#OSHA fall protection training in New Jersey
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Importance Of HAZWOPER Certification In New Jersey, New York, Texas, California, And Florida
There are several kinds of occupations where ascending heights is essential. Such activities are risk-prone, with slipping and falling cannot be ignored. The “Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)” mentions that falling from considerable heights is one of today's most severe workplace concerns. Grievous injuries often result in disability and death of the employees. Special attention must, therefore, be taken to prevent such instances. The OSHA fall protection training in New Jersey, New York, Texas, California, and Florida is a must-do for such workers worldwide.
Employing trained personnel with trained supervisors overlooking the process is recommended for all industries. Falls are more common in the construction industry as the workers need to scale heights during their work. The general industry is not unaffected by this risk either. It is interesting to note that OSHA has several fall protection measures in place. Complying with the standards is mandatory for the workforce that needs to ascend heights. The employer is equally responsible for enforcing the regulations as well. Being informed about the safety measures is essential for all concerned.
It suffices to know that several entities provide fall protection training for a fee. Taking the online course is an advantage as the concerned employees do not have to miss any working day to be trained about safety. The training course may be devised differently for different sections of people. Most organizations providing OSHA-recommended fall protection training offer the training in the form of modules aimed at the following:-
· Awareness of fall protection- This introductory course does not include practical training. It educates the trainee about the types of fall hazards and fall protection equipment that need to be employed to mitigate the associated risks.
· Authorized Worker- This kind of training is aimed at workers who have to work at considerable heights. They usually employ protective solutions and use protective equipment to complete the tasks. The training course helps them to identify the hazards and eliminate them as far as possible. Various regulations and procedures are sure to be discussed to reduce the risks. Hands-on training is a part of the training, too.
· Competent Person- This training is meant for the supervisorial staff and/or environmental safety personnel. According to OSHA, a competent person is an individual capable of recognizing the potential hazards and risks of falls and injury. Such persons also have the authority to make speedy decisions about eliminating the risks. The course will cover everything that is included in the training module meant for an authorized worker, along with additional training provided about rescue procedures, selection of the right equipment, and inspection procedures.
OSHA recommends Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response training to obtain the HAZWOPER certification in New Jersey, New York, Texas, California, and Florida as needed. The time varies with the type of training taken, with both online and offline training being provided by competent training organizations.
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Safety with Top OSHA Attorneys in Manhattan New York
Workplace safety is crucial for everyone, from the smallest startups to the largest corporations. However, when issues arise, having a knowledgeable ally can make all the difference. For employers in New Jersey and New York, finding the right OSHA attorneys in Manhattan New York State is essential.
Understanding OSHA and its Importance
What is OSHA?
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a federal agency that ensures safe and healthy working conditions for employees. It sets and enforces standards and provides training, outreach, education, and assistance.
The Role of OSHA Attorneys
OSHA attorneys specialize in navigating the complex regulations and standards set by OSHA. They help businesses comply with these regulations, represent them during inspections and citations, and defend them in litigation.
Why Manhattan?
Manhattan is a bustling hub of various industries. From construction to finance, businesses here must comply with OSHA standards to ensure the safety and well-being of their employees. Hiring a knowledgeable NYC OSHA attorney can be crucial in such a densely regulated environment.
Why You Need an OSHA Attorney?
Compliance with Regulations
Navigating OSHA regulations can be overwhelming. An OSHA attorney ensures your business complies with all the necessary rules, avoiding hefty fines and penalties.
Representation During Inspections
OSHA inspections can be stressful. Having an attorney present ensures that your rights are protected and that the inspection is conducted fairly.
Defense Against Citations
If your business receives an OSHA citation, an attorney can help you contest it. They will build a robust defense, potentially saving your company from severe penalties.
Choosing the Right OSHA Attorney in Manhattan
Expertise and Experience
Look for attorneys with a strong background in OSHA regulations and a proven track record in handling similar cases. Their expertise will be invaluable in navigating complex legal matters.
Local Knowledge
An NYC OSHA attorney familiar with the local regulations in Manhattan and New York State will be better equipped to handle your case. They will understand the specific challenges businesses face in this area.
Client Testimonials
Reading reviews and testimonials from previous clients can provide insight into an attorney’s effectiveness and reliability. Positive feedback from other business owners in New Jersey and New York can be a good indicator of quality service.
Common OSHA Violations in Manhattan
Hazard Communication
One common violation is the failure to properly communicate hazardous materials information to employees. This includes labeling, safety data sheets, and training.
Fall Protection
In industries like construction, fall protection is critical. Violations in this area can lead to severe injuries or fatalities, making it a top priority for OSHA compliance.
Respiratory Protection
Failing to provide adequate respiratory protection in environments with harmful dust or chemicals is another frequent violation. Ensuring proper equipment and training is vital.
The Benefits of Proactive OSHA Compliance
Reduced Risk of Accidents
By proactively ensuring compliance, you reduce the risk of workplace accidents. This creates a safer environment for employees and can improve overall productivity.
Financial Savings
Avoiding fines and legal fees associated with OSHA violations can save your business money. Additionally, fewer accidents can lead to lower insurance premiums.
Improved Employee Morale
A safe workplace boosts employee morale. When workers feel their safety is a priority, they are more likely to be satisfied and productive.
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Forklift in spanish
Wurtz will continue to be engaged with Soundview as its chairman and as a significant investor. Soundview Paper Co., Elmwood Park, New Jersey, has announced that George Wurtz has retired as president and CEO. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known, according to OSHA.Ī spokesperson for Matalco Inc., Matalaco US’s parent company in Ontario refused comment. These hazards resulted in the issuance of two serious violations. The agency also says it found that live electric equipment operating at high voltages was not guarded against human contact. OSHA issues repeat violations if an employer was previously cited for the same or a similar violation of any standard, regulation, rule or order at any facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years.ĭuring the inspection, workers were found standing on aluminum blocks elevated by a forklift to perform tasks on a furnace, which exposed workers to falls of at least 8 feet, OSHA says. The administration previously cited the Matalco facility for the same violation in 2012. A willful violation is one committed with intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard for the law’s requirement or with plain indifference to employee safety and health, according to OSHA.Īt the Canton facility, employees were exposed to a fall hazard of more than 23 feet because the company had not installed guardrails over an open pit, and employees that worked in the pit area were not provided fall protection, OSHA says. A second willful violation was cited for failing to remove a crane with broken safety mechanisms from service. OSHA says its inspection found one willful violation for insufficient machine guarding on a robot cell that exposed workers to amputation hazards. “By placing Matalco US in our Severe Violator Enforcement Program, OSHA is putting the company on notice that this is unacceptable.” “This company allowed workers to stand on blocks elevated by a forklift, and that’s just one visible example of the total disregard for worker safety and health at this plant,” says Howard Eberts, OSHA area director in Cleveland. on OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program. OSHA says it also has placed Matalco US Inc. The inspection was initiated following a complaint. Over time this may lessen the need to provide OSH Act training in other languages.The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed penalties totaling $130,200 for the aluminum firm Matalco following an inspection at the company’s Canton, Ohio, plant on March 24, 2014. Of course, employers may also provide instruction in learning the English language to non-English speaking employees. Similarly, if the employee's vocabulary is limited, the training must account for that limitation.īy the same token, if employees are not literate, telling them to read training materials will not satisfy the employer's training obligation.Īs a general matter, employers are expected to realize that if they customarily need to communicate work instructions or other workplace information to employees at a certain vocabulary level or in a language other than English, they will also need to provide safety and health training to employees in the same manner. In practical terms, this means that an employer must instruct its employees using both a language and vocabulary that the employees can understand.įor example, if an employee does not speak or comprehend English, instruction must be provided in a language the employee can understand.
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U.S. Department of Labor Investigation Finds New Jersey Contractor Exposed Employees to Lead and Other Hazards at Pennsylvania Worksite
The latest news about Workers Compensation in Ontario California... U.S. Department of Labor Investigation Finds New Jersey Contractor Exposed Employees to Lead and Other Hazards at Pennsylvania Worksite: The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Scot Christopher Rule LLC for exposing workers to lead and other workplace hazards as the company renovated and remodeled a worksite in Easton, Pennsylvania. The company faces $104,637 in proposed penalties. OSHA initiated a follow-up inspection in February 2019, after the Frenchtown, New Jersey, painting and wall covering contractor failed to provide proof of abatement related to a 2017 investigation. Inspectors cited the company with four willful violations that included failing to; provide employees with training and information concerning lead and hazardous chemicals, conduct an initial determination to identify employees' level of exposure to lead, and not having a written lead compliance program. In addition, OSHA cited the Scot Christopher Rule for permitting improper use of respirators, another serious violation.In May 2019, OSHA completed a second inspection after a complaint that the employer exposed employees operating aerial lifts to fall hazards, and cited additional serious violations.“Overexposure to lead can result in a wide range of debilitating medical conditions," said OSHA Area Director Jean Kulp, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “The most effective way to minimize exposure is to use engineering controls, provide training, and use protective clothing and equipment."OSHA offers compliance assistance resources on preventing fall hazards, lead exposure in construction, and personal protective equipment. Scot Christopher Rule has 15 business days from receipt of the citations (view them here and here) and proposed penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Commission. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to help ensure these conditions for American working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education, and assistance. For more information, visit https://www.osha.gov. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #454545} span.s1 {text-decoration: underline ; color: #e4af0a} …. Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers' Compensation Law (West-Thomson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers' Compensation Law (West-Thomson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman [email protected] has been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses. http://bit.ly/2YBZ8ry #workerscomplawyerie #inlandempire #lawblog #workinjurylawyer
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Hospitals, Nursing Homes Fail to Separate COVID Patients, Putting Others at Risk
Nurses at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center were on edge as early as March when patients with COVID-19 began to show up in areas of the hospital that were not set aside to care for them.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had advised hospitals to isolate COVID patients to limit staff exposure and help conserve high-level personal protective equipment that’s been in short supply.
Yet COVID patients continued to be scattered through the Oakland hospital, according to complaints to California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The concerns included the sixth-floor medical unit where veteran nurse Janine Paiste-Ponder worked.
COVID patients on that floor were not staying in their rooms, either confused or uninterested in the rules. Staff was not provided highly protective N95 respirators, said Mike Hill, a nurse in the hospital intensive care unit and the hospital’s chief representative for the California Nurses Association, which filed complaints to Cal/OSHA, the state’s workplace safety regulator.
“It was just a matter of time before one of the nurses died on one of these floors,” Hill said.
Two nurses fell ill, including Paiste-Ponder, 59, who died of complications from the virus on July 17.
The concerns raised in Oakland also have swept across the U.S., according to interviews, a review of government workplace safety complaints and health facility inspection reports. A KHN investigation found that dozens of nursing homes and hospitals ignored official guidelines to separate COVID patients from those without the coronavirus, in some places fueling its spread and leaving staff unprepared and infected or, in some cases, dead.
As recently as July, a National Nurses United survey of more than 21,000 nurses found that 32% work in a facility that does not have a dedicated COVID unit. At that time, the coronavirus had reached all but 17 U.S. counties, data collected by Johns Hopkins University shows.
KHN discovered that COVID victims have been commingled with uninfected patients in health care facilities in states including California, Florida, New Jersey, Iowa, Ohio, Maryland and New York.
A COVID-19 outbreak was in full swing at the New Jersey Veterans Home at Paramus in late April when health inspectors observed residents with dementia mingling in a day room — COVID-positive patients as well as others awaiting test results. At the time, the center had already reported COVID infections among 119 residents and 46 virus-related deaths, according to a Medicare inspection report.
The assistant director of nursing at an Iowa nursing home insisted April 28 that they did “not have any COVID in the building” and overrode the orders of a community doctor to isolate several patients with fevers and falling oxygen levels, an inspection report shows.
By mid-May, the facility’s COVID log showed 61 patients with the virus and nine dead.
Federal work-safety officials have closed at least 30 complaints about patient mixing in hospitals nationwide without issuing a citation. They include a claim that a Michigan hospital kept patients who tested negative for the virus in the COVID unit in May. An upstate New York hospital also had COVID patients in the same unit as those with no infection, according to a closed complaint to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Federal Health and Human Services officials have called on hospitals to tell them each day if they have a patient who came in without COVID-19 but had an apparent or confirmed case of the coronavirus 14 days later. Hospitals filed 48,000 reports from June 21 through Aug. 28, though the number reflects some double or additional counting of individual patients.
COVID patients have been mixed in with others for a variety of reasons. Some hospitals report having limited tests, so patients carrying the virus are identified only after they had already exposed others. In other cases, they had false-negative test results or their facility was dismissive of federal guidelines, which carry no force of law.
And while federal Medicare officials have inspected nearly every U.S. nursing home in recent months and states have occasionally levied fines and cut off new admissions for isolation lapses, hospitals have seen less scrutiny.
The Scene Inside Sutter
At Alta Bates in Oakland, part of the Sutter Health network, hospital staff made it clear in official complaints to Cal/OSHA that they wanted administrators to follow the state’s unique law on aerosol-transmitted diseases. From the start, some staffers wanted all the state-required protections for a virus that has been increasingly shown to be transmitted by tiny particles that float through the air.
The regulations call for patients with a virus like COVID-19 to be moved to a specialized unit within five hours of identification — or to a specialized facility. The rules say those patients should be in a room with a HEPA filter or with negative air pressure, meaning that air is circulated out a window or exhaust fan instead of drifting into the hallway.
Initially, in March, the hospital outfitted a 40-bed COVID unit, according to Hill. But when a surge of patients failed to materialize, that unit was pared to 12 beds.
Since then, a steady stream of virus patients have been admitted, he said, many testing positive only days after admission — and after they’d been in regular rooms in the facility.
From March 10 through July 30, Hill’s union and others filed eight complaints to Cal/OSHA, including allegations that the hospital failed to follow isolation rules for COVID patients, some on the cancer floor.
So far, regulators have done little. Gov. Gavin Newsom had ordered workplace safety officials to “focus on … supporting compliance” instead of enforcement except on the “most serious violations.”
State officials responded to complaints by reaching out by mail and phone to “ensure the proper virus prevention measures are in place,” according to Frank Polizzi, a spokesperson for Cal/OSHA.
A third investigation related to transport workers not wearing N95 respirators while moving COVID-positive or possible coronavirus patients at a Sutter facility near the hospital resulted in a $6,750 fine, Cal/OSHA records show.
The string of complaints also says the hospital did not give staff the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) under state law — an N95 respirator or something more protective — for caring for virus patients.
Instead, Hill said, staff on floors with COVID patients were provided lower-quality surgical masks, a concern reflected in complaints filed with Cal/OSHA.
Hill believes that Paiste-Ponder and another nurse on her floor caught the virus from COVID patients who did not remain in their rooms.
“It is sad, because it didn’t really need to happen,” Hill said.
Polizzi said investigations into the July 17 death and another staff hospitalization are ongoing.
A Sutter Health spokesperson said the hospital takes allegations, including Cal/OSHA complaints, seriously and its highest priority is keeping patients and staff safe.
The statement also said “cohorting,” or the practice of grouping virus patients together, is a tool that “must be considered in a greater context, including patient acuity, hospital census and other environmental factors.”
Concerns at Other Hospitals
CDC guidelines are not strict on the topic of keeping COVID patients sectioned off, noting that “facilities could consider designating entire units within the facility, with dedicated [staff],” to care for COVID patients.
That approach succeeded at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. A recent study reported “extensive” viral contamination around COVID patients there, but noted that with “standard” infection control techniques in place, staffers who cared for COVID patients did not get the virus.
The hospital set up an isolation unit with air pumped away from the halls, restricted access to the unit and trained staff to use well-developed protocols and N95 respirators — at a minimum. What worked in Nebraska, though, is far from standard elsewhere.
Cynthia Butler, a nurse and National Nurses United member at Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Port Charlotte, on Florida’s west coast, said she actually felt safer working in the COVID unit — where she knew what she was dealing with and had full PPE — than on a general medical floor.
She believes she caught the virus from a patient who had COVID-19 but was housed on a general floor in May. A similar situation occurred in July, when another patient had an unexpected case of COVID — and Butler said she got another positive test herself.
She said both patients did not meet the hospital’s criteria for testing admitted patients, and the lapses leave her on edge, concerns she relayed to an OSHA inspector who reached out to her about a complaint her union filed about the facility.
“Every time I go into work it’s like playing Russian roulette,” Butler said.
A spokesperson for HCA Healthcare, which owns the hospital, said it tests patients coming from long-term care, those going into surgery and those with virus symptoms. She said staffers have access to PPE and practice vigilant sanitation, universal masking and social distancing.
The latter is not an option for Butler, though, who said she cleans, feeds and starts IVs for patients and offers reassurance when they are isolated from family.
“I’m giving them the only comfort or kind word they can get,” said Butler, who has since gone on unpaid leave over safety concerns. “I’m in there doing that and I’m not being protected.”
Given research showing that up to 45% of COVID patients are asymptomatic, UCSF Medical Center is testing everyone who’s admitted, said Dr. Robert Harrison, a University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine professor who consults on occupational health at the hospital.
It’s done for the safety of staff and to reduce spread within the hospital, he said. Those who test positive are separated into a COVID-only unit.
And staff who spent more than 15 minutes within 6 feet of a not-yet-identified COVID patient in a less-protective surgical mask are typically sent home for two weeks, he said.
Outside of academic medicine, though, front-line staff have turned to union leaders to push for such protections.
In Southern California, leaders of the National Union of Healthcare Workers filed an official complaint with state hospital inspectors about the risks posed by intermingled COVID patients at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital in Orange County, part of for-profit Tenet Health. There, the complaint said, patients were not routinely tested for COVID-19 upon admission.
One nursing assistant spent two successive 12-hour shifts caring for a patient on a general medical floor who required monitoring. At the conclusion of the second shift, she was told the patient had just been found to be COVID-positive.
The worker had worn only a surgical mask — not an N95 respirator or any form of eye protection, according to the complaint to the California Department of Public Health. The nursing assistant was not offered a COVID test or quarantined before her next two shifts, the complaint said.
The public health department said it could not comment on a pending inspection.
Barbara Lewis, Southern California hospital division director with the union, said COVID patients were on the same floor as cancer patients and post-surgical patients who were walking the halls to speed their recovery.
She said managers took steps to separate the patients only after the union held a protest, spoke to local media and complained to state health officials.
Hospital spokesperson Jessica Chen said the hospital “quickly implemented” changes directed by state health authorities and does place some COVID patients on the same nursing unit as non-COVID patients during surges. She said they are placed in single rooms with closed doors. COVID tests are given by physician order, she added, and employees can access them at other places in the community.
It’s in contrast, Lewis said, to high-profile examples of the precautions that might be taken.
“Now we’re seeing what’s happening with baseball and basketball — they’re tested every day and treated with a high level of caution,” Lewis said. “Yet we have thousands and thousands of health care workers going to work in a very scary environment.”
Nursing Homes Face Penalties
More than 40% of the people who’ve died of COVID-19 lived in nursing homes or assisted living facilities, researchers have found.
Patient mixing has been a scattered concern at nursing homes, which Medicare officials discovered when they reviewed infection control practices at more than 15,000 facilities.
News reports have highlighted the problem at an Ohio nursing home and at a Maryland home where the state levied a $70,000 fine for failing to keep infected patients away from those who weren’t sick — yet.
Another facing penalties was Fair Havens Center, a Miami Springs, Florida, nursing home where inspectors discovered that 11 roommates of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 were put in rooms with other residents — putting them at heightened risk.
Florida regulators cut off admissions to the home and Medicare authorities levied a $235,000 civil monetary penalty, records show.
The vice president of operations at the facility told inspectors that isolating exposed patients would mean isolating the entire facility: Everyone had been exposed to the 32 staff members who tested positive for the virus, the report says.
Fair Havens Center did not respond to a request for comment.
In Iowa, Medicare officials declared a state of “immediate jeopardy” at Pearl Valley Rehabilitation and Care Center in Muscatine. There, they discovered that staffers were in denial over an outbreak in their midst, with a nursing director overriding a community doctor’s orders to isolate or send residents to the emergency room. Instead, officials found, in late April, the assistant nursing director kept COVID patients in the facility, citing a general order by their medical director to avoid sending patients to the ER “if you can help it.”
Meanwhile, several patients were documented by facility staff to have fevers and falling oxygen levels, the Medicare inspection report shows. Within two weeks, the facility discovered it had an outbreak, with 61 residents infected and nine dead, according to the report.
Medicare officials are investigating Menlo Park Veterans Memorial Home in New Jersey, state Sen. Joseph Vitale said during a recent legislative hearing. Resident council president Glenn Osborne testified during the hearing that the home’s residents were returned to the same shared rooms after hospitalizations.
Osborne, an honorably discharged Marine, said he saw more residents of the home die than fellow service members during his military service. The Menlo Park and Paramus veterans homes — where inspectors saw dementia patients with and without the virus commingling in a day room — both reported more than 180 COVID cases among residents, 90 among staff and at least 60 deaths.
A spokesperson for the homes said he could not comment due to pending litigation.
“These deaths should not have happened,” Osborne said. “Many of these deaths were absolutely avoidable, in my humble opinion.”
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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Hospitals, Nursing Homes Fail to Separate COVID Patients, Putting Others at Risk
Nurses at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center were on edge as early as March when patients with COVID-19 began to show up in areas of the hospital that were not set aside to care for them.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had advised hospitals to isolate COVID patients to limit staff exposure and help conserve high-level personal protective equipment that’s been in short supply.
Yet COVID patients continued to be scattered through the Oakland hospital, according to complaints to California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The concerns included the sixth-floor medical unit where veteran nurse Janine Paiste-Ponder worked.
COVID patients on that floor were not staying in their rooms, either confused or uninterested in the rules. Staff was not provided highly protective N95 respirators, said Mike Hill, a nurse in the hospital intensive care unit and the hospital’s chief representative for the California Nurses Association, which filed complaints to Cal/OSHA, the state’s workplace safety regulator.
“It was just a matter of time before one of the nurses died on one of these floors,” Hill said.
Two nurses fell ill, including Paiste-Ponder, 59, who died of complications from the virus on July 17.
The concerns raised in Oakland also have swept across the U.S., according to interviews, a review of government workplace safety complaints and health facility inspection reports. A KHN investigation found that dozens of nursing homes and hospitals ignored official guidelines to separate COVID patients from those without the coronavirus, in some places fueling its spread and leaving staff unprepared and infected or, in some cases, dead.
As recently as July, a National Nurses United survey of more than 21,000 nurses found that 32% work in a facility that does not have a dedicated COVID unit. At that time, the coronavirus had reached all but 17 U.S. counties, data collected by Johns Hopkins University shows.
KHN discovered that COVID victims have been commingled with uninfected patients in health care facilities in states including California, Florida, New Jersey, Iowa, Ohio, Maryland and New York.
A COVID-19 outbreak was in full swing at the New Jersey Veterans Home at Paramus in late April when health inspectors observed residents with dementia mingling in a day room — COVID-positive patients as well as others awaiting test results. At the time, the center had already reported COVID infections among 119 residents and 46 virus-related deaths, according to a Medicare inspection report.
The assistant director of nursing at an Iowa nursing home insisted April 28 that they did “not have any COVID in the building” and overrode the orders of a community doctor to isolate several patients with fevers and falling oxygen levels, an inspection report shows.
By mid-May, the facility’s COVID log showed 61 patients with the virus and nine dead.
Federal work-safety officials have closed at least 30 complaints about patient mixing in hospitals nationwide without issuing a citation. They include a claim that a Michigan hospital kept patients who tested negative for the virus in the COVID unit in May. An upstate New York hospital also had COVID patients in the same unit as those with no infection, according to a closed complaint to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Federal Health and Human Services officials have called on hospitals to tell them each day if they have a patient who came in without COVID-19 but had an apparent or confirmed case of the coronavirus 14 days later. Hospitals filed 48,000 reports from June 21 through Aug. 28, though the number reflects some double or additional counting of individual patients.
COVID patients have been mixed in with others for a variety of reasons. Some hospitals report having limited tests, so patients carrying the virus are identified only after they had already exposed others. In other cases, they had false-negative test results or their facility was dismissive of federal guidelines, which carry no force of law.
And while federal Medicare officials have inspected nearly every U.S. nursing home in recent months and states have occasionally levied fines and cut off new admissions for isolation lapses, hospitals have seen less scrutiny.
The Scene Inside Sutter
At Alta Bates in Oakland, part of the Sutter Health network, hospital staff made it clear in official complaints to Cal/OSHA that they wanted administrators to follow the state’s unique law on aerosol-transmitted diseases. From the start, some staffers wanted all the state-required protections for a virus that has been increasingly shown to be transmitted by tiny particles that float through the air.
The regulations call for patients with a virus like COVID-19 to be moved to a specialized unit within five hours of identification — or to a specialized facility. The rules say those patients should be in a room with a HEPA filter or with negative air pressure, meaning that air is circulated out a window or exhaust fan instead of drifting into the hallway.
Initially, in March, the hospital outfitted a 40-bed COVID unit, according to Hill. But when a surge of patients failed to materialize, that unit was pared to 12 beds.
Since then, a steady stream of virus patients have been admitted, he said, many testing positive only days after admission — and after they’d been in regular rooms in the facility.
From March 10 through July 30, Hill’s union and others filed eight complaints to Cal/OSHA, including allegations that the hospital failed to follow isolation rules for COVID patients, some on the cancer floor.
So far, regulators have done little. Gov. Gavin Newsom had ordered workplace safety officials to “focus on … supporting compliance” instead of enforcement except on the “most serious violations.”
State officials responded to complaints by reaching out by mail and phone to “ensure the proper virus prevention measures are in place,” according to Frank Polizzi, a spokesperson for Cal/OSHA.
A third investigation related to transport workers not wearing N95 respirators while moving COVID-positive or possible coronavirus patients at a Sutter facility near the hospital resulted in a $6,750 fine, Cal/OSHA records show.
The string of complaints also says the hospital did not give staff the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) under state law — an N95 respirator or something more protective — for caring for virus patients.
Instead, Hill said, staff on floors with COVID patients were provided lower-quality surgical masks, a concern reflected in complaints filed with Cal/OSHA.
Hill believes that Paiste-Ponder and another nurse on her floor caught the virus from COVID patients who did not remain in their rooms.
“It is sad, because it didn’t really need to happen,” Hill said.
Polizzi said investigations into the July 17 death and another staff hospitalization are ongoing.
A Sutter Health spokesperson said the hospital takes allegations, including Cal/OSHA complaints, seriously and its highest priority is keeping patients and staff safe.
The statement also said “cohorting,” or the practice of grouping virus patients together, is a tool that “must be considered in a greater context, including patient acuity, hospital census and other environmental factors.”
Concerns at Other Hospitals
CDC guidelines are not strict on the topic of keeping COVID patients sectioned off, noting that “facilities could consider designating entire units within the facility, with dedicated [staff],” to care for COVID patients.
That approach succeeded at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. A recent study reported “extensive” viral contamination around COVID patients there, but noted that with “standard” infection control techniques in place, staffers who cared for COVID patients did not get the virus.
The hospital set up an isolation unit with air pumped away from the halls, restricted access to the unit and trained staff to use well-developed protocols and N95 respirators — at a minimum. What worked in Nebraska, though, is far from standard elsewhere.
Cynthia Butler, a nurse and National Nurses United member at Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Port Charlotte, on Florida’s west coast, said she actually felt safer working in the COVID unit — where she knew what she was dealing with and had full PPE — than on a general medical floor.
She believes she caught the virus from a patient who had COVID-19 but was housed on a general floor in May. A similar situation occurred in July, when another patient had an unexpected case of COVID — and Butler said she got another positive test herself.
She said both patients did not meet the hospital’s criteria for testing admitted patients, and the lapses leave her on edge, concerns she relayed to an OSHA inspector who reached out to her about a complaint her union filed about the facility.
“Every time I go into work it’s like playing Russian roulette,” Butler said.
A spokesperson for HCA Healthcare, which owns the hospital, said it tests patients coming from long-term care, those going into surgery and those with virus symptoms. She said staffers have access to PPE and practice vigilant sanitation, universal masking and social distancing.
The latter is not an option for Butler, though, who said she cleans, feeds and starts IVs for patients and offers reassurance when they are isolated from family.
“I’m giving them the only comfort or kind word they can get,” said Butler, who has since gone on unpaid leave over safety concerns. “I’m in there doing that and I’m not being protected.”
Given research showing that up to 45% of COVID patients are asymptomatic, UCSF Medical Center is testing everyone who’s admitted, said Dr. Robert Harrison, a University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine professor who consults on occupational health at the hospital.
It’s done for the safety of staff and to reduce spread within the hospital, he said. Those who test positive are separated into a COVID-only unit.
And staff who spent more than 15 minutes within 6 feet of a not-yet-identified COVID patient in a less-protective surgical mask are typically sent home for two weeks, he said.
Outside of academic medicine, though, front-line staff have turned to union leaders to push for such protections.
In Southern California, leaders of the National Union of Healthcare Workers filed an official complaint with state hospital inspectors about the risks posed by intermingled COVID patients at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital in Orange County, part of for-profit Tenet Health. There, the complaint said, patients were not routinely tested for COVID-19 upon admission.
One nursing assistant spent two successive 12-hour shifts caring for a patient on a general medical floor who required monitoring. At the conclusion of the second shift, she was told the patient had just been found to be COVID-positive.
The worker had worn only a surgical mask — not an N95 respirator or any form of eye protection, according to the complaint to the California Department of Public Health. The nursing assistant was not offered a COVID test or quarantined before her next two shifts, the complaint said.
The public health department said it could not comment on a pending inspection.
Barbara Lewis, Southern California hospital division director with the union, said COVID patients were on the same floor as cancer patients and post-surgical patients who were walking the halls to speed their recovery.
She said managers took steps to separate the patients only after the union held a protest, spoke to local media and complained to state health officials.
Hospital spokesperson Jessica Chen said the hospital “quickly implemented” changes directed by state health authorities and does place some COVID patients on the same nursing unit as non-COVID patients during surges. She said they are placed in single rooms with closed doors. COVID tests are given by physician order, she added, and employees can access them at other places in the community.
It’s in contrast, Lewis said, to high-profile examples of the precautions that might be taken.
“Now we’re seeing what’s happening with baseball and basketball — they’re tested every day and treated with a high level of caution,” Lewis said. “Yet we have thousands and thousands of health care workers going to work in a very scary environment.”
Nursing Homes Face Penalties
More than 40% of the people who’ve died of COVID-19 lived in nursing homes or assisted living facilities, researchers have found.
Patient mixing has been a scattered concern at nursing homes, which Medicare officials discovered when they reviewed infection control practices at more than 15,000 facilities.
News reports have highlighted the problem at an Ohio nursing home and at a Maryland home where the state levied a $70,000 fine for failing to keep infected patients away from those who weren’t sick — yet.
Another facing penalties was Fair Havens Center, a Miami Springs, Florida, nursing home where inspectors discovered that 11 roommates of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 were put in rooms with other residents — putting them at heightened risk.
Florida regulators cut off admissions to the home and Medicare authorities levied a $235,000 civil monetary penalty, records show.
The vice president of operations at the facility told inspectors that isolating exposed patients would mean isolating the entire facility: Everyone had been exposed to the 32 staff members who tested positive for the virus, the report says.
Fair Havens Center did not respond to a request for comment.
In Iowa, Medicare officials declared a state of “immediate jeopardy” at Pearl Valley Rehabilitation and Care Center in Muscatine. There, they discovered that staffers were in denial over an outbreak in their midst, with a nursing director overriding a community doctor’s orders to isolate or send residents to the emergency room. Instead, officials found, in late April, the assistant nursing director kept COVID patients in the facility, citing a general order by their medical director to avoid sending patients to the ER “if you can help it.”
Meanwhile, several patients were documented by facility staff to have fevers and falling oxygen levels, the Medicare inspection report shows. Within two weeks, the facility discovered it had an outbreak, with 61 residents infected and nine dead, according to the report.
Medicare officials are investigating Menlo Park Veterans Memorial Home in New Jersey, state Sen. Joseph Vitale said during a recent legislative hearing. Resident council president Glenn Osborne testified during the hearing that the home’s residents were returned to the same shared rooms after hospitalizations.
Osborne, an honorably discharged Marine, said he saw more residents of the home die than fellow service members during his military service. The Menlo Park and Paramus veterans homes — where inspectors saw dementia patients with and without the virus commingling in a day room — both reported more than 180 COVID cases among residents, 90 among staff and at least 60 deaths.
A spokesperson for the homes said he could not comment due to pending litigation.
“These deaths should not have happened,” Osborne said. “Many of these deaths were absolutely avoidable, in my humble opinion.”
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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Hospitals, Nursing Homes Fail to Separate COVID Patients, Putting Others at Risk
Nurses at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center were on edge as early as March when patients with COVID-19 began to show up in areas of the hospital that were not set aside to care for them.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had advised hospitals to isolate COVID patients to limit staff exposure and help conserve high-level personal protective equipment that’s been in short supply.
Yet COVID patients continued to be scattered through the Oakland hospital, according to complaints to California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The concerns included the sixth-floor medical unit where veteran nurse Janine Paiste-Ponder worked.
COVID patients on that floor were not staying in their rooms, either confused or uninterested in the rules. Staff was not provided highly protective N95 respirators, said Mike Hill, a nurse in the hospital intensive care unit and the hospital’s chief representative for the California Nurses Association, which filed complaints to Cal/OSHA, the state’s workplace safety regulator.
“It was just a matter of time before one of the nurses died on one of these floors,” Hill said.
Two nurses fell ill, including Paiste-Ponder, 59, who died of complications from the virus on July 17.
The concerns raised in Oakland also have swept across the U.S., according to interviews, a review of government workplace safety complaints and health facility inspection reports. A KHN investigation found that dozens of nursing homes and hospitals ignored official guidelines to separate COVID patients from those without the coronavirus, in some places fueling its spread and leaving staff unprepared and infected or, in some cases, dead.
As recently as July, a National Nurses United survey of more than 21,000 nurses found that 32% work in a facility that does not have a dedicated COVID unit. At that time, the coronavirus had reached all but 17 U.S. counties, data collected by Johns Hopkins University shows.
KHN discovered that COVID victims have been commingled with uninfected patients in health care facilities in states including California, Florida, New Jersey, Iowa, Ohio, Maryland and New York.
A COVID-19 outbreak was in full swing at the New Jersey Veterans Home at Paramus in late April when health inspectors observed residents with dementia mingling in a day room — COVID-positive patients as well as others awaiting test results. At the time, the center had already reported COVID infections among 119 residents and 46 virus-related deaths, according to a Medicare inspection report.
The assistant director of nursing at an Iowa nursing home insisted April 28 that they did “not have any COVID in the building” and overrode the orders of a community doctor to isolate several patients with fevers and falling oxygen levels, an inspection report shows.
By mid-May, the facility’s COVID log showed 61 patients with the virus and nine dead.
Federal work-safety officials have closed at least 30 complaints about patient mixing in hospitals nationwide without issuing a citation. They include a claim that a Michigan hospital kept patients who tested negative for the virus in the COVID unit in May. An upstate New York hospital also had COVID patients in the same unit as those with no infection, according to a closed complaint to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Federal Health and Human Services officials have called on hospitals to tell them each day if they have a patient who came in without COVID-19 but had an apparent or confirmed case of the coronavirus 14 days later. Hospitals filed 48,000 reports from June 21 through Aug. 28, though the number reflects some double or additional counting of individual patients.
COVID patients have been mixed in with others for a variety of reasons. Some hospitals report having limited tests, so patients carrying the virus are identified only after they had already exposed others. In other cases, they had false-negative test results or their facility was dismissive of federal guidelines, which carry no force of law.
And while federal Medicare officials have inspected nearly every U.S. nursing home in recent months and states have occasionally levied fines and cut off new admissions for isolation lapses, hospitals have seen less scrutiny.
The Scene Inside Sutter
At Alta Bates in Oakland, part of the Sutter Health network, hospital staff made it clear in official complaints to Cal/OSHA that they wanted administrators to follow the state’s unique law on aerosol-transmitted diseases. From the start, some staffers wanted all the state-required protections for a virus that has been increasingly shown to be transmitted by tiny particles that float through the air.
The regulations call for patients with a virus like COVID-19 to be moved to a specialized unit within five hours of identification — or to a specialized facility. The rules say those patients should be in a room with a HEPA filter or with negative air pressure, meaning that air is circulated out a window or exhaust fan instead of drifting into the hallway.
Initially, in March, the hospital outfitted a 40-bed COVID unit, according to Hill. But when a surge of patients failed to materialize, that unit was pared to 12 beds.
Since then, a steady stream of virus patients have been admitted, he said, many testing positive only days after admission — and after they’d been in regular rooms in the facility.
From March 10 through July 30, Hill’s union and others filed eight complaints to Cal/OSHA, including allegations that the hospital failed to follow isolation rules for COVID patients, some on the cancer floor.
So far, regulators have done little. Gov. Gavin Newsom had ordered workplace safety officials to “focus on … supporting compliance” instead of enforcement except on the “most serious violations.”
State officials responded to complaints by reaching out by mail and phone to “ensure the proper virus prevention measures are in place,” according to Frank Polizzi, a spokesperson for Cal/OSHA.
A third investigation related to transport workers not wearing N95 respirators while moving COVID-positive or possible coronavirus patients at a Sutter facility near the hospital resulted in a $6,750 fine, Cal/OSHA records show.
The string of complaints also says the hospital did not give staff the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) under state law — an N95 respirator or something more protective — for caring for virus patients.
Instead, Hill said, staff on floors with COVID patients were provided lower-quality surgical masks, a concern reflected in complaints filed with Cal/OSHA.
Hill believes that Paiste-Ponder and another nurse on her floor caught the virus from COVID patients who did not remain in their rooms.
“It is sad, because it didn’t really need to happen,” Hill said.
Polizzi said investigations into the July 17 death and another staff hospitalization are ongoing.
A Sutter Health spokesperson said the hospital takes allegations, including Cal/OSHA complaints, seriously and its highest priority is keeping patients and staff safe.
The statement also said “cohorting,” or the practice of grouping virus patients together, is a tool that “must be considered in a greater context, including patient acuity, hospital census and other environmental factors.”
Concerns at Other Hospitals
CDC guidelines are not strict on the topic of keeping COVID patients sectioned off, noting that “facilities could consider designating entire units within the facility, with dedicated [staff],” to care for COVID patients.
That approach succeeded at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. A recent study reported “extensive” viral contamination around COVID patients there, but noted that with “standard” infection control techniques in place, staffers who cared for COVID patients did not get the virus.
The hospital set up an isolation unit with air pumped away from the halls, restricted access to the unit and trained staff to use well-developed protocols and N95 respirators — at a minimum. What worked in Nebraska, though, is far from standard elsewhere.
Cynthia Butler, a nurse and National Nurses United member at Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Port Charlotte, on Florida’s west coast, said she actually felt safer working in the COVID unit — where she knew what she was dealing with and had full PPE — than on a general medical floor.
She believes she caught the virus from a patient who had COVID-19 but was housed on a general floor in May. A similar situation occurred in July, when another patient had an unexpected case of COVID — and Butler said she got another positive test herself.
She said both patients did not meet the hospital’s criteria for testing admitted patients, and the lapses leave her on edge, concerns she relayed to an OSHA inspector who reached out to her about a complaint her union filed about the facility.
“Every time I go into work it’s like playing Russian roulette,” Butler said.
A spokesperson for HCA Healthcare, which owns the hospital, said it tests patients coming from long-term care, those going into surgery and those with virus symptoms. She said staffers have access to PPE and practice vigilant sanitation, universal masking and social distancing.
The latter is not an option for Butler, though, who said she cleans, feeds and starts IVs for patients and offers reassurance when they are isolated from family.
“I’m giving them the only comfort or kind word they can get,” said Butler, who has since gone on unpaid leave over safety concerns. “I’m in there doing that and I’m not being protected.”
Given research showing that up to 45% of COVID patients are asymptomatic, UCSF Medical Center is testing everyone who’s admitted, said Dr. Robert Harrison, a University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine professor who consults on occupational health at the hospital.
It’s done for the safety of staff and to reduce spread within the hospital, he said. Those who test positive are separated into a COVID-only unit.
And staff who spent more than 15 minutes within 6 feet of a not-yet-identified COVID patient in a less-protective surgical mask are typically sent home for two weeks, he said.
Outside of academic medicine, though, front-line staff have turned to union leaders to push for such protections.
In Southern California, leaders of the National Union of Healthcare Workers filed an official complaint with state hospital inspectors about the risks posed by intermingled COVID patients at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital in Orange County, part of for-profit Tenet Health. There, the complaint said, patients were not routinely tested for COVID-19 upon admission.
One nursing assistant spent two successive 12-hour shifts caring for a patient on a general medical floor who required monitoring. At the conclusion of the second shift, she was told the patient had just been found to be COVID-positive.
The worker had worn only a surgical mask — not an N95 respirator or any form of eye protection, according to the complaint to the California Department of Public Health. The nursing assistant was not offered a COVID test or quarantined before her next two shifts, the complaint said.
The public health department said it could not comment on a pending inspection.
Barbara Lewis, Southern California hospital division director with the union, said COVID patients were on the same floor as cancer patients and post-surgical patients who were walking the halls to speed their recovery.
She said managers took steps to separate the patients only after the union held a protest, spoke to local media and complained to state health officials.
Hospital spokesperson Jessica Chen said the hospital “quickly implemented” changes directed by state health authorities and does place some COVID patients on the same nursing unit as non-COVID patients during surges. She said they are placed in single rooms with closed doors. COVID tests are given by physician order, she added, and employees can access them at other places in the community.
It’s in contrast, Lewis said, to high-profile examples of the precautions that might be taken.
“Now we’re seeing what’s happening with baseball and basketball — they’re tested every day and treated with a high level of caution,” Lewis said. “Yet we have thousands and thousands of health care workers going to work in a very scary environment.”
Nursing Homes Face Penalties
More than 40% of the people who’ve died of COVID-19 lived in nursing homes or assisted living facilities, researchers have found.
Patient mixing has been a scattered concern at nursing homes, which Medicare officials discovered when they reviewed infection control practices at more than 15,000 facilities.
News reports have highlighted the problem at an Ohio nursing home and at a Maryland home where the state levied a $70,000 fine for failing to keep infected patients away from those who weren’t sick — yet.
Another facing penalties was Fair Havens Center, a Miami Springs, Florida, nursing home where inspectors discovered that 11 roommates of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 were put in rooms with other residents — putting them at heightened risk.
Florida regulators cut off admissions to the home and Medicare authorities levied a $235,000 civil monetary penalty, records show.
The vice president of operations at the facility told inspectors that isolating exposed patients would mean isolating the entire facility: Everyone had been exposed to the 32 staff members who tested positive for the virus, the report says.
Fair Havens Center did not respond to a request for comment.
In Iowa, Medicare officials declared a state of “immediate jeopardy” at Pearl Valley Rehabilitation and Care Center in Muscatine. There, they discovered that staffers were in denial over an outbreak in their midst, with a nursing director overriding a community doctor’s orders to isolate or send residents to the emergency room. Instead, officials found, in late April, the assistant nursing director kept COVID patients in the facility, citing a general order by their medical director to avoid sending patients to the ER “if you can help it.”
Meanwhile, several patients were documented by facility staff to have fevers and falling oxygen levels, the Medicare inspection report shows. Within two weeks, the facility discovered it had an outbreak, with 61 residents infected and nine dead, according to the report.
Medicare officials are investigating Menlo Park Veterans Memorial Home in New Jersey, state Sen. Joseph Vitale said during a recent legislative hearing. Resident council president Glenn Osborne testified during the hearing that the home’s residents were returned to the same shared rooms after hospitalizations.
Osborne, an honorably discharged Marine, said he saw more residents of the home die than fellow service members during his military service. The Menlo Park and Paramus veterans homes — where inspectors saw dementia patients with and without the virus commingling in a day room — both reported more than 180 COVID cases among residents, 90 among staff and at least 60 deaths.
A spokesperson for the homes said he could not comment due to pending litigation.
“These deaths should not have happened,” Osborne said. “Many of these deaths were absolutely avoidable, in my humble opinion.”
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
USE OUR CONTENT
This story can be republished for free (details).
from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/hospitals-nursing-homes-fail-to-separate-covid-patients-putting-others-at-risk/
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Purpose Of OSHA Fall Protection Training In Alaska, New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, And Texas
Being gainfully employed is almost always associated with the money that one earns. Sadly, some professions may jeopardize their safety, too. Shying away from such tasks is not the right solution. Instead, one must receive training and be well-prepared before entering such situations. One of the most dreaded places of work is confined spaces that give rise to multiple health issues apart from the possibility of sustaining injuries. It is vital to consider OSHA-approved confined space training in Alaska, New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, and Texas that will serve as ample protection for all concerned.
One must remember that the need to enter confined spaces is not limited to a particular industry or profession. Instead, almost all industries have to ensure complicated procedures that take the worker into such an environment. The right way to feel comfortable enough to attend to the task is to follow the guidelines recommended by the “Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).”
It is essential to understand what a confined space is. The following description by OSHA defines a confined space perfectly. People eager to take the training before joining a particular company or employer must be aware of the following characterization that identifies a confined space:
· The space is large enough for a single individual to enter fully and attend to a task without being inconvenienced.
· The area has only limited entry and exit routes. This does not mean there is only one way in or out. On the contrary, the passage leading to the confined space may be a trip hazard with improper lighting, slippery floor, and narrow ladders increasing the risk factors .
· Such spaces may be okay for an individual to attend to tasks that may be completed within a short time. It is not meant for continued occupancy, however. A ship or a submarine cannot be described as a confined space as the interiors are constructed for human occupancy.
Some of the most common spaces that are recognized as confined spaces that pose risks to workers include the following:-
· Manholes
· Tanks
· Underground Vaults
· Pits And
· Areas Enclosed By Dikes
· Storage Bins
· Silos
One may find that unsafe areas feature warning signs that discourage individuals from going inside. Almost all risk-prone confined spaces are potential health hazards, with the following complaints being made by people inside the space:-
· Hazardous Environment- The confined space may have toxic gases trapped within the room or cell along with exceedingly low oxygen levels. Workers with OSHA training are equipped to identify the issues and address them as needed.
· Risk of Fire & Explosion- Confined spaces may be filled with toxic and inflammable, potentially life-threatening materials. The OSHA training will enable the workers to protect themselves.
· Entrapment- Workers may get trapped by rubble and/or construction material that is moved or accumulates over time. The training helps the workers to squeeze out safely and exit the space without sustaining injuries.
Construction workers run the risk of slips & falls. The general industry is not safe from such risks either. This makes it essential for the concerned employees to take the OSHA fall protection training in Alaska, New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, and Texas and ensure workplace safety.
#OSHA fall protection training in Alaska#New York#New Jersey#California#Florida#and Texas#confined space training in Alaska
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The 10 Worst Roofing Contractor OSHA Violations of 2019
reprinted from Roofing Contractor magazine: https://www.roofingcontractor.com/articles/94095-the-10-worst-roofing-contractor-osha-violations-of-2019
With the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) declaring fall hazards as the top most cited violation of 2019, there were bound to be some pretty steep penalties.
As we head into 2020, RC is taking a look at 10 of the biggest and worst OSHA penalties in 2019. For this list, RC looked at the amount of penalties OSHA issued to the contractor as well as any other consequences related to the ensuing incidents.
Unsurprisingly, all of the citations involved fall hazards, but unfortunately, some of those violations resulted in far more dire costs than a monetary fee.
10. Davila Construction – Missouri
Davila Construction in St. Louis received $205,098 in penalties for exposing employees to fall hazards at three separate Missouri jobsites. The violations included failing to provide fall protection for workers; not training employees on fall safety hazards, procedures and the use of ladders; and not using protective equipment when using nail guns.
OSHA alleged that the company also violated electrical safety standards and allowed for the operation of engines in close proximity to a five-gallon gas can.
9. Five Star Roofing Systems – Indiana
Five Star Roofing Systems, based in Hartford City, Ind., exposed employees to fall hazards while performing roofing work at a commercial building in Lake Barrington, Ill. According to OSHA, the $220,249 in penalties it received were due to the roofing contractor’s willful and repeated safety violations, including improper use of warning lines and failing to designate a safety monitor.
8. Altogether Roofing – Ohio
This year was not the first time OSHA has fined Altogether Roofing in Martin, Ohio. Since 2008, the roofing contractor has been fined five times for fall protection violations. For once again exposing employees to fall hazards at jobsites in Toledo and Perrysburg, Ohio, it received $247,544 in penalties.
The penalties also included violations for unsafe ladder use and failing to develop an accident prevention program.
7. Crown Roofing – Florida
Like the previous entry on this list, Crown Roofing is no stranger to receiving OSHA penalties. According to OSHA, the roofing contractor, located in Sarasota, Fla., has been inspected 17 times in the past five years, with 11 of those inspections resulting in citations for violating fall protection standards.
The most recent inspections took place in August and October 2018, resulting in $265,196 in penalties issued in 2019 for not using fall protection on a sloped roof with a pitch of 6:12 in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and a sloped roof with a pitch of 7:12 in Naples, Fla.
6. Brad McDonald Roofing & Construction – Florida
For exposing employees to fall hazards at two Florida construction sites in Lutz and Palmetto, Brad McDonald Roofing & Construction received $274,215 in penalties from OSHA. This also included violations for allowing workers to operate nail guns without the use of eye protection.
The agency inspected the New Port Richey, Fla.-based company nine times since 2014, each resulting in citations for violating OSHA’s residential fall protection standards. This included an incident in February 2019 where three employees were working on a house with a 5:12 pitch roof without fall protection.
5. Eastern Contractors – New Jersey
Sadly, the top five entries for 2019 demonstrate the fatal consequences of not using proper fall safety equipment.
For instance, OSHA initiated an investigation in October 2018 after the Paterson Police Department in New Jersey told the agency that an Eastern Contractors employee identified as Joseph Perillo fell to his death during roof removal. The agency said Perillo, 56, fell from a height of roughly 17 feet and was not using a fall protection system.
Following the investigation, the contractor, located in Woodland Park, N.J., was hit with $19,890 in penalties.
4. TarHeel Corp. – Florida
Following a fatal fall incident, TarHeel Corp. was fined $32,013 for failing to provide employees with fall protection systems while they performed roofing activities as well as failing to train them on using such systems.
On Aug. 31, 2018, Higinio Romero was working with TarHeel Corp. on a condo building at Forest Glen Golf & Country Club. Reports indicate Romero, 37, was wearing a safety harness, but had unclipped it to use a ladder and slipped off the edge of the roof. He died as a result of his injuries.
3. Franklin County Construction – Missouri
OSHA investigated this New Haven, Mo.-based contractor following reports of an employee who suffered fatal fall injuries��when a roof truss collapsed at an incident on Oct. 1, 2018. The employee was identified as Mark “Markie” Hartzell, 28, a journeyman for Franklin County Construction.
The fines, reported in January 2019, totaled $56,910 for failing to ensure anchorage points and five serious safety violations for failing to protect workers from structural collapse and fall hazards.
“Falls are the leading cause of death for construction workers but they can be prevented when required safety measures are taken,” said St. Louis OSHA Area Director Bill McDonald.
2. Jim Coon Construction – Ohio
Jim Coon, owner of Jim Coon Construction in Akron, Ohio, was sentenced in September 2019 to three years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter regarding the death of Gerardo “Jerry” Juarez. The court ordered Coon to pay $303,152 in restitution to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.
The court’s action followed an investigation held by OSHA. In November 2017, Juarez, 38, was working on a third-story roof when he fell to his death. OSHA inspectors found that the contractor failed to install fall protection systems that could’ve prevented Juarez’s death.
“This case should serve as a reminder to all employers to comply with their legal obligation to provide required safety equipment, and protect employees on jobsites,” said Loren Sweatt, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.
1. Purvis Home Improvement Co. – Maine
Topping the list is Purvis Home Improvement Co., based in Saco, Maine. Following the death of Alan Loignon due to a fall, the contractor has amassed more than $2 million in penalties from OSHA.
In December 2018, Loignon, 30, was reportedly working as a subcontracted roofer at a house in Portland, Maine. When Loignon climbed down a ladder onto scaffolding, he fell 21 feet to his death.
OSHA inspected and cited the contractor for safety violations seven times in the past seven years.
OSHA cited Purvis in June 2019 with 17 violations that totaled $1.8 million in penalties, saying inspectors found that Purvis knowingly failed to ensure the use of fall protection by his employees at the Portland jobsite and a separate site in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.
In December 2019, OSHA revealed it was adding another $278,456 in penalties following an inspection held in May 2019 where it found three employees working on a residential roof without fall protection.
Shawn Purvis, owner of Purvis Home Improvement, is facing charges of workplace manslaughter and manslaughter. He could be sentenced to a maximum of five years and a $5,000 fine for workplace manslaughter. If convicted of manslaughter, he could face as much as 30 years in prison and $50,000 in fines.
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Employee Safety in the Loading Dock Industry
According to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration), loading docks are considered one of the most dangerous places to work in. Statistically, there has been an estimated 35,000 injuries each year which is caused by forklifts and other powered industrial equipment alone. OSHA, the federal agency, suggests that companies should develop safety strategies for workers in order to prevent accidents and hazardous situations from happening. Just-Rite Equipment, the largest distributor in the world for the leading manufacturers of dock equipment, listed below some of the common and unique safety measures that some companies should consider:
1. The truck and trailer should be restrained by using restraining devices and wheel cocks. Installing restraints both on trucks and trailers makes a sturdy and stable position, preventing early departure and trailer creep that creates accidents due to vehicle movements. Just-Rite Equipment recommends its product model Serco SLP3000 Recessed Vehicle Restraint. It effectively controls vehicle movement by grabbing and holding the rear impact guard throughout the loading/unloading process. For other truck restraint models having unique features, you can check our website at
https://www.justriteequip.com/products/safety-equipment-truck-restraints/truck-restraints/
2. Install a dock lighting system. Lighting systems give signals to the truck driver and dock loader about the status of the workloads. Using thetraditional red/green, stop/go “traffic lights” signals the driver when to enter, move the vehicle, and make a full stop. Just-Rite Equipment recommends APS Dock Strobe Maintenance Light. It provides brighter flashes and extended use. Its strobe tube light output is over 100 candelas with a three-joule flash intensity. For other lighting systems with unique features, you can check
https://www.justriteequip.com/products/safety-equipment-truck-restraints/safety-lighting/
3. Use barrier devices on every loading truck. Barrier devices on trucks will prevent the trailer from accidental rolling over and shifting positions. When such accidents do happen, workers may fall off the dock and injury occurs. Just-Rite Equipment recommends product model Dock Guard™ Safety Barrier Lip. It protects personnel, goods and equipment from accidentally rolling off the dock. For other barrier devices with unique features, you can check
https://www.justriteequip.com/products/safety-equipment-truck-restraints/impact-barriers/
4. Use assorted protective systems. The demands of ensuring safety have become more complicated; by using different protective systems like safety gate devices, anti-impact tracks, sentry rails, track sentries, track guards, and other protective systems, loading docks would be much safer place to work. Just-Rite Equipment recommends product model DGBM Serco Dock-Guard Safety Gate. In a closed position, it protects personnel, goods and equipment from inadvertently falling off the loading dock through an open dock door. For other protective systems with unique features, you can check
https://www.justriteequip.com/products/safety-equipment-truck-restraints/protective-systems/
In addition, below are some suggested general safety measures to practice: Call Just-Rite Equipment for an on-site evaluation.
1. Check the personnel’s documentations as to who handles heavy machinery with regard to OSHA trainings and authorizations.
2. Install cameras around security perimeters; besides protection, they also help to save money on insurance costs.
3. Have Just-Rite Equipment reassess the overall safety of your loading dock. There could possibly still be lapses and shortcomings that could even save you more money.
4.Invest in hiring the best people ideally suited for the position, if possible with OSHA certifications and authorizations and with years of experience. Contact Just-Rite Equipment now and make that reservation happen at https://www.justriteequip.com/contact/ , or you may directly contact us for a service request: https://www.justriteequip.com/service-request/
Additionally, our service offices at Sterling, VA (703) 450-2800; Baltimore, MD (410) 536-0505 and Jamesburg, NJ (609) 448-6550, with our service technicians, are ready to answer all your safety docking needs, including inquiries with regard to Sterling truck restraints, protective systems for loading docks in Baltimore, protective systems for loading docks in Jamesburg and other safety products.
You may also personally visit our service offices at Sterling, Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland; and Jamesburg, New Jersey. For other details, click on our website at https://www.justriteequip.com/.
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OSHA New Jersey Contractor For Disregarding Fall Protection Requirements
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Brutus Construction Inc. for exposing employees to fall and other safety hazards at a worksite in Souderton, Pennsylvania. The company faces $181,699 in penalties.
An OSHA inspector observed employees working without fall protection on roofs at a residential construction site. OSHA cited Brutus Construction Inc. for willfully exposing employees to fall hazards, repeat safety hazards, and failure to provide fall protection training.
“Companies that fail to meet basic fall protection requirements place employees’ lives at risk,” said OSHA Allentown Area Director Jean Kulp.
OSHA has cited Brutus Construction Inc. 19 times in the past for similar hazards, and proposed nearly $440,000 in penalties.
The company, based in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and proposed penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to help ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education, and assistance. For more information, visit https://www.osha.gov.
OSHA New Jersey Contractor For Disregarding Fall Protection Requirements published first on http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
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OSHA omits news in news release
Late last month, OSHA issued a news release announcing a settlement it had reached with Marshall Pottery for violations identified following an employee’s death. But OSHA’s news release was vague on the specifics. It noted that the company would pay a $545,160 penalty for willful and serious violations, but it failed to mention that the original proposed penalty was nearly $830,000. It also didn’t say anything about what Marshall Pottery agreed to do in exchange for the $285,000 discount. Did the company agree to
implement an effective program to identify and correct hazards?
follow the steps to develop a workplace health and safety management system?
hire a safety team or consultant?
upgrade equipment and training?
Arturo Gonzalez Tovar (1974-2017)
Before I go on, I’ll add something that has never been commonplace in OSHA’s news release: the name of the worker who was killed on the job at Marshall Pottery. He was Arturo Gonzalez Tovar. A summary of incident from OSHA’s website reads this way:
“At 7:00 a.m. on April 17, 2017, an employee had entered the tunnel kiln to fix the line switch. The employee became trapped in the tunnel kiln after completing the repairs and an automated process took control, closing the kiln door while the employee was still in the tunnel. The employee was killed from extreme exposure to thermal energy within the kiln.”
Arturo Tovar, 42, worked for 11 years at Marshall Pottery.
OSHA’s news release about its settlement with Tovar’s employer was strange to me. When OSHA announces a settlement agreement, that usually comes after the agency had previously announced details of its enforcement action against the company. OSHA issued news releases, for example, for these three significant cases. It then follow-up with second news releases announcing the settlement reached with the firms.
Mass Bay Electrical: citations and proposed penalty (here) and settlement agreement (here)
Anheuser-Busch Sales of New Jersey: citations and proposed penalty (here) and settlement agreement (here)
Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center: citations and proposed penalty (here) and settlement agreement (here)
So when I saw OSHA’s news release about its settlement agreement with Marshall Pottery—but there was no previous news release about the willful violations initial proposed penalty of $829,891—-I got curious. I filed a FOIA request to get a copy of the settlement agreement because the news release did not provide a link to it.
Here’s what I learned:
Following the death of Arturo Tovar, 42, at Marshall Pottery, OSHA conducted two inspections. One categorized as a health inspection, the other a safety inspection. The safety inspection resulted in 17 serious and 5 willful violations with a proposed penalty of $715,416. The violations related to confined space entry, lockout/tagout, electrical hazards, guarding, and fall protection. The settlement agreement reduced the penalty for these safety violations to $465,048.
The health inspection resulted in one willful and four serious violations related to noise exposure and personal protective equipment. The proposed penalty was $114,475. The settlement agreement reduced the penalty for these health violations to $80,112.
I don’t see anything in either settlement agreement that indicates Marshall Pottery will be taking steps to improve its safety program. The only thing they promise—in exchange for the $285,000 reduction in the penalty—is to correct the hazards identified in the inspections. Nothing above and beyond complying with the law.
There’s one last piece of news that I say was omitted from OSHA’s news release about Marshall Pottery. The agency fails to say whether the six proposed willful violations were downgraded to serious or changed to unclassified. The settlement agreements are silent on the matter. OSHA’s on-line “establishment search” tool for these inspections (here and here) indicate that the willful violations remain. I asked OSHA for a clarification.
If the willful violations stand, that would be news. It would mean Marshall Pottery could face criminal prosecution under the OSH Act for the death of Arturo Tovar.
Article source:Science Blogs
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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.
From His ICU Bed, Nurse Planned To Help Fight COVID After Recovery
Christopher Dean with his wife, Natalya Kubaevskaya (Courtesy of Donna Dean)
Christopher Dean
Age: 37
Occupation: Licensed practical nurse
Place of Work: Northport VA Medical Center’s Valley Stream Clinic in Valley Stream, New York
Date of Death: April 15, 2020
When Christopher Dean went to the emergency room, he was “absolutely positive” he would be in the hospital a few days, get some fluids and oxygen and then go home.
Read More
Hospital Workers Complain of Minimal Disclosure After COVID Exposures May 13
Widely Used Surgical Masks Are Putting Health Care Workers At Serious Risk Apr 28
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
“He was always optimistic, full of life,” said Natalya Kubaevskaya, his wife of 10 years. “And he had a big heart.”
When tests came back positive for COVID-19, he planned to recover and then help fight the disease by donating blood and plasma. Three weeks later, he was dead.
He had mild asthma, his wife said, but was a healthy man who loved snowboarding, swimming and racquetball.
His father, Alvin Dean, shared on a GoFundMe page that Christopher Dean caught the coronavirus at work. Northport said by email that it provided “PPE in accordance with CDC guidelines.”
Kubaevskaya, who recently finished treatment for breast cancer, said Dean pushed her to keep going.
Daughter Donna, 15, struggles with her adoptive father’s death. “There are moments,” Kubaevskaya said, “when she tries to convince herself that he’s still in the hospital and will come home soon.”
— Katja Ridderbusch | Published May 29, 2020
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A Robotic Surgery Expert Who ‘Just Made Everything Fun’
(Courtesy of the Lopez family)
Maria Lopez
Age: 63
Occupation: Registered nurse
Place of Work: University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago
Date of Death: May 4, 2020
“What lady? I don’t see a lady here.”
That was the sort of self-deprecating comment Maria Lopez would fire back when teased by a co-worker about an etiquette faux pas in the operating room.
Lopez knew how to break the tension, said chief nurse anesthetist Mary Ann Zervakis Brent, a colleague since 2005. Lopez called everyone “amigo” or “amiga,” regardless of rank.
“She just made everything fun,” Zervakis Brent said.
Lopez was an expert in robotic surgery and trained others to use the equipment.
She taught her two daughters to be independent. The oldest of nine kids, Lopez fought her father’s expectation that she forgo college, said her daughter Maria, who was named for her.
Lopez’s symptoms appeared days after she returned to work from leave for knee surgery. She planned to retire April 30.
In the hospital, Lopez tried to stay positive. Yet during one FaceTime call, daughter Maria said, “she just broke down. She said, ‘I wouldn’t want anyone I love going through what I’m going through right now.’”
A hospital official confirmed in a statement that Lopez died of complications of COVID-19.
— Mary Chris Jaklevic | Published May 29, 2020
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With Retirement In Sight, She Died Awaiting COVID Test Results
(Courtesy of Hannilette Huelgas)
Hazel Mijares
Age: 66
Occupation: Licensed practical nurse
Place of Work: Amsterdam Nursing Home in New York City
Date of Death: March 30, 2020
Faith was central to Hazel Mijares’ life. She was a lay leader at Trinity United Methodist Church in Jersey City, New Jersey.
She was drawn to church as a child in the Philippines, sister Hannilette Huelgas said. Theirs was a big family with nine children. At get-togethers, Mijares always led the prayers.
After a long career, Mijares was finally ready to retire in late March.
She worked through March 13, burned up accrued paid time off, then stopped back a week later for her last day. As she said her goodbyes, she noticed a little cough.
Learning that one of her patients had died of COVID-19, Mijares tried several times to get tested. Her results were expected March 30. When Huelgas called that day, Mijares didn’t answer. She had died waiting for the results, which the family learned were positive.
As of May 24, the nursing home had recorded 45 presumed-COVID deaths. Officials there did not respond to requests for comment, but a phone recording updated May 21 said they had “completed COVID-19 testing of residents” and had “begun testing of all staff.”
“Our dedicated and caring staff are continuing the Amsterdam tradition of providing exceptional care,” the recording noted.
Mijares “had wanted to go to Jerusalem, to the Philippines,” Huelgas said. “And she didn’t even get to enjoy retirement.”
— Maureen O’Hagan | Published May 29, 2020
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You Could Count On Him ‘For Anything’
(Courtesy of Griselda Bubb-Johnson)
Adiel Montgomery
Age: 39
Occupation: Security guard
Place of Work: Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York
Date of Death: April 5, 2020
When Griselda Bubb-Johnson couldn’t reach her friend Marva — hospitalized with COVID-19 — Bubb-Johnson called her son, Adiel Montgomery.
Montgomery, a security guard in the hospital’s emergency department, found Marva in the ICU. He then did “everything for her,” Bubb-Johnson said. When Marva was cold, he got a blanket. When she was hungry, he got food. When her phone died, he found a charger.
“Some people boast about their children, but I didn’t have to,” Bubb-Johnson said, “because everybody knew you could count on Adiel for anything.”
Montgomery doted on residents as a part-time supervisor at the Urban Resource Institute, a domestic violence shelter. He invited his godbrothers for Golden State Warriors games, Thanksgiving and sometimes for his mom’s renowned oxtail dish.
Two weeks after Montgomery noted he couldn’t taste his lunch, he experienced acute chest pain. When, after 12 hours in the ER, his heart stopped “nobody could believe it,” Bubb-Johnson said.
Montgomery was vocal about a lack of personal protective equipment for hospital security guards, according to a New York Times report. The hospital did not respond to requests for comment.
Montgomery’s 14-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, never got to say goodbye. She wrote a poem to put in the coffin.
“Don’t worry,” Bubb-Johnson told her. “He’ll read it. I promise.”
— Eli Cahan | Published May 29, 2020
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Traveling Nurse ‘Wanted To Be Somebody’
(Courtesy of Daniel Perea)
David Joel Perea
Age: 35
Occupation: Traveling registered nurse
Place of Work: Lakeside Health & Wellness Suites in Reno, Nevada, via MAS Medical Staffing
Date of Death: April 19, 2020
David Joel Perea would call in from Maine, Vermont, Minnesota and, ultimately, Nevada, with the same request: “Mom, can you send tamales?” Dominga Perea would ship them overnight. This is how she always knew where her son was.
A traveling nurse routinely pulling 80-hour weeks, David “had a tremendous work ethic,” said his brother, Daniel. A young David, returning from his father’s mechanic shop, said, “I don’t want to spend life sweating under a car,” Dominga recalled. “I want to be somebody.”
Dominga was proud of him, “for doing God’s work.”
When “mijito” didn’t respond to her text April 6, Dominga knew something was wrong: “I could always tell how David was. If he said ‘Hi, Mama,’ he was happy. If he said ‘I’m fine, Mom,’ he was tired.”
This time he said neither. “Don’t panic, Mama,” David wrote, “just pray for me. I have the COVID.”
His workplace did not respond to requests for comment.
David FaceTimed with his mother on Easter Sunday. “He was starving, but he struggled even eating mashed potatoes,” Dominga said, “because he couldn’t breathe.” The next morning, he was on a ventilator and never woke up.
— Eli Cahan | Published May 29, 2020
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His Church Became His Second Home
(Courtesy of Lean Carlo Romualdo)
Ritchie Villena
Age: 44
Occupation: Physical therapist
Place of Work: SportsMed Physical Therapy clinic in Glen Rock, New Jersey, placed by AHVIA Staffing Solutions in Jersey City
Date of Death: April 15, 2020
When Ritchie Villena emigrated from the Philippines in 2011 after studying physical therapy, he struggled. Then he got in touch with Lean Carlo Romualdo, a fellow Filipino physical therapist in New York state. Villena moved in with him and secured a good job at a sports medicine clinic.
He became devoted to his church, Iglesia Ni Cristo, where he spent hours singing with the choir and practicing the organ. “He’s not an outgoing person,” Romualdo said. “But if you ask people in his religious group here in Rockland County, everyone will know him.”
Romualdo’s 7-year-old still plays the “Baby Shark” song Villena taught him on the piano, asking, “Is Uncle Ritchie coming back home?”
It’s unclear how Villena contracted the coronavirus. According to the staffing agency, he worked until March 13 and took ill the following week. On March 26, he called 911 with difficulty breathing; he was hospitalized until his death.
Villena, who only recently gained permanent residency status, hadn’t seen his family in nine years. “Every time his mom calls me, she wants to see Ritchie’s stuff,” Romualdo said. As he gives a video tour of Villena’s room, she can’t stop crying. He promised to pack everything and send it home.
— Maureen O’Hagan | Published May 29, 2020
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Nurse With ‘Heartwarming’ Smile Did Her Best For Her Children
(Courtesy of Anderson Family)
Jenniffer Anderson-Davis
Age: 44
Occupation: Licensed practical nurse
Place of Work: Meramec Bluffs Life Plan Community in Ballwin, Missouri
Date of Death: April 14, 2020
As a single mother, Jenniffer Anderson-Davis was determined to give her three children everything they needed, so she pursued her nursing degree while delivering pizza to make ends meet.
“She always did the best that she could to give them the best life,” her brother Earl Anderson said.
Most recently, Anderson-Davis worked as an admission and discharge nurse at a senior living community. Her mother, Edna Anderson, said that Anderson-Davis was concerned about residents who returned to the facility after visiting Florida (it has since banned reentry for residents who spent time away).
Anderson-Davis tested positive for COVID-19 on April 9 and died at home five days later. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened a fatality investigation at Meramec Bluffs on April 16.
Lutheran Senior Services, the nonprofit that operates Meramec Bluffs, acknowledged Anderson-Davis’ death but did not respond to specific questions about her case. In a statement, a spokesperson said: “Jenniffer’s coworkers remember her as a thorough and well-respected nurse who had a smile that could warm any heart.”
— Cara Anthony, Kaiser Health News | Published May 26, 2020
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A Tireless Nurse, She Loved Her Children And Travel
(Courtesy Stefaney Cicala)
Susan Cicala
Age: 60
Occupation: Registered nurse
Places of Work: Northern State Prison in Newark, New Jersey; Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, New Jersey
Date of Death: April 4, 2020
Susan Cicala worked long hours. A typical workday began at the hospital surgery department at 5:30 a.m. She’d work there until 2 p.m., and an hour later would start her next eight-hour shift at a nearby state prison. She worked weekends, too.
As for sleep? “She must have slept somewhere, but I don’t know,” her son, Steven Cicala, said with a laugh. “She was the hardest worker I ever met.”
Reminiscing on Facebook, colleagues said she talked about her two children constantly. She started wrapping Christmas presents in May. She loved to travel, to Disney World and national parks, and saw vacations as opportunities to learn about the world beyond New Jersey — on a trip to Hawaii, she delved into the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Cicala became sick in late March and died in early April; her family said they presume she contracted the virus at one of her jobs.
“She didn’t go anywhere else,” Steven said.
As of May 21, the New Jersey Department of Corrections had tallied 152 COVID-19 cases at the prison where Cicala worked; 134 of those diagnoses were among staffers. In early May, the union representing Cicala and other workers filed a safety complaint saying precautions have been inadequate and may have led to Cicala’s death. A spokesperson for the prison health care agency that employed Cicala said that it had followed all state and federal guidelines, and that the staff was provided with personal protective equipment.
— Maureen O’Hagan | Published May 26, 2020
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The Single Mother Dreamed Of Opening A Nursing Home
(Courtesy of Rebecca Gbodi)
Helen Gbodi
Age: 54
Occupation: Registered nurse
Place of Work: MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
Date of Death: April 19, 2020
Helen Gbodi was known for helping elderly neighbors and fellow churchgoers — picking up their medications and groceries and accompanying them on walks. She even dispatched her daughter, Rebecca Gbodi, to shovel snow in neighbors’ driveways.
“Even when she didn’t have a lot, she would always give,” Rebecca said of her mother, who worked long hours to put her children through college and helped pay school fees for other relatives. This year, she embarked on her own dream: crafting plans to open her own nursing home, her daughter said.
Gbodi understood the severity of COVID-19 early on. In March, she called every person in her contacts list, including people she hadn’t talked to in years, to make sure they were aware and taking precautions, her daughter said. Though she did not actively care for patients who had been diagnosed with COVID-19, such patients were being treated on her floor, her daughter said.
Days later, she was fighting for her life. By the time she was hospitalized with COVID-19, she was too weak to lift her arm for a virtual handshake with her daughter on FaceTime.
“At the end of the day, she was willing to put her life in danger for others,” Rebecca said.
— Anna Jean Kaiser, The Guardian | Published May 26, 2020
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Always Upbeat, Patient Transporter Was A Sewing Wiz
(Courtesy of the Ismayl family)
Gabrail ‘Gabe’ Ismayl
Age: 62
Occupation: Patient transport worker
Place of Work: Swedish Hospital in Chicago
Date of Death: May 6, 2020
Caring, upbeat, always first to arrive at a party. Gabrail Ismayl loved an excuse to don a suit and splash on cologne.
That’s how Fidelline Youhanna remembers her uncle. “Everybody loved Gaby,” she said.
After migrating from Syria in the 1980s, Ismayl ran wholesale clothing shops on Chicago’s North Side. He was a wiz with the sewing machine and enjoyed altering dresses, making curtains and doing creative projects for family and friends.
Later, his people skills were an asset as he wheeled patients where they needed to go.
As the pandemic took hold, Ismayl worked despite health conditions that elevated his risk, Youhanna said.
“I think he just liked his job,” she said. “He made a lot of friends there.”
On May 6, Ismayl was self-isolating in the basement of the house he shared with two sisters. He was short of breath, Youhanna said. By evening, he was dead.
Ismayl was employed by management services company Sodexo. The CEO of its health care division in North America, Catherine Tabaka, said in a statement that his passing “is a tragic loss for Sodexo and we mourn an incredible friend and presence.”
— Mary Chris Jaklevic | Published May 26, 2020
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Charismatic Surgical Technician Taught His Kids To Be ‘Faithful To Your Job’
(Courtesy of the Martinez family)
Juan Martinez
Age: 60
Occupation: Surgical technician
Place of Work: University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago
Date of Death: April 27, 2020
It was easy to befriend Juan Martinez.
The surgical technician “could start a conversation up with anyone about anything,” said Jose Moreno, an operating room nurse and co-worker.
He went out of his way to teach others what he learned from 34 years in the field, said his son, Juan Martinez Jr., who followed his dad’s career path at the same hospital.
The military veteran and former church pastor set an example “to be faithful to your job,” his son said.
Due to retire April 30, Martinez anticipated spending time with his grandchildren, traveling and opening Bible education centers in Mexico, his family said.
After feeling tired and feverish, he went to be tested for COVID-19 on April 17. His symptoms were so severe that he was taken by ambulance to the hospital where he worked.
Family members said Martinez did not engage in direct patient care but came in contact with staffers who did.
Juan Jr. said that losing his dad has been like a nightmare, and that he and his siblings are “leaning on the Lord and praying a lot, just like how our father taught us.”
— Mary Chris Jaklevic | Published May 26, 2020
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Memory Care Nurse Set Fear Aside
(Courtesy of Jessica Forbes)
Nina Forbes
Age: 56
Occupation: Licensed practical nurse
Place of Work: Silverado memory care facility in Alexandria, Virginia
Date of Death: April 25, 2020
Nina Forbes refused to let fear stop her from living.
She was terrified of flying. But a few years ago, Forbes got on a plane for the first time to watch her younger daughter Jennifer play volleyball.
COVID-19 also scared Forbes, and as a nurse at an assisted living facility, she knew the virus posed a serious risk. Still, she continued showing up to work.
Forbes tested COVID-positive just after Easter. Chills, body aches and a fever kept her from attending family dinner that Sunday. By the following weekend, she struggled to breathe and couldn’t walk on her own. An ambulance took her to the hospital.
Her older daughter, Jessica, said her mother didn’t have the necessary protection at work. Forbes sometimes wore trash bags to protect herself, she said.
In a statement, a representative for the facility said it met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for personal protective equipment. Employees sometimes used trash bags as an added layer of protection, worn over a disposable gown, according to the representative.
Forbes appeared to do what she wanted even in her final moments. Jennifer was able to visit her mother in the hospital, and Forbes died shortly after she left, Jessica said. “It was like she waited for her to leave.”
— Carmen Heredia Rodriguez, Kaiser Health News | Published May 19, 2020
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A Family Man Who Loved Disney, Took Risks To Help Others
(Courtesy of AMR Southwest Mississippi)
David Martin
Age: 52
Occupation: Paramedic
Place of Work: AMR Southwest Mississippi, covering Amite and Wilkinson counties
Date of Death: April 22, 2020
On March 22, David Martin changed his Facebook profile picture. Around his smiling face, the frame read, “I can’t stay home … I’m a healthcare worker.”
Outside of work, he was a dedicated family man with two children, known for his love of Disney.
Martin, who covered 1,420 square miles across two rural counties, had cared for people with suspected COVID-19 in the weeks leading up to his death, said Tim Houghton, chief of operations for AMR Southwest Mississippi.
“We do what we do knowing the risks,” Houghton said. But Martin’s death was “a hard hit.”
On March 23, at the end of a shift, Martin told a supervisor he had mild flu symptoms. A month later, he died at a hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
AMR paramedics had N95 masks and protective gear and followed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Houghton said. “We have not yet had a shortage.”
In Facebook posts honoring Martin, colleagues described his excitement before trips to Disney World. In his memory, his fiancee, Jeanne Boudreaux, shared a photo of a hot air balloon ride at Disney Springs.
— Michaela Gibson Morris | Published May 19, 2020
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For a 9/11 First Responder, ‘Sitting on the Sidelines Was Never in His DNA’
(Courtesy of Erin Esposito)
Matthew ‘Matty’ Moore
Age: 52
Occupation: Radiologic technologist
Place of Work: Northwell Health’s GoHealth Urgent Care in Eltingville, Staten Island, New York City
Date of Death: April 17, 2020
Matthew Moore “would give the shirt off his back to help others,” said his sister, Erin Esposito.
A former firefighter and Staten Island native, “Matty” Moore volunteered as a first responder for weeks after 9/11, “even when everyone else stopped going,” Esposito said.
Moore was known as “a gentle giant” in Prince’s Bay, his brother-in-law Adam Esposito said. He was a devoted churchgoer and a beloved member of “The Beach Boys Firehouse” (as Engine 161/81 was nicknamed).
He even came through as Santa Claus, delivering gifts on Christmas morning to the children of two firefighters who died on 9/11.
Moore became an X-ray technologist, cherishing the ability to help those seeking urgent care. When COVID-19 emerged, he continued showing up to work. “Sitting on the sidelines was never in his DNA,” Erin Esposito said.
At the time, the family was reassured that he was receiving the personal protective equipment he needed. Despite his precautions, when Matty contracted COVID-19, it tore through his lungs, which had been damaged at ground zero.
As Matty lay dying, Esposito sought to reassure her brother. “You’ve done enough for us,” she told him, over the phone. Moments later, Matty’s heart stopped beating.
— Eli Cahan | Published May 19, 2020
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‘Gentle Soul’ Had A Brilliant Mind And A Big Heart
Neftali “Neff” Rios
Age: 37
Occupation: Registered nurse
Place of Work: St. Francis Hospital’s intensive care unit in Memphis, Tennessee
Date of Death: April 26, 2020
Hospital colleagues loved working with Neftali “Neff” Rios. He was humble, kind and capable, a “gentle soul” who always strived to learn something new. Not just smart — “I’m talking extremely intelligent,” his brother Josue Rios said. And he simply loved people. Nursing was a perfect fit.
Neff worked at a small hospital in Clarksdale, Mississippi, then earned his master’s in business administration with an emphasis on health care, and moved to St. Francis, hoping to enter management.
In mid-April, he came down with fever, body aches and a terrible cough and tested positive for the coronavirus. Several family members got sick, too. His parents were hospitalized.
On April 26, Neff collapsed at home, unable to catch his breath. His wife, Kristina, called 911, started CPR and waited for the EMTs. When they arrived, he had already died.
The family believes he was exposed at work. A spokesperson for the hospital declined to comment, citing family privacy.
“Neff was never scared” of catching the virus at work, Rios said. “You take an oath to take care of people, no matter what.”
— Maureen O’Hagan | Published May 19, 2020
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His Warmth And Generosity Brought Diverse Clients To His Pharmacy
(Courtesy of the Titi family)
Saif Titi
Age: 72
Occupation: Pharmacist
Place of Work: Noble Pharmacy in Jersey City, New Jersey
Date of Death: April 7, 2020
When the pandemic hit, Saif Titi was working six days a week at his Jersey City pharmacy and had no interest in slowing down. As was his way, he wanted to be helpful.
“He didn’t really run it as a business,” said Titi’s son, Justin. “He wasn’t trying to make profit. He was really just trying to help people.”
Titi was born in Jaffa in the last days of British rule in Palestine and grew up a refugee in the Gaza Strip. After studying in Egypt, Austria and Spain, he immigrated to New Jersey in 1972 and bought Noble Pharmacy a decade later.
The pharmacy became a fixture in the community, known as a place immigrants could go for help and advice, often in their native language. If they couldn’t afford medication, Titi would give it to them for free. “All different types of people from different cultures would come and they would instantly fall in love with him,” Justin said.
Active in the local Arab American community, Titi gave to charity and sent money home regularly. A Facebook tribute included dozens of stories of his generosity and mentorship. “We all lost the sweetest and the most noble man on earth,” wrote one relative.
Titi, a father of three adult children, developed symptoms of COVID-19 in late March. He died in the hospital on April 7. His wife, Rachelle, also became infected and has taken some six weeks to recover. In quarantine, the family has been unable to grieve together.
— Noa Yachot, The Guardian | Published May 19, 2020
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Social Worker Was A ‘Big Voice’ In His Community
(Courtesy of Donna Welch)
Gerald Welch
Age: 56
Occupation: Social worker and behavioral specialist
Place of Work: Opportunity Behavioral Health in Reading, Pennsylvania
Date of Death: April 15, 2020
Donna Welch had sworn she would “never, ever, ever get married again.” Then Gerald appeared.
They met on MySpace, and she quickly realized that “our spirits connected.” On their first date, at Donna’s house in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Gerald proposed — and Donna said yes. “It was like he came down on a bolt of lightning from heaven,” she said.
Gerald’s fiery passion and courage to speak out served him as a boardroom advocate for underperforming students in the school district, and at the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, where he resurrected a scholarship now named in his honor.
“He had a big voice,” Donna said, “and he was not afraid to use it.” His “Families, Organizations and Communities United in Service” podcast combined Gerald’s lived experience overcoming drugs and his spirituality to support others struggling with addiction.
So even as the state’s COVID cases mounted, Gerald was a dutiful companion for his clients with severe autism — he took them to the supermarket in Lancaster and the laundromat in Lebanon. “Wherever they needed to go, he went,” Donna said. “He cared so much for them, and they loved him dearly.”
“We all did,” she added.
— Eli Cahan | Published May 19, 2020
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Hardworking Immigrant Realized His Dream To Practice Medicine In US
Jesus Manuel Zambrano and his son, Jesus Manuel Jr.
(Courtesy of the Zambrano family)
Jesus Manuel Zambrano
Age: 54
Occupation: Pediatrician
Place of Work: Private practice in Freeport, New York; attending physician at Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital
Date of Death: March 30, 2020
Jesus Manuel Zambrano studied medicine in the Dominican Republic and immigrated to New York in the 1990s.
He hustled, working in fast food and as a school bus driver between studies, his wife, Sandra, said. He completed his residency in 2010.
In the meantime, they had two children: Jesus Manuel Jr., 22, and Angelyne Ofelia, 18. Jesus Manuel Jr., who uses a wheelchair, never veered far from his father during family outings to restaurants and parks, and Holy Week vacations.
Zambrano’s bond with his son informed his care for his patients. “There was not a single day we met and talked when we didn’t talk about his son,” said Dr. Magda Mendez, a former colleague.
Zambrano spent days in private practice, Sandra said, and in the evenings treated others at the hospital, which saw COVID cases.
In early March, he felt ill. He took the next day off — a rare occurrence, Sandra said. He was taken to the hospital where he worked, where he died after a week and a half of care.
In becoming a physician in the United States, Zambrano had realized his lifelong dream. He wished the same for his family.
“He had a lot of plans for his children, a lot of dreams,” Sandra said. “He took them with him.”
— Carmen Heredia Rodriguez, Kaiser Health News | Published May 15, 2020
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Quick-Witted And Quick To Serve, Firefighter ‘Always Had Your Back’
(Courtesy of the Zerman family)
Robert Zerman
Age: 49
Occupation: Volunteer firefighter
Place of Work: Pioneer Hose Company No. 1 in Robesonia, Pennsylvania
Date of Death: April 16, 2020
Anyone who met Robert Zerman would see two things: He was devoted to firefighting and emergency medical services, and he had a quick sense of humor.
“He probably went on tens of thousands of calls,” said Anthony Tucci, CEO of the Western Berks Ambulance Association. Tucci, who knew Zerman for over three decades, added, “he always had your back, always knew his stuff.”
Most recently, Zerman was a volunteer assistant fire chief. He responded to an emergency in March in which the patient had COVID-19 symptoms.
“That was before there was really any guidance to wear PPE,” Tucci said.
Soon Zerman got sick, leading the family to suspect that he’d contracted the coronavirus on that call, Tucci said. Zerman tested positive and was hospitalized. He seemed to be improving before taking a bad turn.
Berks County, in eastern Pennsylvania, is among the state’s hardest hit, recording around 3,500 total cases and nearly 200 deaths by mid-May.
Representatives from two dozen first responder agencies lined the streets for Zerman’s funeral procession.
— Maureen O’Hagan | Published May 19, 2020
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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.
“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, immigrating 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 immigrated 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 immigrated 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.
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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.
From His ICU Bed, Nurse Planned To Help Fight COVID After Recovery
Christopher Dean with his wife, Natalya Kubaevskaya (Courtesy of Donna Dean)
Christopher Dean
Age: 37
Occupation: Licensed practical nurse
Place of Work: Northport VA Medical Center’s Valley Stream Clinic in Valley Stream, New York
Date of Death: April 15, 2020
When Christopher Dean went to the emergency room, he was “absolutely positive” he would be in the hospital a few days, get some fluids and oxygen and then go home.
Read More
Hospital Workers Complain of Minimal Disclosure After COVID Exposures May 13
Widely Used Surgical Masks Are Putting Health Care Workers At Serious Risk Apr 28
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
“He was always optimistic, full of life,” said Natalya Kubaevskaya, his wife of 10 years. “And he had a big heart.”
When tests came back positive for COVID-19, he planned to recover and then help fight the disease by donating blood and plasma. Three weeks later, he was dead.
He had mild asthma, his wife said, but was a healthy man who loved snowboarding, swimming and racquetball.
His father, Alvin Dean, shared on a GoFundMe page that Christopher Dean caught the coronavirus at work. Northport said by email that it provided “PPE in accordance with CDC guidelines.”
Kubaevskaya, who recently finished treatment for breast cancer, said Dean pushed her to keep going.
Daughter Donna, 15, struggles with her adoptive father’s death. “There are moments,” Kubaevskaya said, “when she tries to convince herself that he’s still in the hospital and will come home soon.”
— Katja Ridderbusch | Published May 29, 2020
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A Robotic Surgery Expert Who ‘Just Made Everything Fun’
(Courtesy of the Lopez family)
Maria Lopez
Age: 63
Occupation: Registered nurse
Place of Work: University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago
Date of Death: May 4, 2020
“What lady? I don’t see a lady here.”
That was the sort of self-deprecating comment Maria Lopez would fire back when teased by a co-worker about an etiquette faux pas in the operating room.
Lopez knew how to break the tension, said chief nurse anesthetist Mary Ann Zervakis Brent, a colleague since 2005. Lopez called everyone “amigo” or “amiga,” regardless of rank.
“She just made everything fun,” Zervakis Brent said.
Lopez was an expert in robotic surgery and trained others to use the equipment.
She taught her two daughters to be independent. The oldest of nine kids, Lopez fought her father’s expectation that she forgo college, said her daughter Maria, who was named for her.
Lopez’s symptoms appeared days after she returned to work from leave for knee surgery. She planned to retire April 30.
In the hospital, Lopez tried to stay positive. Yet during one FaceTime call, daughter Maria said, “she just broke down. She said, ‘I wouldn’t want anyone I love going through what I’m going through right now.’”
A hospital official confirmed in a statement that Lopez died of complications of COVID-19.
— Mary Chris Jaklevic | Published May 29, 2020
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With Retirement In Sight, She Died Awaiting COVID Test Results
(Courtesy of Hannilette Huelgas)
Hazel Mijares
Age: 66
Occupation: Licensed practical nurse
Place of Work: Amsterdam Nursing Home in New York City
Date of Death: March 30, 2020
Faith was central to Hazel Mijares’ life. She was a lay leader at Trinity United Methodist Church in Jersey City, New Jersey.
She was drawn to church as a child in the Philippines, sister Hannilette Huelgas said. Theirs was a big family with nine children. At get-togethers, Mijares always led the prayers.
After a long career, Mijares was finally ready to retire in late March.
She worked through March 13, burned up accrued paid time off, then stopped back a week later for her last day. As she said her goodbyes, she noticed a little cough.
Learning that one of her patients had died of COVID-19, Mijares tried several times to get tested. Her results were expected March 30. When Huelgas called that day, Mijares didn’t answer. She had died waiting for the results, which the family learned were positive.
As of May 24, the nursing home had recorded 45 presumed-COVID deaths. Officials there did not respond to requests for comment, but a phone recording updated May 21 said they had “completed COVID-19 testing of residents” and had “begun testing of all staff.”
“Our dedicated and caring staff are continuing the Amsterdam tradition of providing exceptional care,” the recording noted.
Mijares “had wanted to go to Jerusalem, to the Philippines,” Huelgas said. “And she didn’t even get to enjoy retirement.”
— Maureen O’Hagan | Published May 29, 2020
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You Could Count On Him ‘For Anything’
(Courtesy of Griselda Bubb-Johnson)
Adiel Montgomery
Age: 39
Occupation: Security guard
Place of Work: Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York
Date of Death: April 5, 2020
When Griselda Bubb-Johnson couldn’t reach her friend Marva — hospitalized with COVID-19 — Bubb-Johnson called her son, Adiel Montgomery.
Montgomery, a security guard in the hospital’s emergency department, found Marva in the ICU. He then did “everything for her,” Bubb-Johnson said. When Marva was cold, he got a blanket. When she was hungry, he got food. When her phone died, he found a charger.
“Some people boast about their children, but I didn’t have to,” Bubb-Johnson said, “because everybody knew you could count on Adiel for anything.”
Montgomery doted on residents as a part-time supervisor at the Urban Resource Institute, a domestic violence shelter. He invited his godbrothers for Golden State Warriors games, Thanksgiving and sometimes for his mom’s renowned oxtail dish.
Two weeks after Montgomery noted he couldn’t taste his lunch, he experienced acute chest pain. When, after 12 hours in the ER, his heart stopped “nobody could believe it,” Bubb-Johnson said.
Montgomery was vocal about a lack of personal protective equipment for hospital security guards, according to a New York Times report. The hospital did not respond to requests for comment.
Montgomery’s 14-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, never got to say goodbye. She wrote a poem to put in the coffin.
“Don’t worry,” Bubb-Johnson told her. “He’ll read it. I promise.”
— Eli Cahan | Published May 29, 2020
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Traveling Nurse ‘Wanted To Be Somebody’
(Courtesy of Daniel Perea)
David Joel Perea
Age: 35
Occupation: Traveling registered nurse
Place of Work: Lakeside Health & Wellness Suites in Reno, Nevada, via MAS Medical Staffing
Date of Death: April 19, 2020
David Joel Perea would call in from Maine, Vermont, Minnesota and, ultimately, Nevada, with the same request: “Mom, can you send tamales?” Dominga Perea would ship them overnight. This is how she always knew where her son was.
A traveling nurse routinely pulling 80-hour weeks, David “had a tremendous work ethic,” said his brother, Daniel. A young David, returning from his father’s mechanic shop, said, “I don’t want to spend life sweating under a car,” Dominga recalled. “I want to be somebody.”
Dominga was proud of him, “for doing God’s work.”
When “mijito” didn’t respond to her text April 6, Dominga knew something was wrong: “I could always tell how David was. If he said ‘Hi, Mama,’ he was happy. If he said ‘I’m fine, Mom,’ he was tired.”
This time he said neither. “Don’t panic, Mama,” David wrote, “just pray for me. I have the COVID.”
His workplace did not respond to requests for comment.
David FaceTimed with his mother on Easter Sunday. “He was starving, but he struggled even eating mashed potatoes,” Dominga said, “because he couldn’t breathe.” The next morning, he was on a ventilator and never woke up.
— Eli Cahan | Published May 29, 2020
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His Church Became His Second Home
(Courtesy of Lean Carlo Romualdo)
Ritchie Villena
Age: 44
Occupation: Physical therapist
Place of Work: SportsMed Physical Therapy clinic in Glen Rock, New Jersey, placed by AHVIA Staffing Solutions in Jersey City
Date of Death: April 15, 2020
When Ritchie Villena emigrated from the Philippines in 2011 after studying physical therapy, he struggled. Then he got in touch with Lean Carlo Romualdo, a fellow Filipino physical therapist in New York state. Villena moved in with him and secured a good job at a sports medicine clinic.
He became devoted to his church, Iglesia Ni Cristo, where he spent hours singing with the choir and practicing the organ. “He’s not an outgoing person,” Romualdo said. “But if you ask people in his religious group here in Rockland County, everyone will know him.”
Romualdo’s 7-year-old still plays the “Baby Shark” song Villena taught him on the piano, asking, “Is Uncle Ritchie coming back home?”
It’s unclear how Villena contracted the coronavirus. According to the staffing agency, he worked until March 13 and took ill the following week. On March 26, he called 911 with difficulty breathing; he was hospitalized until his death.
Villena, who only recently gained permanent residency status, hadn’t seen his family in nine years. “Every time his mom calls me, she wants to see Ritchie’s stuff,” Romualdo said. As he gives a video tour of Villena’s room, she can’t stop crying. He promised to pack everything and send it home.
— Maureen O’Hagan | Published May 29, 2020
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Nurse With ‘Heartwarming’ Smile Did Her Best For Her Children
(Courtesy of Anderson Family)
Jenniffer Anderson-Davis
Age: 44
Occupation: Licensed practical nurse
Place of Work: Meramec Bluffs Life Plan Community in Ballwin, Missouri
Date of Death: April 14, 2020
As a single mother, Jenniffer Anderson-Davis was determined to give her three children everything they needed, so she pursued her nursing degree while delivering pizza to make ends meet.
“She always did the best that she could to give them the best life,” her brother Earl Anderson said.
Most recently, Anderson-Davis worked as an admission and discharge nurse at a senior living community. Her mother, Edna Anderson, said that Anderson-Davis was concerned about residents who returned to the facility after visiting Florida (it has since banned reentry for residents who spent time away).
Anderson-Davis tested positive for COVID-19 on April 9 and died at home five days later. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened a fatality investigation at Meramec Bluffs on April 16.
Lutheran Senior Services, the nonprofit that operates Meramec Bluffs, acknowledged Anderson-Davis’ death but did not respond to specific questions about her case. In a statement, a spokesperson said: “Jenniffer’s coworkers remember her as a thorough and well-respected nurse who had a smile that could warm any heart.”
— Cara Anthony, Kaiser Health News | Published May 26, 2020
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A Tireless Nurse, She Loved Her Children And Travel
(Courtesy Stefaney Cicala)
Susan Cicala
Age: 60
Occupation: Registered nurse
Places of Work: Northern State Prison in Newark, New Jersey; Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, New Jersey
Date of Death: April 4, 2020
Susan Cicala worked long hours. A typical workday began at the hospital surgery department at 5:30 a.m. She’d work there until 2 p.m., and an hour later would start her next eight-hour shift at a nearby state prison. She worked weekends, too.
As for sleep? “She must have slept somewhere, but I don’t know,” her son, Steven Cicala, said with a laugh. “She was the hardest worker I ever met.”
Reminiscing on Facebook, colleagues said she talked about her two children constantly. She started wrapping Christmas presents in May. She loved to travel, to Disney World and national parks, and saw vacations as opportunities to learn about the world beyond New Jersey — on a trip to Hawaii, she delved into the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Cicala became sick in late March and died in early April; her family said they presume she contracted the virus at one of her jobs.
“She didn’t go anywhere else,” Steven said.
As of May 21, the New Jersey Department of Corrections had tallied 152 COVID-19 cases at the prison where Cicala worked; 134 of those diagnoses were among staffers. In early May, the union representing Cicala and other workers filed a safety complaint saying precautions have been inadequate and may have led to Cicala’s death. A spokesperson for the prison health care agency that employed Cicala said that it had followed all state and federal guidelines, and that the staff was provided with personal protective equipment.
— Maureen O’Hagan | Published May 26, 2020
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The Single Mother Dreamed Of Opening A Nursing Home
(Courtesy of Rebecca Gbodi)
Helen Gbodi
Age: 54
Occupation: Registered nurse
Place of Work: MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
Date of Death: April 19, 2020
Helen Gbodi was known for helping elderly neighbors and fellow churchgoers — picking up their medications and groceries and accompanying them on walks. She even dispatched her daughter, Rebecca Gbodi, to shovel snow in neighbors’ driveways.
“Even when she didn’t have a lot, she would always give,” Rebecca said of her mother, who worked long hours to put her children through college and helped pay school fees for other relatives. This year, she embarked on her own dream: crafting plans to open her own nursing home, her daughter said.
Gbodi understood the severity of COVID-19 early on. In March, she called every person in her contacts list, including people she hadn’t talked to in years, to make sure they were aware and taking precautions, her daughter said. Though she did not actively care for patients who had been diagnosed with COVID-19, such patients were being treated on her floor, her daughter said.
Days later, she was fighting for her life. By the time she was hospitalized with COVID-19, she was too weak to lift her arm for a virtual handshake with her daughter on FaceTime.
“At the end of the day, she was willing to put her life in danger for others,” Rebecca said.
— Anna Jean Kaiser, The Guardian | Published May 26, 2020
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Always Upbeat, Patient Transporter Was A Sewing Wiz
(Courtesy of the Ismayl family)
Gabrail ‘Gabe’ Ismayl
Age: 62
Occupation: Patient transport worker
Place of Work: Swedish Hospital in Chicago
Date of Death: May 6, 2020
Caring, upbeat, always first to arrive at a party. Gabrail Ismayl loved an excuse to don a suit and splash on cologne.
That’s how Fidelline Youhanna remembers her uncle. “Everybody loved Gaby,” she said.
After migrating from Syria in the 1980s, Ismayl ran wholesale clothing shops on Chicago’s North Side. He was a wiz with the sewing machine and enjoyed altering dresses, making curtains and doing creative projects for family and friends.
Later, his people skills were an asset as he wheeled patients where they needed to go.
As the pandemic took hold, Ismayl worked despite health conditions that elevated his risk, Youhanna said.
“I think he just liked his job,” she said. “He made a lot of friends there.”
On May 6, Ismayl was self-isolating in the basement of the house he shared with two sisters. He was short of breath, Youhanna said. By evening, he was dead.
Ismayl was employed by management services company Sodexo. The CEO of its health care division in North America, Catherine Tabaka, said in a statement that his passing “is a tragic loss for Sodexo and we mourn an incredible friend and presence.”
— Mary Chris Jaklevic | Published May 26, 2020
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Charismatic Surgical Technician Taught His Kids To Be ‘Faithful To Your Job’
(Courtesy of the Martinez family)
Juan Martinez
Age: 60
Occupation: Surgical technician
Place of Work: University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago
Date of Death: April 27, 2020
It was easy to befriend Juan Martinez.
The surgical technician “could start a conversation up with anyone about anything,” said Jose Moreno, an operating room nurse and co-worker.
He went out of his way to teach others what he learned from 34 years in the field, said his son, Juan Martinez Jr., who followed his dad’s career path at the same hospital.
The military veteran and former church pastor set an example “to be faithful to your job,” his son said.
Due to retire April 30, Martinez anticipated spending time with his grandchildren, traveling and opening Bible education centers in Mexico, his family said.
After feeling tired and feverish, he went to be tested for COVID-19 on April 17. His symptoms were so severe that he was taken by ambulance to the hospital where he worked.
Family members said Martinez did not engage in direct patient care but came in contact with staffers who did.
Juan Jr. said that losing his dad has been like a nightmare, and that he and his siblings are “leaning on the Lord and praying a lot, just like how our father taught us.”
— Mary Chris Jaklevic | Published May 26, 2020
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Memory Care Nurse Set Fear Aside
(Courtesy of Jessica Forbes)
Nina Forbes
Age: 56
Occupation: Licensed practical nurse
Place of Work: Silverado memory care facility in Alexandria, Virginia
Date of Death: April 25, 2020
Nina Forbes refused to let fear stop her from living.
She was terrified of flying. But a few years ago, Forbes got on a plane for the first time to watch her younger daughter Jennifer play volleyball.
COVID-19 also scared Forbes, and as a nurse at an assisted living facility, she knew the virus posed a serious risk. Still, she continued showing up to work.
Forbes tested COVID-positive just after Easter. Chills, body aches and a fever kept her from attending family dinner that Sunday. By the following weekend, she struggled to breathe and couldn’t walk on her own. An ambulance took her to the hospital.
Her older daughter, Jessica, said her mother didn’t have the necessary protection at work. Forbes sometimes wore trash bags to protect herself, she said.
In a statement, a representative for the facility said it met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for personal protective equipment. Employees sometimes used trash bags as an added layer of protection, worn over a disposable gown, according to the representative.
Forbes appeared to do what she wanted even in her final moments. Jennifer was able to visit her mother in the hospital, and Forbes died shortly after she left, Jessica said. “It was like she waited for her to leave.”
— Carmen Heredia Rodriguez, Kaiser Health News | Published May 19, 2020
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A Family Man Who Loved Disney, Took Risks To Help Others
(Courtesy of AMR Southwest Mississippi)
David Martin
Age: 52
Occupation: Paramedic
Place of Work: AMR Southwest Mississippi, covering Amite and Wilkinson counties
Date of Death: April 22, 2020
On March 22, David Martin changed his Facebook profile picture. Around his smiling face, the frame read, “I can’t stay home … I’m a healthcare worker.”
Outside of work, he was a dedicated family man with two children, known for his love of Disney.
Martin, who covered 1,420 square miles across two rural counties, had cared for people with suspected COVID-19 in the weeks leading up to his death, said Tim Houghton, chief of operations for AMR Southwest Mississippi.
“We do what we do knowing the risks,” Houghton said. But Martin’s death was “a hard hit.”
On March 23, at the end of a shift, Martin told a supervisor he had mild flu symptoms. A month later, he died at a hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
AMR paramedics had N95 masks and protective gear and followed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Houghton said. “We have not yet had a shortage.”
In Facebook posts honoring Martin, colleagues described his excitement before trips to Disney World. In his memory, his fiancee, Jeanne Boudreaux, shared a photo of a hot air balloon ride at Disney Springs.
— Michaela Gibson Morris | Published May 19, 2020
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For a 9/11 First Responder, ‘Sitting on the Sidelines Was Never in His DNA’
(Courtesy of Erin Esposito)
Matthew ‘Matty’ Moore
Age: 52
Occupation: Radiologic technologist
Place of Work: Northwell Health’s GoHealth Urgent Care in Eltingville, Staten Island, New York City
Date of Death: April 17, 2020
Matthew Moore “would give the shirt off his back to help others,” said his sister, Erin Esposito.
A former firefighter and Staten Island native, “Matty” Moore volunteered as a first responder for weeks after 9/11, “even when everyone else stopped going,” Esposito said.
Moore was known as “a gentle giant” in Prince’s Bay, his brother-in-law Adam Esposito said. He was a devoted churchgoer and a beloved member of “The Beach Boys Firehouse” (as Engine 161/81 was nicknamed).
He even came through as Santa Claus, delivering gifts on Christmas morning to the children of two firefighters who died on 9/11.
Moore became an X-ray technologist, cherishing the ability to help those seeking urgent care. When COVID-19 emerged, he continued showing up to work. “Sitting on the sidelines was never in his DNA,” Erin Esposito said.
At the time, the family was reassured that he was receiving the personal protective equipment he needed. Despite his precautions, when Matty contracted COVID-19, it tore through his lungs, which had been damaged at ground zero.
As Matty lay dying, Esposito sought to reassure her brother. “You’ve done enough for us,” she told him, over the phone. Moments later, Matty’s heart stopped beating.
— Eli Cahan | Published May 19, 2020
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‘Gentle Soul’ Had A Brilliant Mind And A Big Heart
Neftali “Neff” Rios
Age: 37
Occupation: Registered nurse
Place of Work: St. Francis Hospital’s intensive care unit in Memphis, Tennessee
Date of Death: April 26, 2020
Hospital colleagues loved working with Neftali “Neff” Rios. He was humble, kind and capable, a “gentle soul” who always strived to learn something new. Not just smart — “I’m talking extremely intelligent,” his brother Josue Rios said. And he simply loved people. Nursing was a perfect fit.
Neff worked at a small hospital in Clarksdale, Mississippi, then earned his master’s in business administration with an emphasis on health care, and moved to St. Francis, hoping to enter management.
In mid-April, he came down with fever, body aches and a terrible cough and tested positive for the coronavirus. Several family members got sick, too. His parents were hospitalized.
On April 26, Neff collapsed at home, unable to catch his breath. His wife, Kristina, called 911, started CPR and waited for the EMTs. When they arrived, he had already died.
The family believes he was exposed at work. A spokesperson for the hospital declined to comment, citing family privacy.
“Neff was never scared” of catching the virus at work, Rios said. “You take an oath to take care of people, no matter what.”
— Maureen O’Hagan | Published May 19, 2020
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His Warmth And Generosity Brought Diverse Clients To His Pharmacy
(Courtesy of the Titi family)
Saif Titi
Age: 72
Occupation: Pharmacist
Place of Work: Noble Pharmacy in Jersey City, New Jersey
Date of Death: April 7, 2020
When the pandemic hit, Saif Titi was working six days a week at his Jersey City pharmacy and had no interest in slowing down. As was his way, he wanted to be helpful.
“He didn’t really run it as a business,” said Titi’s son, Justin. “He wasn’t trying to make profit. He was really just trying to help people.”
Titi was born in Jaffa in the last days of British rule in Palestine and grew up a refugee in the Gaza Strip. After studying in Egypt, Austria and Spain, he immigrated to New Jersey in 1972 and bought Noble Pharmacy a decade later.
The pharmacy became a fixture in the community, known as a place immigrants could go for help and advice, often in their native language. If they couldn’t afford medication, Titi would give it to them for free. “All different types of people from different cultures would come and they would instantly fall in love with him,” Justin said.
Active in the local Arab American community, Titi gave to charity and sent money home regularly. A Facebook tribute included dozens of stories of his generosity and mentorship. “We all lost the sweetest and the most noble man on earth,” wrote one relative.
Titi, a father of three adult children, developed symptoms of COVID-19 in late March. He died in the hospital on April 7. His wife, Rachelle, also became infected and has taken some six weeks to recover. In quarantine, the family has been unable to grieve together.
— Noa Yachot, The Guardian | Published May 19, 2020
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Social Worker Was A ‘Big Voice’ In His Community
(Courtesy of Donna Welch)
Gerald Welch
Age: 56
Occupation: Social worker and behavioral specialist
Place of Work: Opportunity Behavioral Health in Reading, Pennsylvania
Date of Death: April 15, 2020
Donna Welch had sworn she would “never, ever, ever get married again.” Then Gerald appeared.
They met on MySpace, and she quickly realized that “our spirits connected.” On their first date, at Donna’s house in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Gerald proposed — and Donna said yes. “It was like he came down on a bolt of lightning from heaven,” she said.
Gerald’s fiery passion and courage to speak out served him as a boardroom advocate for underperforming students in the school district, and at the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, where he resurrected a scholarship now named in his honor.
“He had a big voice,” Donna said, “and he was not afraid to use it.” His “Families, Organizations and Communities United in Service” podcast combined Gerald’s lived experience overcoming drugs and his spirituality to support others struggling with addiction.
So even as the state’s COVID cases mounted, Gerald was a dutiful companion for his clients with severe autism — he took them to the supermarket in Lancaster and the laundromat in Lebanon. “Wherever they needed to go, he went,” Donna said. “He cared so much for them, and they loved him dearly.”
“We all did,” she added.
— Eli Cahan | Published May 19, 2020
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Hardworking Immigrant Realized His Dream To Practice Medicine In US
Jesus Manuel Zambrano and his son, Jesus Manuel Jr.
(Courtesy of the Zambrano family)
Jesus Manuel Zambrano
Age: 54
Occupation: Pediatrician
Place of Work: Private practice in Freeport, New York; attending physician at Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital
Date of Death: March 30, 2020
Jesus Manuel Zambrano studied medicine in the Dominican Republic and immigrated to New York in the 1990s.
He hustled, working in fast food and as a school bus driver between studies, his wife, Sandra, said. He completed his residency in 2010.
In the meantime, they had two children: Jesus Manuel Jr., 22, and Angelyne Ofelia, 18. Jesus Manuel Jr., who uses a wheelchair, never veered far from his father during family outings to restaurants and parks, and Holy Week vacations.
Zambrano’s bond with his son informed his care for his patients. “There was not a single day we met and talked when we didn’t talk about his son,” said Dr. Magda Mendez, a former colleague.
Zambrano spent days in private practice, Sandra said, and in the evenings treated others at the hospital, which saw COVID cases.
In early March, he felt ill. He took the next day off — a rare occurrence, Sandra said. He was taken to the hospital where he worked, where he died after a week and a half of care.
In becoming a physician in the United States, Zambrano had realized his lifelong dream. He wished the same for his family.
“He had a lot of plans for his children, a lot of dreams,” Sandra said. “He took them with him.”
— Carmen Heredia Rodriguez, Kaiser Health News | Published May 15, 2020
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Quick-Witted And Quick To Serve, Firefighter ‘Always Had Your Back’
(Courtesy of the Zerman family)
Robert Zerman
Age: 49
Occupation: Volunteer firefighter
Place of Work: Pioneer Hose Company No. 1 in Robesonia, Pennsylvania
Date of Death: April 16, 2020
Anyone who met Robert Zerman would see two things: He was devoted to firefighting and emergency medical services, and he had a quick sense of humor.
“He probably went on tens of thousands of calls,” said Anthony Tucci, CEO of the Western Berks Ambulance Association. Tucci, who knew Zerman for over three decades, added, “he always had your back, always knew his stuff.”
Most recently, Zerman was a volunteer assistant fire chief. He responded to an emergency in March in which the patient had COVID-19 symptoms.
“That was before there was really any guidance to wear PPE,” Tucci said.
Soon Zerman got sick, leading the family to suspect that he’d contracted the coronavirus on that call, Tucci said. Zerman tested positive and was hospitalized. He seemed to be improving before taking a bad turn.
Berks County, in eastern Pennsylvania, is among the state’s hardest hit, recording around 3,500 total cases and nearly 200 deaths by mid-May.
Representatives from two dozen first responder agencies lined the streets for Zerman’s funeral procession.
— Maureen O’Hagan | Published May 19, 2020
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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.
“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, immigrating 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 immigrated 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 immigrated 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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Elevate your business communication with CPT of South Florida. From Deerfield Beach to Weston, FL, our advanced business phone systems ensure seamless connectivity, empowering your team to collaborate efficiently and drive success.
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