Geriatric Psychiatrist And Church Musician Remembered For His Cooking Skills
(Courtesy of Nida Gonzales)
Leo Dela Cruz
Age: 57 Occupation: Geriatric psychiatrist Place of Work: Christ Hospital and CarePoint Health in Jersey City, New Jersey Date of Death: April 8, 2020
Dr. Leo Dela Cruz was nervous about going to work in the weeks before he died, his friends said. Like many in the region, Christ Hospital had an influx of COVID-19 patients and faced a shortage of ventilators and masks.
Dela Cruz was a geriatric psychiatrist and didn’t work in coronavirus wards. But he continued to see patients in person. In early April, Dela Cruz, who lived alone, complained only of migraines, his friends said. Within a week, his condition worsened, and he was put on a ventilator at a nearby hospital. He died soon after.
Friends said he may have been exposed at the hospital. (In a statement, hospital representatives said he didn’t treat COVID-19 patients.)
Dela Cruz, the oldest of 10 siblings, came from a family of health care professionals. His friends and family — from Cebu, Philippines, to Teaneck, New Jersey — remembered his jovial personality on Facebook. He won “best doctor of the year” awards, played tennis and cooked traditional Cebu dishes.
Nida Gonzales, a colleague, said he always supported people, whether funding a student’s education or running a church mental health program. “I feel like I lost a brother,” she said.
— Ankita Rao, The Guardian | Published April 22, 2020
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Alabama Nurse Remembered As Selfless But Sassy
(Courtesy of Amanda Williams)
Rose Harrison
Age: 60 Occupation: Nurse Place of Work: Marion Regional Nursing Home in Hamilton, Alabama Date of Death: April 6, 2020
Rose Harrison, 60, lived to serve others ― her husband, three daughters, grandchildren and the residents of the nursing home where she worked. Though the Alabama nurse was selfless, she also had a sassy edge to her personality and a penchant for road rage, her daughter, Amanda Williams said.
“Her personality was so funny, you automatically loved her,” Williams said. “She was so outspoken. If she didn’t agree with you, she’d tell you in a respectful way.”
Harrison was not wearing a mask when she cared for a patient who later tested positive for COVID-19 at Marion Regional Nursing Home in Hamilton, Alabama, her daughter said. She later developed a cough, fatigue and a low-grade fever, but kept reporting to duty all week. Officials from the nursing home did not return calls for comment.
On April 3, Williams drove her mother to a hospital. The following evening, Harrison discussed the option of going on a ventilator with loved ones on a video call, agreeing it was the best course. Williams believed that her mother fully expected to recover. She died April 6.
— Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News | Published April 22, 2020
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Connecticut Social Worker Had Angelic Singing Voice And A Zest For Life
(Courtesy of the Hunt family)
Curtis Hunt
Age: 57 Occupation: Social worker Places of Work: Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center and New Reach, both in New Haven, Connecticut Date of Death: March 23, 2020
At a shelter for adults recovering from addiction, residents looked forward to the days when Marion “Curtis” Hunt would take the stage, emceeing talent shows and belting out Broadway and gospel tunes.
It wasn’t part of his job description as a social worker. It was just one of the ways he went “above and beyond,” said his supervisor at Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, Daena Murphy. “He had a beautiful voice,” she said. “He was just a wonderful person — funny, engaging, always a huge smile on his face.”
Hunt, the youngest of four brothers, earned his master’s in social work from Fordham University at 52, and was baptized at his brother’s Pentecostal church at 54. He was a devoted uncle who doted on his dog and cat, Mya and Milo.
It’s unclear how Hunt got infected, but one patient he worked with had tested positive for COVID-19, as did two co-workers, according to Dr. Ece Tek, another supervisor at Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center. Hunt died on March 23, one week after developing flu-like symptoms, said his brother John Mann Jr.
— Melissa Bailey | Published April 22, 2020
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To The End, King-Smith Was Driven By A Desire To Help Others
(Courtesy of Hassana Salaam-Rivers)
Kim King-Smith
Age: 53 Occupation: Electrocardiogram technician Place of Work: University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey Date of Death: March 31, 2020
Kim King-Smith was a natural caregiver. An only child, she grew up close to her extended family, including her cousins Hassana Salaam-Rivers and Sharonda Salaam. After Salaam developed multiple sclerosis, King-Smith visited her every day.
“She’d bring her sweets that she wasn’t supposed to have and share them with her,” Salaam-Rivers said. King-Smith’s desire to care for others was the reason she became an electrocardiogram technician, her cousin added. “If a friend of a friend or family member went to the hospital, she would always go and visit them as soon as her shift was over,” she said.
In March, King-Smith cared for a patient she said had symptoms of COVID-19; she soon fell ill herself and tested positive for the virus. It seemed like a mild case at first, and she stayed in touch with family via FaceTime while trying to isolate from her husband, Lenny.
On March 29, Salaam-Rivers checked in on her cousin and noticed she was struggling to breathe. She urged her to call an ambulance. After King-Smith was hospitalized, she exchanged text messages with her mother and cousin. As the day progressed, her messages carried increasingly grave news, Salaam-Rivers said. Then she stopped responding.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 22, 2020
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On The Eve Of Retirement, VA Nurse Succumbs To COVID-19
(Courtesy of Mark Accad)
Debbie Accad
Age: 72 Occupation: Clinical nursing coordinator Place of Work: Detroit VA Medical Center in Detroit, Michigan Date of Death: March 30, 2020
Nurse Divina “Debbie” Accad had cared for veterans for over 25 years and was set to retire in April. But after contracting the novel coronavirus, she spent her final 11 days on a ventilator — and didn’t survive past March.
She joined a growing list of health care professionals working on the front lines of the pandemic who have died from COVID-19.
Accad, 72, a clinical nursing coordinator at the Detroit VA Medical Center, dedicated her life to nursing, according to her son Mark Accad.
“She died doing what she loved most,” he said. “That was caring for people.”
Read more here.
— Melissa Bailey | Published April 15, 2020
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California Nurse Thrived In ER and ICU, But Couldn’t Survive COVID-19
Jeff Baumbach and his wife, Karen (Courtesy of the Baumbach family)
Jeff Baumbach
Age: 57 Occupation: Nurse Place of Work: St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton, California Date of Death: March 31, 2020
Jeff Baumbach, 57, was a seasoned nurse of 28 years when the novel coronavirus began to circulate in California. He’d worked in the ER, the ICU and on a cardiac floor. Hepatitis and tuberculosis had been around over the years but never posed a major concern. He’d cared for patients who had tuberculosis.
Jeff and his wife, Karen Baumbach, also a nurse, initially didn’t consider it significantly riskier than challenges they’d faced for years.
“He’d worked in the ICU. He was exposed to so many things, and we never got anything,” she said. “This was just ramping up.”
One day during work, Jeff sent a sarcastic text to his wife: “I love wearing a mask every day.”
Within weeks, he would wage a difficult and steady fight against the virus that ended with a sudden collapse.
Read more here.
— Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News | Published April 15, 2020
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Nurse’s Faith Led Her To Care For Prisoners At A New Jersey Jail
(Courtesy of Denise Rendor)
Daisy Doronila
Age: 60 Occupation: Nurse Place of Work: Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny, New Jersey Date of Death: April 5, 2020
Daisy Doronila had a different perspective than most who worked at the Hudson County Correctional Facility, a New Jersey lockup 11 miles from Manhattan. It was a place where the veteran nurse could put her Catholic faith into action, showing kindness to marginalized people.
“There would be people there for the most heinous crimes,” said her daughter, Denise Rendor, 28, “but they would just melt towards my mother because she really was there to give them care with no judgment.”
Doronila, 60, died April 5, two weeks after testing positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The jail has been hit hard by the virus, with 27 inmates and 68 staff members having tested positive. Among those, another nurse, a correctional officer and a clerk also died, according to Ron Edwards, Hudson County’s director of corrections.
Doronila fell ill before the scope of the jail infections were known. She was picking up extra shifts in the weeks before, her daughter said, and planning on a trip to Israel soon with friends from church.
That plan began to fall apart March 14, when someone at the jail noticed her coughing and asked her to go home and visit a doctor.
Read more here.
— Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News | Published April 15, 2020
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An Army Veteran, Hospital Custodian ‘Loved Helping People’
(Courtesy of Michelle Wilcox)
Alvin Simmons
Age: 54 Occupation: Environmental service assistant Place of Work: Rochester General Hospital in Rochester, New York Death: March 17, 2020
Alvin Simmons started working as a custodian at Rochester General Hospital, in New York state, weeks before he fell ill. “He loved helping people and he figured the best place to do that would be in a hospital,” his sister, Michelle Wilcox said.
An Army veteran who had served in the first Gulf War, Simmons loved karaoke and doted on his three grandchildren, Wilcox said. “He was a dedicated, hardworking individual who had just changed his life around” since a prison stint, she said.
According to Wilcox, Simmons began developing symptoms shortly after cleaning the room of a woman he believed was infected with the novel coronavirus. “Other hospital employees did not want to clean the room because they said they weren’t properly trained” to clean the room of someone potentially infected, she said. “They got my brother from a different floor, because he had just started there,” she said. (In an email, a hospital spokesperson said they had “no evidence to suggest that Mr. Simmons was at a heightened risk of exposure to COVID-19 by virtue of his training or employment duties at RGH.”)
On March 11, he visited the emergency room at Rochester General, where he was tested for COVID-19, Wilcox said. Over the next few days, as he rested at his girlfriend’s home, his breathing became more labored and he began to cough up blood. He was rushed to the hospital on March 13, where he was later declared brain-dead. Subsequently, he received a COVID-19 diagnosis. Simmons died on March 17.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 15, 2020
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Nurse At Nevada VA Dies After Caring For Infected Colleague
(Courtesy of Bob Thompson)
Vianna Thompson
Age: 52 Occupation: Nurse Places of Work: VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System and Northern Nevada Medical Center in Reno, Nevada Date of Death: April 7, 2020
Nurse Vianna Thompson, 52, spent two night shifts caring for a fellow Veterans Affairs health care worker who was dying from COVID-19.
Two weeks later, she too was lying in a hospital intensive care unit, with a co-worker holding her hand as she died.
Thompson and the man she treated were among three VA health care workers in Reno, Nevada, to die in two weeks from complications of the novel coronavirus.
“It’s pretty devastating. It’s surreal. Reno’s not that big of a city,” said Robyn Underhill, a night nurse who worked with Thompson in the ER at Reno’s VA hospital the past two years.
Thompson, who dreamed of teaching nursing one day, died April 7, joining a growing list of health care professionals killed in the pandemic.
Read more here.
— Melissa Bailey | Published April 15, 2020
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Dr. J. Ronald Verrier Was Busy Saving Lives Before The Pandemic
(Courtesy of Christina Pardo)
J. Ronald Verrier
Age: 59 Occupation: Surgeon Place of Work: St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, New York Date of Death: April 8, 2020
Dr. J. Ronald Verrier, a surgeon at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, spent the final weeks of his audacious, unfinished life tending to a torrent of patients inflicted with COVID-19. He died April 8 at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital in Oceanside, New York, at age 59, after falling ill from the novel coronavirus.
Verrier led the charge even as the financially strapped St. Barnabas Hospital struggled to find masks and gowns to protect its workers — many nurses continue to make cloth masks — and makeshift morgues in the parking lot held patients who had died.
“He did a good work,” said Jeannine Sherwood, a nurse manager at St. Barnabas Hospital who worked closely with Verrier.
“He can rest.”
Read more here.
— Sarah Varney, Kaiser Health News | Published April 15, 2020
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America’s First ER Doctor To Die In The Heat Of COVID-19 Battle
(Courtesy of Debra Vasalech Lyons)
Frank Gabrin
Age: 60 Occupation: Doctor Places of Work: St. John’s Episcopal in Queens, New York, and East Orange General in New Jersey Date of Death: March 26, 2020
At about 5 a.m. on March 19, a New York City ER physician named Frank Gabrin texted a friend about his concerns over the lack of medical supplies at hospitals.
“It’s busy ― everyone wants a COVID test that I do not have to give them,” he wrote in the message to Eddy Soffer. “So they are angry and disappointed.”
Worse, though, was the limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) — the masks and gloves that help keep health care workers from getting sick and spreading the virus to others. Gabrin said he had no choice but to don the same mask for several shifts, against Food and Drug Administration guidelines.
“Don’t have any PPE that has not been used,” he wrote. “No N95 masks ― my own goggles — my own face shield,” he added, referring to the N95 respirators considered among the best lines of defense.
Less than two weeks later, Gabrin became the first ER doctor in the U.S. known to have died as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Read more here.
— Alastair Gee, The Guardian | Published April 10, 2020
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This story is part of “Lost on the Frontline,” an ongoing project from The Guardian and Kaiser Health News that aims to document the lives of health care workers in the U.S. who die from COVID-19, and to investigate why so many are victims of the disease. If you have a colleague or loved one we should include, please share their story.
from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/lost-on-the-frontline-health-care-worker-death-toll-covid19-coronavirus/
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Lost On The Frontline
America’s health care workers are dying. In some states, medical staff account for as many as 20% of known coronavirus cases. They tend to patients in hospitals, treating them, serving them food and cleaning their rooms. Others at risk work in nursing homes or are employed as home health aides.
Some of them do not survive the encounter. Many hospitals are overwhelmed and some workers lack protective equipment or suffer from underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to the highly infectious virus.
Many cases are shrouded in secrecy. “Lost on the Frontline” is a collaboration between The Guardian and Kaiser Health News that aims to document the lives of health care workers in the U.S. who die of COVID-19, and to understand why so many are falling victim to the pandemic.
These are some of the first tragic cases.
Lost On The Frontline
This project aims to document the life of every health care worker in America who dies from COVID-19. If you have a colleague or loved one we should include, please share their story.
Lighthearted Nurse ‘Lit Up the Room’
(Courtesy of Alisa Bowens)
Linda Bonaventura
Age: 45 Occupation: Licensed practical nurse Place of Work: Wildwood Healthcare Center in Indianapolis Date of Death: April 13, 2020
Even on bad days, Linda Bonaventura’s lighthearted sense of humor made people feel better, her sister Alisa Bowens said.
Bonaventura dedicated her career to children with special needs and seniors. She did her best to keep her spirits up while working 16-hour days.
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True Toll Of COVID-19 On U.S. Health Care Workers Unknown Apr 15
“We like to say she was laughter,” Bowens said. “She lit up the room.”
In a statement, Ethan Peak, executive director of Wildwood, called Bonaventura a dedicated nurse who “would do anything for her residents and co-workers.”
As the list of patients and employees with COVID-19 grew longer at Wildwood, Bonaventura refused to live in fear, Bowens said.
Bowens recalled the day her sister confessed she was spraying herself with Lysol to kill the germs on her clothes. She did the same for a co-worker. A Wildwood spokesperson said the nursing home had sufficient personal protective equipment for employees.
The sisters, in one of their last conversations, told each other they would be at peace if death came during the pandemic. A short time later, Bonaventura tested positive for COVID-19. Just a week after coming down with a sore throat and fever, she died.
“She believed in fate,” Bowens said. “We shared that belief. But it was still a shock.”
— Cara Anthony | Published May 15, 2020
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Nurse’s Death Ripples Through The Heart Of An Extended Community
(Courtesy of Courtney Christian)
Sheila Faye Christian
Age: 66 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Care Pavilion Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Philadelphia Date of Death: April 19, 2020
So many people are mourning the death of Sheila Christian, her daughter set up a website to comfort them all.
Christian was a longtime friend of Tina Knowles-Lawson ― the mother of Beyoncé — who posted about the loss on Instagram.
But Christian was also a superstar at the center where she worked for 26 years and among those who knew her. She was the kind of person who brought lunch to a new co-worker and hosted a baby shower for someone without close family, according to her daughter and a memorial board.
At the outset of the COVID crisis, Christian was not given personal protective equipment, her daughter, Courtney Christian, 30. She said her mother received a mask only in late March. A lawyer for the center acknowledged Christian’s death and said federal guidelines were followed but didn’t respond to specific questions about protective gear.
Christian was diagnosed April 2. She endured more than a week of fever, chills and coughing, but seemed to be on the mend. She had been cleared to return to work when she collapsed at home. An outpouring of grief followed, her daughter said.
“She just helped and cared for so many people,” she said. “People I had never met.”
— JoNel Aleccia, Kaiser Health News | Published May 15, 2020
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At Work, Church And Home, Army Veteran Gave It His All
(Courtesy of Shlonda Clark)
Roy Chester Coleman
Age: 64 Occupation: Emergency medical technician Place of Work: Overton Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana Date of Death: April 6, 2020
Shlonda Clark calls her father her “favorite superhero.”
It was one of Roy Coleman’s many roles. For the past 11 years, the Army veteran and EMT worked as a housekeeper at the VA hospital in his hometown. He was a church deacon, Sunday school teacher and usher. He also volunteered with special-needs adults.
Roy had a big family, with three children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
“He was funny, he was kind, he was giving,” said Mabel Coleman, his wife of 40 years.
“If he didn’t like you, something was wrong with you,” added Clark.
Coleman fell ill March 23. After three trips to the emergency room, he was admitted March 27, with a fever and labored breathing.
“It was the last time I saw him,” Mabel said.
He tested positive for COVID-19 and died at the hospital where he had worked.
His family said he was concerned about the lack of personal protective equipment. The VA medical center said by email it “has and continues to use PPE in accordance with CDC guidelines.”
— Katja Ridderbusch | Published May 15, 2020
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Beloved Doctor Made House Calls, Treated Patients Like Family
(Courtesy of the Giuliano family)
Michael Giuliano
Age: 64 Occupation: Family practice physician Place of Work: Mountainside Medical Group in Nutley, New Jersey Date of Death: April 18, 2020
For 39 years, Michael Giuliano practiced old-fashioned family medicine.
He made house calls. He visited his patients in the hospital rather than asking another physician to check in on them. He saw generations of the same family.
“Some patients would show up here at the house,’” said Giuliano’s wife, Marylu, a nurse and the office manager of his solo practice. “Patients would call and he’d say, ‘Come on over, I’ll check you out.’ He always went above and beyond.”
A father of five and a grandfather of four, Giuliano was jovial, with a quirky sense of humor and love of Peanuts characters, especially Charlie Brown. He liked to tell patients, “I’ll fix you up.”
“He treated all of his patients like family,” said Nutley Mayor Joseph Scarpelli.
When COVID-19 hit the U.S., Giuliano ordered N95 masks, his family said, but suppliers were out and sent surgical masks instead. Giuliano wore two at a time.
The week of March 16, Giuliano saw four patients with respiratory symptoms who later tested positive for COVID-19. About two weeks later, he tested positive.
Giuliano continued to see patients from home using telemedicine until he was hospitalized. He died 11 days later.
— Michelle Crouch | Published May 15, 2020
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He Tried To Reassure His Family Until The End
(Courtesy of Sheryl Pabatao)
Alfredo Pabatao
Age: 68 Occupation: Orderly Place of Work: Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, New Jersey Date of Death: March 26, 2020
After 44 years of marriage, Alfredo Pabatao still bought his wife, Susana, flowers.
“They were that type of couple that you rarely see nowadays,” their youngest daughter, Sheryl Pabatao, 30, said. “They set such a high standard for us, their kids — that may be the reason why I’m still single.” She said her father was a patient man who could fix just about anything.
The Pabataos came from Quezon City, just outside Manila, in the Philippines. Alfredo worked at a car dealership, and Sheryl said she and her siblings grew up comfortably.
But the couple wanted more for their five children, and immigrated to the United States in October 2011. “The first year that we were here, was really, really tough,” Sheryl remembered. Her oldest two siblings, already adults by the time the Pabataos’ immigration application cleared, had to stay behind.
Alfredo found a job as an orderly at a hospital in New Jersey, where he worked for nearly two decades. In mid-March, he told his family he had transported a patient with signs of COVID-19; he fell ill days later. In a statement, his employer wrote: “We have policies and procedures in place to protect our team members and patients that are all in accordance with CDC guidelines.”
Sheryl said the family’s last conversation with her father was via FaceTime, with him on his hospital bed. Connected to oxygen, he insisted he wasn’t gravely ill. He made jokes and even demonstrated yoga poses to reassure his wife and children. He died soon after.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published May 15, 2020
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A ‘Selfless’ Mother Who ‘Always Had The Right Words’
(Courtesy of Sheryl Pabatao)
Susana Pabatao
Age: 64 Occupation: Assistant nurse Place of Work: Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus, New Jersey Date of Death: April 30, 2020
Susana Pabatao became a nurse in her late 40s, after her family immigrated to the United States.
It eased some of her longing for her own mother, whom she had left behind in the Philippines, her daughter, Sheryl Pabatao said. “It helped her to know that she was helping other people — something that she couldn’t do for my grandmother,” Sheryl said. Susana treated her older patients as if they were her own parents, she added.
Susana was warm, selfless and a constant source of comfort. Sheryl said, “My mom always had the right words.”
Susana’s husband, Alfredo Pabatao, began showing symptoms of COVID-19 in mid-March, and Susana became ill soon after. Sheryl, who described the two as “inseparable,” said: “When my dad got sick, it’s like part of her was not there anymore.”
Alfredo was hospitalized, and Susana spent her last days at home resting and speaking with him on FaceTime. Sheryl, who lived with her parents, said she overheard the two console each other one morning. “My mom was telling my dad, ‘We’ve gone through so many things, we’re going to get through this.”
Alfredo died on March 26. Susana died four days later.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published May 15, 2020
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Air Force Doctor Had Served In The White House
(Courtesy of the Medical Center of Annandale)
Steven Perez
Age: 68 Occupation: Internal medicine physician Place of Work: Medical Center of Annandale in Annandale, Virginia Date of Death: May 7, 2020
When George H.W. Bush announced his 1988 run for the presidency, Steven Perez was one of the doctors who gave him a clean bill of health.
An “Air Force brat” who was born in the United Kingdom, Perez served as a flight surgeon and medical director in the Air Force Medical Service Corps before practicing as a physician in the White House from 1986 to 1990, according to a statement from his family.
“It was the honor of his life,” his son, Benjamin Perez, said.
Perez went into private practice in San Antonio in the early ’90s before opening his own clinic in Northern Virginia. He also taught at the University of Virginia.
According to his family, he made a promise to God and “never refused medical aid to the poor who came to his office, even accepting yams as payment on occasion.”
Perez’s family describes him as a proud grandfather to his three grandchildren (with two more on the way); he loved the University of Southern California Trojan football, the Dallas Cowboys and the Nationals.
“He could make anyone laugh, knew just what to say, and showed profound love for his friends and family,” his family wrote in an obituary. “Every person he met felt like they were the reason he was there.”
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published May 15, 2020
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She Jumped At Chance To Lend Her Nursing Skills To Her Beloved New York
(Courtesy of the Sell family)
Rosemary Sell
Age: 80 Occupation: Pediatric nurse practitioner Place of Work: New York City public schools Date of Death: April 17, 2020
Rosemary Sell was a New Yorker through and through. Born in Washington Heights in northern Manhattan, she went to nursing school in Greenwich Village and raised her five boys on the Lower East Side.
In the 1960s, she traveled to Berlin, where she worked as a nurse for the British army and met her future husband, Peter. A lifelong love of travel was born. Gregarious and high-energy by nature, she loved meeting new people. “Wherever she’d go, she’d make a new friend,” said her son, also named Peter.
In later years, Sell spent much of her time in Florida. But she jumped at opportunities to lend her nursing skills to her home city and see her grandchildren and friends.
In February, she was contacted by a firm that places nurses on temporary assignments. Her children were concerned about the encroaching pandemic, especially given her age. “But they need a nurse,” she responded. She traveled to New York to fill in as a nurse at several schools citywide just as the pandemic took hold. The firm, Comprehensive Resources, did not respond to questions on protections for its contractors.
Sell began developing symptoms in mid-March, just before the citywide school closure went into effect. She returned home to Florida, where she died from pneumonia caused by COVID-19.
Before Rosemary died, she had been hatching her next adventure with a friend: to travel to India. She wanted to see the Taj Mahal.
— Noa Yachot, The Guardian | Published May 15, 2020
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A Hands-On Pharmacist Who Made The Big City Feel Smaller
(Courtesy of Zair Yasin)
Ali Yasin
Age: 67 Occupation: Pharmacist Place of Work: New York City Pharmacy in East Village, Manhattan Date of Death: May 4, 2020
Ali Yasin was a small-town druggist in a big city filled with impersonal, chain-store pharmacies. He found a way to operate a robust business and still be on a first-name basis with his customers. Over the years, he became their medical consultant, insurance whisperer and friend.
Jen Masser said she stumbled into Yasin’s pharmacy the first time, covered from hands to elbows in hives. “Something is happening, see someone right away,” Yasin advised. “This could be a serious disease.” He turned out to be right, encouraging her to keep seeing doctors until she finally got the proper autoimmune diagnosis.
Born in Pakistan, Yasin moved to the United States in 1979 and worked in various pharmacies before opening his own in 2001. He ran it with the help of his four sons.
In March, after serving customers in hard-hit Manhattan in his typical hands-on manner, Yasin contracted a cough and tested positive for COVID-19. By month’s end, he was in the hospital on a ventilator. He died May 4.
The storefront window of the Yasin family pharmacy is pasted with condolence cards. Son Zair Yasin said the outpouring has been immense: “I didn’t realize until he was gone how many people he touched.”
— Kathleen Horan | Published May 15, 2020
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Nurse Wouldn’t Abandon Her Patients Or Let Family Worry
(Courtesy of the Isaacs family)
Marsha Bantle
Age: 65 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Signature Healthcare in Newburgh, Indiana Date of Death: May 1, 2020
Marsha Bantle’s family begged her to quit after a resident in the nursing home where she worked was diagnosed with COVID-19.
But Bantle wouldn’t leave. “My patients can’t leave their rooms, they can’t see their families. They really need me right now,’” she told her cousin Carol Isaacs.
Bantle tried to reassure relatives she would limit her exposure, but, on April 17, her temperature spiked. Bantle, who lived alone, holed up at home. She finally called her family when it was clear she needed to be hospitalized.
“That’s Marsha for you,” her cousin John Isaacs said. “She didn’t want us to worry.”
Even while hospitalized, Bantle was selfless, said Shay Gould, the ICU nurse who cared for her. She offered to turn off her medication pump to save the nurse a trip. She asked for other patients’ names to pray for them.
After about a week, Bantle had a stroke, likely brought on by the COVID-19 infection. Within days, she died.
Since April, the nursing home has had 52 positive cases and 13 COVID-19 deaths, including Bantle’s. In a statement, Signature Healthcare said: “The loss of any of our residents or staff, for any reason, is devastating.”
— Michelle Crouch | Published May 12, 2020
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Pharmacist, Feeling Sick, Didn’t Want To Let Patients Down
(Courtesy of the Boynes family)
Sean Boynes
Age: 46 Occupation: Pharmacist Place of Work: AbsoluteCare Medical Center & Pharmacy in Greenbelt, Maryland Date of Death: April 2, 2020
When the coronavirus began circulating in the Washington metropolitan region, Sean Boynes went to work.
“Patients need their medicine,” he told his wife, Nicole.
The medical center where he worked bills itself as “a medical home for the sickest of the sick”; many of its patients struggle with chronic illness and poverty. Boynes was the Greenbelt branch’s first pharmacist.
He was an “incredible, loving guy,” said Dr. Gregory Foti, chief of innovative operations at AbsoluteCare.
Boynes was a proud Howard University alumnus and had three degrees — a bachelor’s of science in biology, a master’s in exercise physiology and a doctorate in pharmacy — from the institution.
In early March, Boynes and his wife began feeling sick. Boynes didn’t want to stop working but thought “taking a sick day might be OK,” Nicole said. He also took a break from being a jungle gym to his eight- and 11-year-old girls. Nicole called him “Super Dad.”
Nicole got better, but Sean, who had asthma, saw his breathing deteriorate.
On March 25, Nicole dropped him at the hospital doors. The medical staff confirmed COVID-19. The family never saw him again.
Foti said AbsoluteCare follows CDC recommendations, such as providing staff with face masks, and declined to comment on where Boynes became infected. He said “it was literally impossible to tell” where Boynes had contracted the virus.
To honor him, AbsoluteCare is naming the Greenbelt pharmacy after Boynes.
— Sarah Jane Tribble, Kaiser Health News | Published May 12, 2020
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A Spry EMT, He Made ‘The Ultimate Sacrifice’
(Courtesy of Toni Lorenc)
John Careccia
Age: 74 Occupation: Emergency medical technician and rescue squad chief Place of Work: Woodbridge Township Ambulance and Rescue Squad in Iselin, New Jersey Date of Death: April 17, 2020
“That’s not the way you throw a curveball!” John Careccia famously declared to his grandson at a family picnic, according to his daughter, Toni Lorenc. Careccia then threw the ball so wide that it broke a window in her shed.
“That’s how you throw the batter off,” he said, brushing off the mishap.
“Typical Pop-Pop,” Lorenc said. “He had so much confidence in himself.”
Careccia, who worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for 30 years, harnessed his self-confidence into a second career. Inspired by two EMTs who saved his son’s life, he became a volunteer EMT in 1993. A consummate educator, he taught CPR, mentored young EMTs and gave catechism classes at his church, Lorenc said.
A spry 74, Careccia responded to 911 calls as chief of his rescue squad, a volunteer position. On a March 25 call, he evaluated a coronavirus patient, said Ed Barrett, squad president. Careccia died of COVID-19 several weeks later.
At his firehouse memorial service, Careccia was summoned over a loudspeaker for his “last call.”
“Having heard no response from Chief Careccia, we know that John has made the ultimate sacrifice,” said Steve Packer, a previous squad president. “His leadership, dedication, compassion and friendship will be greatly missed.”
— Melissa Bailey | Published May 12, 2020
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Police Officer Turned Nurse Practitioner Was Pursuing A Doctorate
(Courtesy of Dennis Graiani)
Kevin Graiani
Age: 56 Occupation: Family nurse practitioner Place of Work: Rockland Medical Group in Garnerville, New York Date of Death: March 30, 2020
Kevin Graiani always wanted to work in health care, according to Dennis Graiani, one of his three sons. But his mother told him he needed a pension, so he became a cop.
Kevin, who grew up in the Bronx, served five years on the New York City Housing Authority police force, then 15 on a suburban police force in Spring Valley, New York. He was a “brilliant officer,” said Lt. Jack Bosworth of Spring Valley.
Known for his dry sense of humor, Kevin often rattled off quotes from movies. He played bagpipes for the Rockland County Police Emerald Society, a law enforcement group. When he retired from police work, he began nursing school and became a nurse practitioner in 2018.
Kevin, who worked at a private practice, became sick on March 10 and was later diagnosed with COVID-19, Dennis said.
He loved learning and was set to finish classes this summer for his doctorate of nursing practice, said Lynne Weissman, his professor and program director at Dominican College.
He was an “extremely bright student” with a 3.7 GPA, Weissman said.
She has nominated him for a posthumous degree.
— Melissa Bailey | Published May 12, 2020
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School Nurse ‘Was A Mother To Many’
(Courtesy of the Howard family)
Marilyn Howard
Age: 53 Occupation: School nurse Place of Work: Spring Creek Community School in Brooklyn, New York Date of Death: April 4, 2020
Marilyn Howard was known for her generosity and never missing a party. Born in Guyana, she came to the U.S. as a teenager. She helped raise her five brothers, putting her ambitions on hold. “She was a mother to many,” her brother Haslyn said.
In her mid-30s, she turned to her own career goals. She steadily racked up four nursing degrees and recently had begun studying to become a nurse practitioner.
Howard, who lived in Queens, New York, was a school nurse in Brooklyn, where she regularly treated children with chronic illnesses associated with poverty. The week before the pandemic shuttered schools, a fellow nurse had a fever and cough.
Days later, Howard developed the same symptoms. After initially improving, she took a sudden turn for the worse April 4. As her brother drove her to the hospital, her heart stopped. She was declared dead at the hospital.
In tribute, hundreds turned out on Zoom to mark Nine-Night — a days-long wake tradition in the Caribbean — where loved ones shared photos, sang songs and recounted Howard’s effect on their lives.
The pandemic has since ripped through Howard’s extended family, infecting at least a dozen relatives. (One cousin was hospitalized but was released and is recovering.) The family has evolved into a sprawling triage team, monitoring one another’s temperatures, delivering food, charting emergency contacts and nearby hospitals.
Howard’s brothers hope to start a foundation in her name to help aspiring nurses in the U.S. and West Indies. “The best way to honor her spirit and her memory is to bring more nurses into this world,” said her brother Rawle. “We need more Marilyns around.”
— Noa Yachot, The Guardian | Published May 12, 2020
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Post-Retirement, She Tirelessly Rejoined Workforce
(Courtesy Bethany MacDonald)
Nancy MacDonald
Age: 74 Occupation: Receptionist Place of Work: Orchard View Manor, a nursing home and rehabilitation center in East Providence, Rhode Island Date of Death: April 25, 2020
Nancy MacDonald tried retiring, but couldn’t make it stick.
For 20 years, she was a middle school teaching assistant and cheerleading coach. At home, she loved painting rocks and watching “Blue Bloods” and “American Idol.” She was married with two adult children.
A lifelong Rhode Islander, Nancy was a people person, her daughter, Bethany MacDonald, said. “She always wanted to help others.”
So, in 2017, it was natural that she’d go back to work, this time at a nursing home.
As Orchard View’s COVID case count escalated, MacDonald worried. Still, she kept coming in — washing and reusing her N95 respirator and having her temperature taken daily.
Tim Brown, an Orchard View spokesperson, said the facility has “extensive infection control,” satisfying government guidelines. He would not say how often employees receive new N95s.
On April 13, MacDonald began coughing. By April 16, she was hospitalized. Her COVID test came back positive. She died 10 days later ― almost a week after her last conversation with her daughter.
“I said, ‘Mama, we love you,’” Bethany said. “The last words she said to me were, ‘I love you, too.’”
— Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News | Published May 12, 2020
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Despite Danger, Semi-Retired Nurse Kept Caring For ER Patients
(Courtesy of the Miles family)
Sheena Miles
Age: 60 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Scott Regional Hospital in Morton, Mississippi Date of Death: May 1, 2020
At age 60, Sheena Miles was semi-retired. She usually worked every other weekend, but as COVID-19 emerged in Mississippi, she worked four weekends in a row from mid-March to mid-April.
“I’ve got a duty,” she told her son, Tom Miles.
The economy where she lived is dominated by poultry plants, and the county has been a coronavirus hot spot. Sheena was diligent with protective gear, wearing her mask and doubling up on gloves, Tom said. She stayed home when she wasn’t working.
“Losing Sheena has been a tragic loss, as she had been a part of our hospital for 25 years,” said Heather Davis, a hospital administrator.
Sheena took ill on Easter Sunday. By Thursday, Tommy Miles, her husband of 43 years, drove her to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.
Two long weeks passed. The family was allowed to say goodbye in person, and on their way into her room, an ICU nurse told them that years ago Sheena had cared for his infant daughter. “‘Your mom saved her life,’” the nurse said.
“That was a little comfort in the storm,” Sheena’s son said.
— Michaela Gibson Morris | Published May 12, 2020
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A Nurse Who Was Living Her Dream Of Working In The U.S.
(Courtesy of Venus Donasco-Delfin)
Anjanette Miller
Age: 38 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Community First Medical Center and Kindred Chicago Lakeshore in Chicago, and Bridgeway Senior Living in Bensenville, Illinois Date of Death: April 14, 2020
As a child, Anjanette Miller dreamed of becoming a nurse in the U.S. She studied in her native Philippines and worked briefly in Saudi Arabia before fulfilling her wish in 2001.
Miller settled in Chicago and worked as a supervising nurse at three facilities. Her sister, Venus Donasco-Delfin, said Miller got along well with co-workers who shared her work ethic.
“At work, I think, she was strict, but beyond work, she’s a great friend,” Donasco-Delfin said. One of five siblings, she was the “pillar of the family” and supported relatives back home.
“I studied psychology for two years,” Donasco-Delfin said, “but she kept calling me [in the Philippines] and said, ‘No, Venus. … You have to pursue nursing. You will make a difference.’” Donasco-Delfin, now in Canada, became a nurse.
Miller started feeling sick in mid-March and was diagnosed with COVID-19 in early April. She self-isolated, chronicling her illness on YouTube and Facebook. She was hospitalized April 5 and died nine days later.
Miller had hoped to retire to the Philippines and pursue her other passion, filmmaking. Last year she traveled back home to shoot scenes for a project. “The movie she was making is about her life story,” Donasco-Delfin said. “But it’s not finished yet.”
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published May 12, 2020
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He Took The Time To Put Patients At Ease
(Courtesy of Holy Name Medical Center)
Jesus Villaluz
Age: 75 Occupation: Patient transport worker Place of Work: Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey Date of Death: April 3, 2020
After Jesus Villaluz died from COVID-19 complications, colleagues lined the hallway at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey, to say goodbye. They’d never done that for anyone else.
“Jesus knew many and meant a lot to all of us, so this gesture felt like the right thing to do,” said hospital spokesperson Nicole Urena.
The hospital, and surrounding Bergen County, have been hit hard by the pandemic. By May 8, Holy Name had treated more than 6,000 COVID patients, 181 of whom died.
Villaluz worked at Holy Name for 27 years. In a Facebook post, the hospital memorialized Villaluz’s generosity: He once won a raffle and shared the winnings with colleagues, an anecdote New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy repeated at a news conference. Family members declined requests for an interview.
Co-worker Hossien Dahdouli said Villaluz’s compassion for patients was exemplary. He never rushed anyone, took the time to chat with patients and was always concerned for their privacy and safety, Dahdouli said.
Years ago, after Dahdouli had a sad day caring for deteriorating ICU patients, he asked Villaluz why he always appeared so happy.
“He said, ‘My worst day at work is better than someone’s best day as a patient.’”
— Anna Almendrala, Kaiser Health News | Published May 12, 2020
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Family Vacations And Reggae Gave Rhythm To His Life
(Courtesy of Nina Batayola)
Don Ryan Batayola
Age: 40 Occupation: Occupational therapist Place of Work: South Mountain Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Vauxhall, New Jersey Date of Death: April 4, 2020
April 4 was the day Don and Nina Batayola had planned to leave for London on a 10-day European vacation. Instead, that was the day Don died of COVID-19.
The Springfield, New Jersey, couple loved to travel ― on their own or with their children, Zoie, 10, and Zeth, 8. Disney World. Road trips to Canada. Every year for a week they would savor the beach on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
Don’s love of reggae music prompted a trip to Jamaica to visit Bob Marley’s birthplace.
The Batayolas, both occupational therapists, moved to New Jersey from the Philippines 13 years ago to pursue their careers.
“He loved to help,” Nina said. “He had such the ability to make everybody smile or laugh.”
Don worked with at least one patient and a handful of colleagues who subsequently tested positive for COVID-19, and in late March, he developed symptoms. Nina came home from work for lunch on March 31 to find him struggling to breathe. She dialed 911.
He was hospitalized, then she also developed COVID symptoms. Self-isolating at home, Nina talked with Don once a day. She thought he seemed stronger but, on the fourth day, his heart suddenly stopped.
— Michelle Andrews | Published May 8, 2020
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Even On ‘The Saddest Day … She Could Make You Laugh’
(Courtesy of Kim Bruner)
Brittany Bruner-Ringo
Age: 32 Occupation: Nurse Place of Work: Silverado Beverly Place in Los Angeles Date of Death: April 20, 2020
When it was Brittany Bruner-Ringo’s turn to pick the family vacation, it was always New Orleans. A city so full of life.
And that is how family described the 32-year-old who left the Oklahoma plains for the excitement of Southern California.
“She always made the best of things,” her mother, Kim Bruner, said. “It could be the saddest day, and she could make you laugh.”
Bruner-Ringo worked at a dementia care center. On March 19, she admitted a patient flown in from New York. She suspected he might have COVID-19, and she was nervous. For fear of frightening the patients, she hadn’t been allowed to wear a mask or gloves, she told her mom by phone that night. (A spokesperson from her employer said, “We have no issues in our environment using appropriate masking and gloves and have followed CDC guidelines throughout this pandemic. We have always had adequate PPE to protect our residents and associates.”)
The following day, the patient grew worse. Bruner-Ringo checked into a hotel to isolate from her roommate. She later tested positive for COVID-19, but when she developed symptoms did not complain ― even to her mom: “She would say, ‘I’m fine. I’m going to beat this. Don’t worry about me.’”
Bruner, a veteran nurse herself, called the hotel front desk for help getting an ambulance to her daughter. She had just hung up with her daughter, who insisted she was fine, while struggling to breathe.
— Samantha Young, Kaiser Health News | Published May 8, 2020
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He And His Wife Shared A Lust For Travel ― And A COVID Diagnosis
(Courtesy of LaKita Bush)
Joshua Bush
Age: 30 Occupation: Nurse and nursing student Place of Work: Benton House of Aiken in Aiken, South Carolina Date of Death: April 17, 2020
Joshua Bush never let his wife, LaKita, forget that she was five hours late for their first date.
“He never held back telling the truth,” LaKita said, with a doleful laugh.
They met online in 2011, each attracted to the other’s lust for travel. For Joshua’s 30th birthday, they took a cruise to Bermuda. He yearned to go farther afield to Tokyo to revel over anime.
Joshua began his nursing career after high school, eventually ending up at Benton House of Aiken, an assisted living facility. Joshua and LaKita, who works in human resources for a hospital, thought it was allergy-related when they both fell ill in late March. Benton House had no confirmed COVID cases at the time, LaKita said. Even still, the staff was taking precautions.
A doctor prescribed Joshua flu medication, but his symptoms — fever and aches but no cough — worsened, and he was admitted to a hospital in Augusta, Georgia, on April 4.
“That was the last time I saw him alive,” LaKita said.
Over the next few days, both tested positive for the coronavirus. Joshua was sedated in the hospital for two weeks and died on April 17. LaKita recovered at home.
Joshua was earning a bachelor’s degree in nursing at the University of South Carolina-Aiken. May would have marked the couple’s fifth anniversary.
— Sarah Varney, Kaiser Health News | Published May 8, 2020
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Her Sudden Death Blindsided Husband And Autistic Son
(Courtesy of Vincent Carmello)
Karen Carmello
Age: 57 Occupation: Licensed practical nurse Place of Work: Maryhaven Center of Hope in Port Jefferson Station, New York Date of Death: April 16, 2020
Karen Carmello had an intimate understanding of working with intellectually disabled patients.
Her 26-year-old son, Steven, has autism. According to her husband, Vincent, the two spoke by phone every day. Steven would recall exactly what he did, and Karen listened intently.
“She could do no wrong in his eyes, ever,” Vincent said. “It’s a very special bond, but it’s one that she earned.”
Sharing the news of her death was shattering: “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do — letting him know.”
When Karen took ill, she discovered that a patient in her ward had tested positive for COVID-19. She was hospitalized March 23. Eight days later, she sent Vincent her last text, at 2:17 a.m., before going to the ICU.
On April 16, hospital staff called and asked whether Vincent would be comfortable signing a do-not-resuscitate order. He hadn’t been able to see his wife, so he didn’t completely grasp how grave her condition was.
“I thought, ‘OK, this must be a formality,'” he said. “I authorized it. And I got a call within two hours that she passed. I was stunned.”
— Shoshana Dubnow, Kaiser Health News | Published May 8, 2020
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His Facebook Posts Left Clues Of A Tragic Timeline
(Courtesy of Felicia Dodson-Hill)
Maurice Dotson
Age: 51 Occupation: Certified nursing assistant Place of Work: West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin, Texas Date of Death: April 17, 2020
Maurice Dotson’s sister knew something was wrong when her older brother didn’t post his daily Facebook update.
“We knew he was good as long as he posted every morning,” Felicia Dodson-Hill, of Jacksonville, Arkansas, said.
Dotson, 51 ― a certified nursing assistant for 25 years at the West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin — had begun caring for COVID-19 patients.
He sounded positive on Facebook, posting on March 30: “We are going through scary, difficult times, but better days are coming.”
Days later, family in Arkansas couldn’t reach him.
“We had been trying to get in contact with him since April 1st,” his sister said. “On April 3rd, he posted that he had to go to the hospital ― that he was not feeling good.”
Dodson-Hill said the hospital sent him home. Her mother finally reached him on April 6 or 7.
“He told my mom he didn’t have the energy to barely talk,” Dodson-Hill said.
Dawunna Wilson, a cousin from Hazen, Arkansas, said Maurice called an ambulance on April 8. Results from his coronavirus test done at the hospital came back positive the next day. “From there, it was pretty much downhill,” Wilson said.
— Sharon Jayson | Published May 5, 2020
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Community Salutes Nurse Who Loved Baseball
(Courtesy of Leigh Ann Lewis)
Barbara Finch
Age: 63 Occupation: Licensed practical nurse Place of Work: Southern Virginia Regional Medical Center in Emporia, Virginia Date of Death: March 29, 2020
When Barbara Finch got excited, she’d scrunch her hands into fists and wave them around like a kid at Christmas. She did it when the Atlanta Braves scored, or while watching her grandkids play baseball, her No. 1 passion outside work.
Finch spent her 37-year nursing career in the emergency department of the hospital in Emporia, Virginia (population of about 5,000), where one of her four children, Leigh Ann Lewis, worked as an EMT.
Lewis knew her mother was well liked: Patients she transported from the hospital would rave that Finch had been sweet and compassionate.
Finch fell ill on March 17 and died in an ICU 12 days later. As a hearse carried her casket to the graveyard, Lewis said, people lined the way at driveway mailboxes, churches and stores, holding signs that read, “We love you,” “Praying for you,” “Hugs.” At her hospital, employees released balloons to the sky.
“It seemed like, in our area, she knew everybody — either she worked with them, or they were a patient of hers at some point,” Lewis said. “It was a very, very large outpour of love and comfort and solidarity.”
— Melissa Bailey | Published May 8, 2020
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‘He Loved To Work,’ With No Plans To Retire
(Courtesy Giancarlo Pattugalan)
Tomas Pattugalan
Age: 70 Occupation: Internal medicine physician Place of Work: Private practice in Jamaica, Queens, New York Date of Death: March 29, 2020
Tomas Pattugalan’s kids had been encouraging him to retire. Even after 45 years of medicine, Pattugalan wasn’t ready to slow down.
“He loved his patients. He loved to work. He loved to help others,” said Giancarlo, his son. “He had an enormous capacity to give of himself.”
A father of three, Pattugalan grew up in the Philippines, emigrating to the U.S. in the 1970s. He was a devout Catholic — attending Mass weekly ― and “karaoke master,” Giancarlo said.
In early March, Pattugalan began testing patients for COVID-19. His medical history, including a family history of strokes and high blood pressure, heightened his own risk. So after tests of two patients returned positive, he got tested himself. On March 24, he learned he had the coronavirus.
“He made a joke and said Prince Charles had tested [positive] too, and he was sharing royalty,” Giancarlo said. “He was making light of it, not trying to get any of us worried.”
Pattugalan had a cough. Then came wheezing. His oxygen levels dropped. He tried hydroxychloroquine, an experimental treatment touted by President Donald Trump that has yielded mixed results. Nothing helped.
On March 29, Pattugalan agreed to seek hospital care. He died that day.
— Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News | Published May 8, 2020
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Says Widow Battling Cancer: ‘He Was My Backbone’
(Courtesy of Melissa Castro Santos)
Darrin Santos
Age: 50 Occupation: Transportation supervisor Place of Work: NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center in White Plains, New York Date of Death: April 4, 2020
Melissa Castro Santos had just started a new treatment for multiple myeloma when her husband, Darrin, got sick.
For nearly two weeks, he isolated in their bedroom, but after he began gasping for air, he went to the hospital. He died of COVID-19 days later.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Castro Santos said.
As a transportation supervisor, Santos delivered health care workers and equipment between hospitals in the New York metropolitan area. He loved his job, Castro Santos said, and was known to drive doctors wherever and whenever they were needed, through heavy traffic and snowstorms.
Castro Santos, who has been battling cancer since 2012, said her husband doted on their three teenagers, all avid athletes. He arranged his work schedule to attend as many of their games as possible. When he couldn’t make it, she would call him on FaceTime so he could catch glimpses of the action.
Unable to hold a funeral, they arranged for burial five days after Santos died. Friends lined the streets in cars in a show of support as the family drove to and from the cemetery.
Now Castro Santos is confronting cancer without her husband. “He was my backbone. He was the one who took me to chemotherapy and appointments.”
— Anna Jean Kaiser, The Guardian | Published May 8, 2020
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An Animal Lover Who Loved Aerospace, She Died Alone At Home
(Courtesy of Aubree Farmer)
Lisa Ewald
Age: 53 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit Date of Death: April 1, 2020
Lisa Ewald was a nurse to many living things, human and otherwise.
When her neighbor Alexis Fernandez’s border collie had a stomach blockage, Ewald hooked the dog up to an IV four times a day. “She was this dedicated nurse who nursed my dog back to health,” Fernandez said.
Ewald also loved gardening, aerospace and comic book conventions.
Ewald told Fernandez that a patient she had treated later tested positive for COVID-19, and that she was not wearing a mask at the time. Two days later, after seeing the patient, she got sick. After delays in accessing a test, she learned on March 30 that she was infected with the coronavirus.
A hospital spokesperson acknowledged that staff who treat coronavirus patients have a higher risk of exposure, but said there was “no way to confirm” how a staff member contracted the virus.
On March 31, Ewald didn’t answer when Fernandez texted her. The next day, Fernandez and a hospital nurse went to Ewald’s home to check on her and found her unresponsive on the couch.
“I said, ‘Aren’t you going to go take her pulse or anything?’” Fernandez said. “The nurse just said, ‘She’s gone.’”
— Melissa Bailey | Published May 5, 2020
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An Ardent EMT Who Seemed To Have Nine Lives
(Courtesy of Ben Geiger)
Scott Geiger
Age: 47 Occupation: Emergency medical technician Place of Work: Atlantic Health System in Mountainside and Warren, New Jersey Date of Death: April 13, 2020
Scott Geiger wasn’t always enthusiastic about school, but at age 16 he brought home a tome the size of two phone books. It was a manual for emergency medical technicians, and he devoured it, said his younger brother, Ben Geiger.
Scott was certified as an EMT at 17. He never married or had kids, but did not seem to miss those things.
“He was so focused on being an EMT and helping people in their most vulnerable and desperate moments,” Ben said. “That’s really what made him feel good.”
Scott loved playing pool each week with friends. He was a loyal New York Jets football fan, content to joke about their follies and watch them lose. He was quiet. And he seemed to have nine lives, his brother said, surviving hospitalizations for epilepsy as a kid and blood cancer around age 40.
When the coronavirus began to tear a path through northern New Jersey, he faced his EMT work with resolve. He downplayed his symptoms when he first fell ill in late March, but wound up spending 17 days on a ventilator before he died. The family has had to mourn separately, with the brothers’ father, who lived with Scott, in quarantine, and their mother confined to her room in a nursing home that has COVID-19 cases.
— Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News | Published May 5, 2020
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Caring Nurse ‘Always Put Herself Last’
(Courtesy of Lisa Lococo)
Theresa Lococo
Age: 68 Occupation: Pediatric nurse Place of Work: Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York Date of Death: March 27, 2020
Theresa Lococo spent most of her life at the hospital, working as a pediatric nurse for almost 48 years.
“There wasn’t a day that goes by she wouldn’t come home and tell me about her patients,” said her daughter, Lisa Lococo. “She had to be forced to take her vacation days.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio publicly saluted her lifelong service to New Yorkers, saying, “She gave her life helping others.”
Theresa had dogs — “sometimes too many,” Lisa said — and lived with her son, Anthony, in the home she owned for decades. She loved cooking and watching cooking shows, reading and following soap operas.
Theresa wasn’t tested for COVID-19. But Kings County Hospital, in Brooklyn, was hit hard by the coronavirus.
Days before dying, she described nausea. Friends recalled a cough. Her supervisor encouraged her to stay home, her daughter said.
Lisa called her mother on March 27, just as Anthony was dialing 911 for help.
“She always put others first,” Lisa said. “She always put herself last.”
— Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News | Published May 5, 2020
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He Was Full Of Life And Planning For The Future
(Courtesy of the Luna family)
Felicisimo “Tom” Luna
Age: 62 Occupation: Emergency room nurse Place of Work: Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey Date of Death: April 9, 2020
Tom Luna was a joker, a lively and outgoing man who thrived on the fast-paced and varied action of the emergency room. He also adored his three daughters, something clear to all who knew him.
“Tom was a fantastic emergency nurse. He was well liked and loved by his peers,” Gerard Muench, administrative director of the Trinitas emergency department, said in a statement. “His greatest love was for his wife and daughters, who he was very proud of.”
His oldest daughter, Gabrielle, 25, followed his path to become an ER nurse. When Tom fell ill with the coronavirus, he was admitted to the hospital where she works. At the end of her 12-hour night shifts, she made sure he had breakfast and helped him change his clothes. She propped a family photo next to his bed.
Tom’s wife, Kit, also a nurse, said that when some of his symptoms appeared to let up, they talked about him recovering at home. He was a planner, she said, and was already talking about their next family vacation, maybe to Spain.
— Christina Jewett | Published May 5, 2020
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Air Force Veteran Went ‘Above And Beyond For Patients’
Michael Marceaux and his wife, Dunia, when he graduated from nursing school in 2018 (Courtesy of Drake Marceaux)
Michael Marceaux
Age: 49 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Christus Highland Medical Center and Brentwood Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana Date of Death: April 16, 2020
After Michael Marceaux retired from the Air Force, he went back to school. In 2018 he launched a new career as an emergency room nurse.
“Everyone who worked with him said he was so happy,” said Drake Marceaux, one of his four sons. “He was willing to go above and beyond for patients.”
As the coronavirus spread throughout Louisiana, Michael developed a cough and fever. Soon afterward, he tested positive for COVID-19.
“He didn’t seem too worried,” Drake said. “He just wanted to make sure not to give it to other people.”
A spokesperson with Christus Health said Michael would be missed for “how he always had a positive attitude, even after a hard shift. His laughter brought joy to others.” The spokesperson declined to answer questions about workplace safety conditions.
Drake said he wanted his father to be remembered for how much he was loved.
His funeral was livestreamed on Facebook. “At one point, there were 2,000 viewers watching his service,” Drake said. “As much as he didn’t want attention, it gravitated toward him.”
— Victoria Knight, Kaiser Health News | Published May 5, 2020
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She Loved To Give Gifts And Never Forgot Her Hometown
(Courtesy of Courtesy of Donald Jay Marcos)
Celia Lardizabal Marcos
Age: 61 Occupation: Telemetry charge nurse Place of Work: CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles Date of Death: April 17, 2020
Whenever she traveled to her hometown of Tagudin in the Philippines, Celia Lardizabal Marcos showered family with gifts and delighted in planning weekend outings for everyone, said her eldest son, Donald.
And when she returned home to California, she brought presents for her sons. “She always thought of how her family could be happy,” he said.
Trained as a nurse in her home country, Marcos emigrated to the United States in 2001 and settled in Los Angeles. Three years later, she became a telemetry charge nurse, a specialist who tracks patients’ vital signs using high-tech equipment.
On April 3, she was one of three nurses who responded after a suspected COVID patient went into cardiac arrest. Wearing a surgical mask, she intubated the patient. Three days later, she had a headache, body aches and difficulty breathing.
Her symptoms worsened, and she was admitted April 15 to the hospital where she had worked for 16 years. That was the last time Donald spoke to his mother. Two days later, she went into cardiac arrest and died that night.
Her sons plan to honor her wishes to be cremated and buried in Tagudin, alongside her parents.
— Christina M. Oriel, Asian Journal | Published May 5, 2020
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‘Hero Among Heroes,’ Doctor Cared For Generations Of Patients
Francis Molinari (right) with his siblings (from left) Janice, Albert and Lisa (Courtesy of Lisa Molinari)
Francis Molinari
Age: 70 Occupation: Physician Place of Work: Private practice in Belleville, New Jersey; privileges at Clara Maass Medical Center Date of Death: April 9, 2020
In late March, Dr. Francis “Frankie” Molinari told his sister Lisa he was “down for the count,” with chills, fever and trouble breathing.
“Frankie, you know what you have,” she recalled telling him.
“Yes.”
Two days later, he collapsed at home and was rushed to Clara Maass Medical Center. Colleagues stayed by his side as he succumbed to COVID-19.
“We take solace in the fact that he was cared for by colleagues and friends who deeply loved and respected him,” his sister Janice wrote in a blog. “He died a hero among heroes.”
Molinari, a New Jersey native who was married with an adult daughter, was the oldest of four siblings. His sisters describe him as a positive guy who loved music, fishing and teasing people with tall tales: He went to medical school in Bologna, Italy, and he liked to say he had played pinochle with the pope.
Molinari practiced medicine for over four decades, caring for generations of patients in the same family. His family suspects he contracted the coronavirus at his private practice.
“A friend had once described us as four different legs of the same table,” Janice wrote. “Now I’m stuck on the fact that we are only a three-legged table. Less beautiful, less sturdy. Broken.”
— Laura Ungar, Kaiser Health News | Published May 5, 2020
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5-Foot-Tall ‘Fireball’ Was A Prankster To Her Sons
(Courtesy Josh Banago)
Celia Yap-Banago
Age: 69 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri Date of Death: April 21, 2020
Celia Yap-Banago was a 5-foot-tall “fireball,” said one co-worker. She had moved to the U.S. from the Philippines in 1970 and worked for nearly 40 years for the HCA Midwest Health system. Her family said she was planning for retirement.
Her son Josh said she showed her love through practical jokes: “You knew she loved you if she was yelling at you or if she was pranking you.”
“She was very outspoken,” said Charlene Carter, a fellow nurse. “But I later learned that’s a really good quality to have, as a nurse, so you can advocate for your patients and advocate for yourself.”
In March, Yap-Banago treated a patient who later tested positive for COVID-19. Carter said Yap-Banago was not given personal protective equipment because she was not working in an area designed for COVID patients. She spent her final days in isolation to protect others.
A spokesperson for HCA Midwest Health said that medical staff received adequate personal protective equipment in line with CDC guidelines.
Josh said she spoke with reverence of her patients and their families. “She was always focused on the family as a whole, and that the family was taken care of, not just the patient in the bed,” he said.
— Alex Smith, KCUR | Published May 5, 2020
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In Ministry And Rescue Missions, ‘He Put His All Into It’
(Courtesy of the Birmingham Family)
Billy Birmingham Sr.
Age: 69 Occupation: Emergency medical technician Place of Work: Kansas City Missouri Fire Department Date of Death: April 13, 2020
Bill Birmingham Jr. fondly remembers the year his father took on a new career. The whole family studied, even acting out scenes to ensure Billy Birmingham Sr., a minister, was ready for his emergency medical technician exam.
“He put his all into it,” the son recalled.
Billy Birmingham passed the test. And from the late 1990s on, he served as an EMT and a minister.
His family rallied again for his doctorate in pastoral theology. During nearly four decades as a minister, he founded two churches.
“He had a heart for other people,” his son said. “Whatever he could do for other people, he would do it.”
As an EMT with the Kansas City Fire Missouri Department, he was exposed to the novel coronavirus. The cough came in March.
“‘I’m just tired.’ That’s what he kept saying,” his son said. His dad went to the hospital twice. The first time he told the staff about his symptoms and underlying health conditions, then they sent him home.
The second time he arrived in an ambulance. Just over two weeks later, his final hours arrived.
Hospital staff set up a video chat so his family could see him one last time.
— Cara Anthony, Kaiser Health News | Published May 1, 2020
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Jovial Man Trained Scores Of Doctors In Obstetrics, Gynecology And Kindness
(Courtesy of Ashley Ulker)
Luis Caldera-Nieves
Age: 63 Occupation: OB-GYN doctor Place of Work: University of Miami and Jackson health systems in Miami Date of Death: April 8, 2020
“Somos felices.” That was Dr. Luis Caldera-Nieves’ signature signoff after a cesarean section or patient visit or at the end of a difficult shift. “We’re happy,” he meant, and often, when he was around, it was true.
Caldera-Nieves, a popular OB-GYN, trained scores of doctors and helped bring thousands of babies into the world in his 25 years at the University of Miami and Jackson health systems.
Born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, he worked as an Air Force doctor before joining UM, said longtime co-worker Dr. Jaime Santiago. Caldera-Nieves was so devoted to his patients that he often gave them his private phone number — and his wife’s, Santiago said.
Because he was so jovial, he earned the nickname “the Puerto Rican Santa Claus,” Santiago said.
“He was truly loved and admired by everyone who worked with him, and will be remembered for his humor and never-ending positive energy,” said Dr. Jean-Marie Stephan, who trained under Caldera-Nieves.
In a statement, UM and Jackson confirmed Caldera-Nieves died from complications of COVID-19 and said they “grieve the loss of our esteemed and beloved colleague.” He is survived by his wife and six adult children.
— Melissa Bailey | Published May 1, 2020
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A Cluster Of Illness Robs Community Of Another Fearless EMT
(Courtesy of Vito Cicchetti)
Kevin Leiva
Age: 24 Occupation: Emergency medical technician Place of Work: Saint Clare’s Health in Passaic, New Jersey Date of Death: April 7, 2020
When Kevin Leiva died of COVID-19 in early April, it was a second crushing loss to his close-knit team of EMT workers. Their colleague, Israel Tolentino Jr., had died one week before.
“People were scared that everyone was going to die from it,” said Vito Cicchetti, a director at Saint Clare’s Health, where the men worked. “After Izzy died, we all started getting scared for Kevin.”
Leiva, according to an obituary, “was always worried about his crew.” He was “very proud” of his work and was recalled to have said “becoming an EMT was an act of God.”
He met his wife, Marina, online while they were in high school. She moved a thousand miles to build a life with him. He loved spending time at their home, playing guitar and tending to his tegu lizards, AJ and Blue.
As COVID-19 ramped up, the station’s three ambulances each handled up to 15 dispatches a shift, roughly double the usual number. In a busy 12-hour shift, EMTs often responded to calls continuously, stopping only to decontaminate themselves and the truck.
Leiva “always had a joke” that helped to defuse stressful situations and bring his co-workers together, Cicchetti said.
— Michelle Andrews | Published May 1, 2020
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Firefighting And ‘Helping People’ Were In His Blood
(Courtesy of the Terre Haute Fire Department)
John Schoffstall
Age: 41 Occupation: Paramedic and firefighter Place of Work: Terre Haute Fire Department in Terre Haute, Indiana Date of Death: April 12, 2020
John Schoffstall grew up around firehouses, and it was at his own firehouse in Terre Haute, Indiana, that he was exposed to the coronavirus.
A paramedic and firefighter with the Terre Haute Fire Department for almost 12 years, Schoffstall died April 12 at age 41. Deputy Chief Glen Hall said investigations by the county health department and his own department “determined John contracted the virus from another firefighter in the firehouse.” Four other firefighters “had symptoms but none progressed.”
“We respond every day to potential COVID patients,” Hall said.
Jennifer Schoffstall, his wife of 18 years, said her husband went to the hospital March 28.
“His breathing was so bad in the ER, they just decided to keep him,” she said. “He regressed from there.”
Hall said Schoffstall’s “biggest hobby was his family,” with a son, 17, and a daughter, 13.
Schoffstall’s father had been a volunteer firefighter, Jennifer said, and her husband signed up for the New Goshen Volunteer Fire Department when he turned 18.
“He loved the fire service and everything about it,” she said. “He loved helping people.”
— Sharon Jayson | Published May 1, 2020
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Boston Nurse, A Former Bus Driver, Was A Champion For Education
(Courtesy of Teadris Pope)
Rose Taldon
Age: 63 Occupation: Nurse Place of Work: New England Baptist Hospital in Boston Date of Death: April 12, 2020
Rose Taldon was just 5 feet tall. But when she bellowed out the window, her kids ran right home.
“She didn’t take any crap,” said her daughter, Teadris Pope.
Taldon raised three children with her husband on the street where she grew up in Dorchester, Boston. She was respected as a strong black woman, earning a nursing degree while working in public transit for 23 years. Described as stern, she still was quick to tickle her eight grandkids.
Taldon was generous: Even as she lay in a hospital in April, exhausted from the coronavirus, she arranged to pay bills for an out-of-work friend, her daughter said.
It’s unclear whether Taldon caught the virus at her hospital, designated for non-COVID patients. Hospital officials said three patients and 22 staff have tested positive.
Once her mother was hospitalized, Pope couldn’t visit. On Easter morning, a doctor called at 2 a.m., offering to put Taldon on a video call.
“I just talked until I had no words,” Pope said. “I was just telling her, ‘We’re so proud of you. You worked so hard raising us. … You’ve gone through a hell of a fight.'”
An hour later, her mother was gone.
— Melissa Bailey | Published May 1, 2020
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Unflappable First Responder With An Ever-Ready Smile
(Courtesy of Vito Cicchetti)
Israel Tolentino Jr.
Age: 33 Occupation: Emergency medical technician and firefighter Place of Work: Saint Clare’s Health and the Passaic Fire Department, both in Passaic, New Jersey Date of Death: March 31, 2020
When Israel Tolentino Jr. arrived for his EMT shift one morning in March, he seemed fine. Then he got a headache. Then a fever came on, and he was sent home, said Vito Cicchetti, a director at Saint Clare’s Health.
Izzy, as he was called, was an EMT who fulfilled his dream to become a firefighter. In 2018, the former Marine took a job with the Passaic Fire Department but kept up shifts at Saint Clare’s.
He was husband to Maria Vazquez, whom he’d met at church, according to nj.com. They had two young children.
The work pace could be brutal during the pandemic. In a 12-hour shift, Tolentino and his partner were dispatched to one emergency after another, each typically lasting under an hour but requiring nearly that long to decontaminate their gear and truck.
Izzy died in hospital care. The coronavirus tore through his EMT team. Most eventually recovered. But his friend and co-worker Kevin Leiva also died.
Izzy’s unflappable, cheerful presence is missed, Cicchetti said: “No matter how mad you were, he’d come up with a smile and you’d be chuckling to yourself.”
Cicchetti hasn’t replaced either man: “I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet.”
— Michelle Andrews | Published May 1, 2020
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Their Decade-Long Dream Marriage Ends In Nightmare
(Courtesy of the Detroit Fire Department)
Capt. Franklin Williams
Age: 57 Occupation: Firefighter and medical first responder Place of Work: Detroit Fire Department in Detroit Date of Death: April 8, 2020
Capt. Franklin Williams stood at the altar on his wedding day and pretended to hunt for the ring. He patted his chest, then his pants legs and looked up at his soon-to-be wife with a million-dollar smile.
He was always clowning and “so silly,” said Shanita Williams, his wife, recalling how he wanted to make her laugh. Williams, 57, died from complications of the novel coronavirus on April 8 — one month before the couple’s 10-year wedding anniversary.
Williams had been on an emergency call with a verified COVID patient before falling ill, according to Detroit Fire Department Chief Robert Distelrath. He died in the line of duty.
Crews are equipped with personal protective equipment including a gown, N95 mask and gloves. But it’s easy for a mask to slip ― “when you’re giving [chest] compressions, your mask isn’t staying in place all the time,” said Thomas Gehart, president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association.
When Williams fell sick on March 24, he moved to the guest bedroom and never returned to work.
“I’m thankful and thank God for having him in my life,” Shanita said, adding that she keeps hoping this is a nightmare and she’ll soon wake up.
— Sarah Jane Tribble, Kaiser Health News | Published May 1, 2020
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A 9/11 First Responder, He Answered The Call During The Pandemic
(Courtesy of the Valley Stream Fire Department)
Mike Field
Age: 59 Occupation: Volunteer emergency medical technician Place of Work: Village of Valley Stream on New York’s Long Island Date of Death: April 8, 2020
Mike Field had a strong sense of civic duty. An emergency medical technician, he was a first responder with the New York Fire Department (FDNY) on 9/11. He was also a member of his community’s all-volunteer fire department since 1987.
After he retired from FDNY in 2002, he took a job making and posting street signs with his local public works department. He continued to volunteer with Valley Stream’s fire department and mentoring the junior fire department. When he wasn’t responding to emergencies or training future emergency technicians, he led a Boy Scout troop and volunteered for animal causes.
“Here’s somebody who cares about the community and cares about its people,” said Valley Stream’s mayor, Ed Fare, who had known Mike since the seventh grade.
Stacey Field, Mike’s wife, said he found his calling early, after his own father experienced a heart attack. “When the fire department EMTs came and helped his dad, he decided that’s what he wanted to do,” she said.
Their three sons ― Steven, 26; Richie, 22; and Jason, 19 — have followed in their father’s footsteps. Steven and Richie are EMTs in New York; Jason plans on training to become one as well. All three volunteer at the same fire station their father did.
In late March, Mike and fellow volunteer responders were called to an emergency involving a patient showing symptoms of COVID-19. Field died on April 8.
— Sharon Jayson | Published April 29, 2020
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Nurse Fought For His Life In Same ICU Where He Cared For Patients
(Courtesy of Romielyn Guillermo)
Ali Dennis Guillermo
Age: 44 Occupation: Nurse Place of Work: Long Island Community Hospital in East Patchogue, New York Date of Death: April 7, 2020
In 2004, Ali Dennis Guillermo, his wife, Romielyn, and their daughter came to New York from the Philippines to find a better life.
Everything fell into place. The former nursing instructor landed a job at Long Island Community Hospital, often working in intensive care or the emergency room. He enjoyed the intensity of ER work, his wife said. As years passed, the couple had two sons and settled into a close-knit Filipino community.
As COVID-19 emerged, Guillermo was posted to the step-down floor, working with patients transitioning out of intensive care.
A lot of the nurses on his floor had gotten sick with the virus, his wife said, and “everybody was scared.”
And then, Guillermo felt achy, with a fever that soared to 102. He went to the hospital and X-rays were taken, but he was sent home. Within days, his blood oxygen level plummeted.
“My nails are turning blue,” he told his wife. “You should take me to the ER.”
He was admitted that night in late March, and they never spoke again.
In the ICU unit where he’d often worked, Guillermo was intubated and treated. Nearly two weeks later, he died.
— Michelle Andrews | Published April 29, 2020
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An Eager Student, He Aimed To Become A Physician Assistant
(Courtesy of Catrisha House-Phelps)
James House
Age: 40 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Omni Continuing Care nursing home in Detroit Date of Death: March 31, 2020
James House had a voracious appetite for learning about and a fascination with the human body.
His sister, Catrisha House-Phelps, traces it back to childhood visits to a dialysis center where their father received treatments. “That was what tugged at his heart,” she said. “He just always wanted to know ‘why.’”
House-Phelps said her brother adored his five children, treasured his anatomy and physiology books and got a kick out of the residents he cared for at Omni Continuing Care. “He thought they were family; he just said they were funny people,” she said. He had hoped to go back to school to become a physician assistant.
House came down with what he thought was the flu in mid-March. His sister said he tried to get tested for COVID-19 but was turned away because he was not showing textbook symptoms and had no underlying health issues. On March 31, after resting at home for over a week, House returned to work. Hours later, he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.
He texted his sister with updates on his condition. “I’m about to be intubated now,” he wrote. It was the last message he sent her.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 29, 2020
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She Loved A Parade And Catering To Patients
Pamela Hughes and her daughter, Brie (Courtesy of Angie McAllister)
Pamela Hughes
Age: 50 Occupation: Nursing home medication aide Place of Work: Signature HealthCARE at Summit Manor in Columbia, Kentucky Date of Death: April 13, 2020
Pamela Hughes lived her entire life in rural Columbia, Kentucky, but longed for wide, sandy beaches. For vacation, Hughes and her daughter, Brie, 26, eagerly drove 14 hours to Daytona Beach, Florida, or Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
After high school, Hughes worked at Summit Manor, a nursing home in Columbia, for 32 years. She knew which residents preferred chocolate milk or applesauce with their medication; she remembered their favorite outfits and colors. Hughes’ shy demeanor vanished each December when she and co-worker Angie McAllister built a float for the town’s Christmas parade competition.
“We built 10 floats over 10 years,” McAllister said. “We got second place every year.”
Even after several residents tested positive for the coronavirus, Hughes dismissed her worsening cough as allergies or bronchitis. The nursing home was short on help and she wanted to serve her patients, Brie said.
Days later, the public health department suggested her mother get tested. She tested positive, and her health worsened — food tasted bitter, her fever soared, her hearing dulled. On April 10, Hughes was taken by ambulance to a hospital, then by helicopter to Jewish Hospital in Louisville. Barred from visiting, Brie said goodbye over FaceTime.
— Sarah Varney, Kaiser Health News | Published April 29, 2020
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The Family Matriarch And ‘We’re Failing Miserably Without Her’
(Courtesy of Ginu John)
Aleyamma John
Age: 65 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Queens Hospital Center in New York City Date of Death: April 5, 2020
Aleyamma John’s family wanted her to retire. Her husband, Johnny, an MTA transit worker, had stopped working a few years earlier. He and their son Ginu urged her to follow suit. “We told her, ‘I’m sure Dad wants to see the world with you — you need to give him that opportunity,’” Ginu said.
She demurred. “I think she found fulfillment in being able to serve,” Ginu said. “She was able to hold people’s hands, you know, even when they were deteriorating and be there for them.” She began her career as a nurse in India 45 years ago; she and her husband emigrated to the United Arab Emirates, where their two sons were born, and moved to New York in 2002.
Ginu said his mother, a devout Christian, found joy in tending to her vegetable garden and doting on her two grandchildren. She cooked dishes from her native India and filled the Long Island home she shared with Johnny, Ginu and Ginu’s family with flowers.
In March, as Queens Hospital Center began to swell with COVID-19 patients, John sent her family a photo of herself and colleagues wearing surgical hats and masks but not enough personal protective equipment. Days later, she developed a fever and tested positive for the virus. Johnny, Ginu and Ginu’s wife, Elsa, a nurse practitioner, also became ill.
When John’s breathing became labored, her family made the difficult decision to call 911. It would be the last time they saw her. “We’re 17 days in, and I feel like we’re failing miserably without her,” Ginu said.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 29, 2020
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‘A Kind Man’ Looking Forward To Retirement
(Courtesy of Jesse Soto)
Thomas Soto
Age: 59 Occupation: Radiology clerk Place of Work: Woodhull Medical Center, a public hospital in Brooklyn, New York Date of Death: April 7, 2020
After more than 30 years at one of New York City’s busy public hospitals, Thomas Soto loved his job but was looking forward to retiring, said his son, Jesse Soto, who lived with him.
At Soto’s busy station near the emergency room, he greeted patients and took down their information.
“Everybody saw him before their X-rays,” Soto, 29, said. “He smiled all day, made jokes. He was a kind man.”
As COVID patients began to overwhelm Woodhull and other emergency rooms across the city, Soto said that at first his father didn’t have any protective gear.
He eventually got a mask. But he still grew very sick, developing a high fever, body aches and a wracking cough. After a week, Soto said, “he couldn’t take it anymore.”
He went to Woodhull, where he was admitted. When they tried to put him on a ventilator two days later, he died. The hospital did not respond to requests for comment.
— Michelle Andrews | Published April 29, 2020
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‘Blooming’ In Her First Job On Path To Becoming A Nurse
(Courtesy of the Viveros family via GoFundMe)
Valeria Viveros
Age: 20 Occupation: Nursing assistant Place of Work: Extended Care Hospital of Riverside, California Date of Death: April 5, 2020
At 20 years old, Valeria Viveros was “barely blooming,” developing the skills and ambition to pursue a nursing career, said Gustavo Urrea, her uncle. Working at Extended Care Hospital of Riverside was her first job.
Viveros, born in California to Mexican immigrants, grew attached to her patients at the nursing home, bringing them homemade ceviche, Urrea said. About a month ago, as he watched her cook, play and joke with her grandmother, he noticed how much her social skills had grown.
When she would say “Hi, Tío,” in her playful, sweet, high-pitched voice, “it was like the best therapy you could have,” Urrea recalled. Viveros, who lived with her parents and two siblings, was enrolled in classes at a community college.
Viveros felt sick on March 30, went to a nearby hospital and was sent home with Tylenol, Urrea said. By April 4, she couldn’t get out of bed on her own. She left in an ambulance and never came back.
“We’re all destroyed,” he said. “I can’t even believe it.”
On April 5, county health officials reported a coronavirus outbreak had sickened 30 patients and some staff at her nursing home. Trent Evans, general counsel for Extended Care, said staffers are heartbroken by her death.
Viveros was “head over heels in love with the residents that she served,” he said. “She was always there for them.”
— Melissa Bailey | Published April 29, 2020
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Surgical Technician Made Friends Everywhere She Went
(Courtesy of Jorge Casarez)
Monica Echeverri Casarez
Age: 49 Occupation: Surgical technician Place of Work: Detroit Medical Center Harper University Hospital in Detroit Date of Death: April 11, 2020
Monica Echeverri Casarez was in constant motion, said her husband, Jorge Casarez. The daughter of Colombian immigrants, she worked as a Spanish-English interpreter in clinical settings. She was the kind of person whose arrival at a mom and pop restaurant would elicit hugs from the owners. She also co-founded Southwest Detroit Restaurant Week, a nonprofit that supports local businesses.
Twice a month, she scrubbed in as a surgical technician at Harper University Hospital. “She liked discovering the beauty of how the body works and how science is clear and orderly,” Casarez said. She was organized and intuitive, qualities that are assets in the operating room. On March 21, she posted a photo of herself in protective gear with the caption: “I’d be lying if I said I wan’t at least a bit nervous to be there now.” Since many elective surgeries had been canceled, Echeverri Casarez was tasked with taking the temperatures of people who walked into the hospital and making sure their hands were sterilized.
Soon after, Echeverri Casarez and Casarez began feeling ill. Quarantined together, Echeverri Casarez tried to make the best of the situation. She baked her husband a cake — chocolate with white frosting. She died a few days later.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 24, 2020
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A Whip-Smart Neurologist Endlessly Fascinated With The Brain
(Courtesy of Jennifer Sclar)
Gary Sclar
Age: 66 Occupation: Neurologist Place of Work: Mount Sinai Queens in New York City Date of Death: April 12, 2020
Gary Sclar was a whip-smart neurologist who loved comic books, “Game of Thrones” and “Star Wars,” said his daughter, Jennifer Sclar. He was deeply compassionate with a blunt bedside manner.
“My dad was fascinated with the brain and with science,” Jennifer Sclar said. “His work was his passion, and it’s what made him the happiest, besides my brother and me.” Set to retire in June, he was looking forward to writing about politics and neurology.
Gary Sclar saw patients who were showing COVID-19 symptoms and knew his age and underlying health conditions ― he had diabetes — put him at risk for developing complications from the illness. His daughter pleaded with him to stop going to the hospital.
In early April, he mentioned having lost his sense of smell, and on April 8 he collapsed in his home. He was hospitalized a few days later and agreed to be intubated. “I don’t think he realized, like, that this was the end,” Jennifer Sclar said. “He brought his keys. He brought his wallet.”
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 24, 2020
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An Exacting But Loving Aunt, She Was A Mentor Until The End
(Courtesy of Jhoanna Mariel Buendia)
Araceli Buendia Ilagan
Age: 63 Occupation: Intensive care unit nurse Place of Work: Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami Date of Death: March 27, 2020
For Jhoanna Mariel Buendia, her aunt was a constant ― if distant — presence. Araceli Buendia Ilagan emigrated from their hometown Baguio, in the Philippines, to the U.S. before Buendia was born, but she remained close to her family and communicated with them nearly every day.
“She was one of the smartest people I ever knew,” Buendia, 27, said. Buendia Ilagan, who at one point looked into adopting her niece so she could join her and her husband the United States, encouraged Buendia to become a nurse, and talked her through grueling coursework in anatomy and physiology. Buendia is now a nurse in London.
Buendia Ilagan was also demanding. “Whenever she visited the Philippines, she wanted everything to be organized and squeaky-clean,” Buendia said.
The last time the two spoke, in late March, Buendia Ilagan didn’t mention anything about feeling ill. Instead, the two commiserated over their experiences of treating patients with COVID-19; as always, her aunt offered her advice on staying safe while giving the best possible care. She died four days later.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 22, 2020
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A Beloved Geriatric Psychiatrist And Church Musician Remembered For His Cooking Skills
(Courtesy of Nida Gonzales)
Leo Dela Cruz
Age: 57 Occupation: Geriatric psychiatrist Place of Work: Christ Hospital and CarePoint Health in Jersey City, New Jersey Date of Death: April 8, 2020
Dr. Leo Dela Cruz was nervous about going to work in the weeks before he died, his friends said. Like many in the region, Christ Hospital had an influx of COVID-19 patients and faced a shortage of ventilators and masks.
Dela Cruz was a geriatric psychiatrist and didn’t work in coronavirus wards. But he continued to see patients in person. In early April, Dela Cruz, who lived alone, complained only of migraines, his friends said. Within a week, his condition worsened, and he was put on a ventilator at a nearby hospital. He died soon after.
Friends said he may have been exposed at the hospital. (In a statement, hospital representatives said he didn’t treat COVID-19 patients.)
Dela Cruz, the oldest of 10 siblings, came from a family of health care professionals. His friends and family — from Cebu, Philippines, to Teaneck, New Jersey — remembered his jovial personality on Facebook. He won “best doctor of the year” awards, played tennis and cooked traditional Cebu dishes.
Nida Gonzales, a colleague, said he always supported people, whether funding a student’s education or running a church mental health program. “I feel like I lost a brother,” she said.
— Ankita Rao, The Guardian | Published April 22, 2020
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Alabama Nurse Remembered As Selfless But Sassy
(Courtesy of Amanda Williams)
Rose Harrison
Age: 60 Occupation: Nurse Place of Work: Marion Regional Nursing Home in Hamilton, Alabama Date of Death: April 6, 2020
Rose Harrison, 60, lived to serve others ― her husband, three daughters, grandchildren and the residents of the nursing home where she worked. Though the Alabama nurse was selfless, she also had a sassy edge to her personality and a penchant for road rage, her daughter, Amanda Williams said.
“Her personality was so funny, you automatically loved her,” Williams said. “She was so outspoken. If she didn’t agree with you, she’d tell you in a respectful way.”
Harrison was not wearing a mask when she cared for a patient who later tested positive for COVID-19 at Marion Regional Nursing Home in Hamilton, Alabama, her daughter said. She later developed a cough, fatigue and a low-grade fever, but kept reporting to duty all week. Officials from the nursing home did not return calls for comment.
On April 3, Williams drove her mother to a hospital. The following evening, Harrison discussed the option of going on a ventilator with loved ones on a video call, agreeing it was the best course. Williams believed that her mother fully expected to recover. She died April 6.
— Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News | Published April 22, 2020
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Connecticut Social Worker Had Angelic Singing Voice And A Zest For Life
(Courtesy of the Hunt family)
Curtis Hunt
Age: 57 Occupation: Social worker Places of Work: Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center and New Reach, both in New Haven, Connecticut Date of Death: March 23, 2020
At a shelter for adults recovering from addiction, residents looked forward to the days when Marion “Curtis” Hunt would take the stage, emceeing talent shows and belting out Broadway and gospel tunes.
It wasn’t part of his job description as a social worker. It was just one of the ways he went “above and beyond,” said his supervisor at Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, Daena Murphy. “He had a beautiful voice,” she said. “He was just a wonderful person — funny, engaging, always a huge smile on his face.”
Hunt, the youngest of four brothers, earned his master’s in social work from Fordham University at 52, and was baptized at his brother’s Pentecostal church at 54. He was a devoted uncle who doted on his dog and cat, Mya and Milo.
It’s unclear how Hunt got infected, but one patient he worked with had tested positive for COVID-19, as did two co-workers, according to Dr. Ece Tek, another supervisor at Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center. Hunt died on March 23, one week after developing flu-like symptoms, said his brother John Mann Jr.
— Melissa Bailey | Published April 22, 2020
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To The End, King-Smith Was Driven By A Desire To Help Others
(Courtesy of Hassana Salaam-Rivers)
Kim King-Smith
Age: 53 Occupation: Electrocardiogram technician Place of Work: University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey Date of Death: March 31, 2020
Kim King-Smith was a natural caregiver. An only child, she grew up close to her extended family, including her cousins Hassana Salaam-Rivers and Sharonda Salaam. After Salaam developed multiple sclerosis, King-Smith visited her every day.
“She’d bring her sweets that she wasn’t supposed to have and share them with her,” Salaam-Rivers said. King-Smith’s desire to care for others was the reason she became an electrocardiogram technician, her cousin added. “If a friend of a friend or family member went to the hospital, she would always go and visit them as soon as her shift was over,” she said.
In March, King-Smith cared for a patient she said had symptoms of COVID-19; she soon fell ill herself and tested positive for the virus. It seemed like a mild case at first, and she stayed in touch with family via FaceTime while trying to isolate from her husband, Lenny.
On March 29, Salaam-Rivers checked in on her cousin and noticed she was struggling to breathe. She urged her to call an ambulance. After King-Smith was hospitalized, she exchanged text messages with her mother and cousin. As the day progressed, her messages carried increasingly grave news, Salaam-Rivers said. Then she stopped responding.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 22, 2020
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On The Eve Of Retirement, VA Nurse Succumbs To COVID-19
(Courtesy of Mark Accad)
Debbie Accad
Age: 72 Occupation: Clinical nursing coordinator Place of Work: Detroit VA Medical Center in Detroit, Michigan Date of Death: March 30, 2020
Nurse Divina “Debbie” Accad had cared for veterans for over 25 years and was set to retire in April. But after contracting the novel coronavirus, she spent her final 11 days on a ventilator — and didn’t survive past March.
She joined a growing list of health care professionals working on the front lines of the pandemic who have died from COVID-19.
Accad, 72, a clinical nursing coordinator at the Detroit VA Medical Center, dedicated her life to nursing, according to her son Mark Accad.
“She died doing what she loved most,” he said. “That was caring for people.”
Read more here.
— Melissa Bailey | Published April 15, 2020
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California Nurse Thrived In ER and ICU, But Couldn’t Survive COVID-19
Jeff Baumbach and his wife, Karen (Courtesy of the Baumbach family)
Jeff Baumbach
Age: 57 Occupation: Nurse Place of Work: St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton, California Date of Death: March 31, 2020
Jeff Baumbach, 57, was a seasoned nurse of 28 years when the novel coronavirus began to circulate in California. He’d worked in the ER, the ICU and on a cardiac floor. Hepatitis and tuberculosis had been around over the years but never posed a major concern. He’d cared for patients who had tuberculosis.
Jeff and his wife, Karen Baumbach, also a nurse, initially didn’t consider it significantly riskier than challenges they’d faced for years.
“He’d worked in the ICU. He was exposed to so many things, and we never got anything,” she said. “This was just ramping up.”
One day during work, Jeff sent a sarcastic text to his wife: “I love wearing a mask every day.”
Within weeks, he would wage a difficult and steady fight against the virus that ended with a sudden collapse.
Read more here.
— Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News | Published April 15, 2020
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Nurse’s Faith Led Her To Care For Prisoners At A New Jersey Jail
(Courtesy of Denise Rendor)
Daisy Doronila
Age: 60 Occupation: Nurse Place of Work: Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny, New Jersey Date of Death: April 5, 2020
Daisy Doronila had a different perspective than most who worked at the Hudson County Correctional Facility, a New Jersey lockup 11 miles from Manhattan. It was a place where the veteran nurse could put her Catholic faith into action, showing kindness to marginalized people.
“There would be people there for the most heinous crimes,” said her daughter, Denise Rendor, 28, “but they would just melt towards my mother because she really was there to give them care with no judgment.”
Doronila, 60, died April 5, two weeks after testing positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The jail has been hit hard by the virus, with 27 inmates and 68 staff members having tested positive. Among those, another nurse, a correctional officer and a clerk also died, according to Ron Edwards, Hudson County’s director of corrections.
Doronila fell ill before the scope of the jail infections were known. She was picking up extra shifts in the weeks before, her daughter said, and planning on a trip to Israel soon with friends from church.
That plan began to fall apart March 14, when someone at the jail noticed her coughing and asked her to go home and visit a doctor.
Read more here.
— Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News | Published April 15, 2020
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An Army Veteran, Hospital Custodian ‘Loved Helping People’
(Courtesy of Michelle Wilcox)
Alvin Simmons
Age: 54 Occupation: Environmental service assistant Place of Work: Rochester General Hospital in Rochester, New York Death: March 17, 2020
Alvin Simmons started working as a custodian at Rochester General Hospital, in New York state, weeks before he fell ill. “He loved helping people and he figured the best place to do that would be in a hospital,” his sister, Michelle Wilcox said.
An Army veteran who had served in the first Gulf War, Simmons loved karaoke and doted on his three grandchildren, Wilcox said. “He was a dedicated, hardworking individual who had just changed his life around” since a prison stint, she said.
According to Wilcox, Simmons began developing symptoms shortly after cleaning the room of a woman he believed was infected with the novel coronavirus. “Other hospital employees did not want to clean the room because they said they weren’t properly trained” to clean the room of someone potentially infected, she said. “They got my brother from a different floor, because he had just started there,” she said. (In an email, a hospital spokesperson said they had “no evidence to suggest that Mr. Simmons was at a heightened risk of exposure to COVID-19 by virtue of his training or employment duties at RGH.”)
On March 11, he visited the emergency room at Rochester General, where he was tested for COVID-19, Wilcox said. Over the next few days, as he rested at his girlfriend’s home, his breathing became more labored and he began to cough up blood. He was rushed to the hospital on March 13, where he was later declared brain-dead. Subsequently, he received a COVID-19 diagnosis. Simmons died on March 17.
— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published April 15, 2020
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Nurse At Nevada VA Dies After Caring For Infected Colleague
(Courtesy of Bob Thompson)
Vianna Thompson
Age: 52 Occupation: Nurse Places of Work: VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System and Northern Nevada Medical Center in Reno, Nevada Date of Death: April 7, 2020
Nurse Vianna Thompson, 52, spent two night shifts caring for a fellow Veterans Affairs health care worker who was dying from COVID-19.
Two weeks later, she too was lying in a hospital intensive care unit, with a co-worker holding her hand as she died.
Thompson and the man she treated were among three VA health care workers in Reno, Nevada, to die in two weeks from complications of the novel coronavirus.
“It’s pretty devastating. It’s surreal. Reno’s not that big of a city,” said Robyn Underhill, a night nurse who worked with Thompson in the ER at Reno’s VA hospital the past two years.
Thompson, who dreamed of teaching nursing one day, died April 7, joining a growing list of health care professionals killed in the pandemic.
Read more here.
— Melissa Bailey | Published April 15, 2020
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Dr. J. Ronald Verrier Was Busy Saving Lives Before The Pandemic
(Courtesy of Christina Pardo)
J. Ronald Verrier
Age: 59 Occupation: Surgeon Place of Work: St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, New York Date of Death: April 8, 2020
Dr. J. Ronald Verrier, a surgeon at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, spent the final weeks of his audacious, unfinished life tending to a torrent of patients inflicted with COVID-19. He died April 8 at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital in Oceanside, New York, at age 59, after falling ill from the novel coronavirus.
Verrier led the charge even as the financially strapped St. Barnabas Hospital struggled to find masks and gowns to protect its workers — many nurses continue to make cloth masks — and makeshift morgues in the parking lot held patients who had died.
“He did a good work,” said Jeannine Sherwood, a nurse manager at St. Barnabas Hospital who worked closely with Verrier.
“He can rest.”
Read more here.
— Sarah Varney, Kaiser Health News | Published April 15, 2020
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America’s First ER Doctor To Die In The Heat Of COVID-19 Battle
(Courtesy of Debra Vasalech Lyons)
Frank Gabrin
Age: 60 Occupation: Doctor Places of Work: St. John’s Episcopal in Queens, New York, and East Orange General in New Jersey Date of Death: March 26, 2020
At about 5 a.m. on March 19, a New York City ER physician named Frank Gabrin texted a friend about his concerns over the lack of medical supplies at hospitals.
“It’s busy ― everyone wants a COVID test that I do not have to give them,” he wrote in the message to Eddy Soffer. “So they are angry and disappointed.”
Worse, though, was the limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) — the masks and gloves that help keep health care workers from getting sick and spreading the virus to others. Gabrin said he had no choice but to don the same mask for several shifts, against Food and Drug Administration guidelines.
“Don’t have any PPE that has not been used,” he wrote. “No N95 masks ― my own goggles — my own face shield,” he added, referring to the N95 respirators considered among the best lines of defense.
Less than two weeks later, Gabrin became the first ER doctor in the U.S. known to have died as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Read more here.
— Alastair Gee, The Guardian | Published April 10, 2020
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This story is part of “Lost on the Frontline,” an ongoing project from The Guardian and Kaiser Health News that aims to document the lives of health care workers in the U.S. who die from COVID-19, and to investigate why so many are victims of the disease. If you have a colleague or loved one we should include, please share their story.
Lost On The Frontline published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/
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10:20an
i had an interesting conversation with renwick. i was talking to charlie and renwick told her to get off the table. "asses are for glasses" .
"what about feet"
"do you sit where you eat"
".....i have"
i got everyone to laugh and made david turn red in the face. sometimes you gotta lose thr battle to win the war. worth it.
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