#carolina doesn’t count she’s just related. she’s a church but she’s not a CHURCH. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

patriotsnet · 3 years

Text

Did The Republicans Win The Senate Last Night

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/did-the-republicans-win-the-senate-last-night/

Did The Republicans Win The Senate Last Night

Buzzfeed News Has Journalists Around The Us Bringing You Trustworthy Stories On The 2020 Elections To Help Keep This News Freebecome A Member

McConnell used his power as majority leader to great effect, stonewalling bills passed in the House by both Democrats and Republicans. Rather than vote down those bills in the Senate, McConnell simply ignored them, never letting them go to a vote. Over the four years of Trump’s term, McConnell’s Senate has hardly passed any substantial legislation, despite Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress for the first two of those years. A Republican tax cut bill in 2017 and a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill in 2018 were among the rare exceptions.

Instead, McConnell focused on confirming conservative judges. He was able to confirm 218 federal judges to lifetime appointments under Trump, including three Supreme Court justices. “A lot of what we’ve done over the past four years will be undone, sooner or later, by the next election,” McConnell said last month during the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. “They won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.”

McConnell’s disinterest in passing legislation enraged Democrats — and also drew frustration from some Republicans in the House and the Senate.

Democrats will be under intense pressure to do away with the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes to actually get to a vote on a bill. The filibuster means Democrats will need to get at least 10 Republicans to support any bill they want to pass.

Gop Holds Key Seats In Battle For Majority As Ernst Cornyn And Graham All Win; Democrat Kelly Unseats Incumbent Mcsally In Arizona

[email protected]

WASHINGTON—Republicans scored key Senate victories in Tuesday’s elections, with wins in Iowa and Alabama, while Democrats flipped two seats, with former Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper unseating incumbent GOP Sen. Cory Gardner in Colorado, and Democrat Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, toppling Republican Sen. Martha McSally in Arizona, the Associated Press projected.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, AP projected that Iowa’s incumbent GOP Sen. Joni Ernst had defeated Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield, a Des Moines businesswoman. Republicans picked up a seat by ousting Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in deep red Alabama, with Tommy Tuberville, the Republican candidate and former Auburn head football coach, winning.

Control of the chamber still remains in doubt as a number of other GOP-held races hang in the balance. Democrats now have a net gain of one seat. They need to gain three seats to win a majority if Democrat Joe Biden wins the White House or four if President Trump wins re-election.

“Everything has to go right at this point in order for Democrats to have what is a very small shot to win the majority,” said Jessica Taylor, who follows Senate races for the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan outlet that tracks congressional races.

The races in North Carolina and Georgia were too close to call, and the outcomes in Michigan and Maine were uncertain. The Democrats’ opportunities to pick off seats dwindled as the vote counting deepened.

Biden Tells Georgia Voters They Have The Power To Break The Gridlock And Help Americans Get More Covid Stimulus Relief

At a rally in Atlanta on Monday, President-elect Biden urged Georgia voters to support Warnock and Ossoff, vowing that if they both win, Americans will be able to receive $2,000 COVID stimulus checks they need, and “there’s no one in America with more power to make that happen than you.”

“The power is literally in your hands. By electing Jon and the reverend, you can break the gridlock that has gripped Washington,” he continued.

He also joked that he won Georgia in the presidential election three times — in the original vote and two recounts.

Voters Endured A January Chill As They Headed To The Polls For Georgias Highly Consequential Runoffs

ATLANTA — Georgia’s Election Day voters braved a bracing January chill on Tuesday, arriving at polling places to make their choices in two Senate runoff races that are among the most consequential in recent American history.

In liberal-leaning Atlanta, Whitney Leonard, 24, walked out of the West Hunter Street Baptist Church in a precinct in the West End neighborhood. Ms. Leonard said she voted for the Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock. But she said she was not beholden to the party.

Ms. Leonard said she felt that President Trump had proved himself immature and erratic, and she believed that Democrats taking control of the Senate was crucial to undoing the damage he had caused.

Before the presidential election in November, Ms. Leonard had never voted. Now, Ms. Leonard, who was previously incarcerated, said she was going to vote whenever the opportunity presented itself. “You don’t know how much of a privilege it is to vote until it’s been taken away from you,” she said.

In Dalton, the northwest city where Mr. Trump held a rally on Monday night, a steady flow of Georgians poured into Dalton State College to vote.

Northwest Georgia is a conservative stronghold, and Republicans knew their task was to overcome strong statewide Democratic turnout in early voting and absentee ballots. By Tuesday, Mr. Trump’s message to Republicans to get out and vote appeared to resonate.

How Defeat In Senate Battle Could Leave A Hamstrung Joe Biden Struggling To Accomplish Real Change

It is hard to over-exaggerate just how much is riding on the remaining Senate seat race in Georgia which will decide the balance of power and thus the fate of many of Joe Biden’s policies, writes our US editor Ben Riley-Smith

On the current maths the Democrats have 49 seats and the Republicans have 50. Win the last so-called ‘run-off’ races in Georgia and the Democrats are just about over the line. In tied votes in the US Senate, the deciding vote is cast by the vice president, soon to be Kamala Harris. Mr Biden can pass some laws in that case without Republican votes.

But if they fall short the Republicans keep their majority. And that means Mitch McConnell remains as Senate leader.

10:37AM

If You Have A News Tip Wed Like To Hear From You Reach Out To Us Via One Of Ourtip Line Channels

Still, Democrats will have one chance per year to bypass Republicans altogether and try to pass major legislation. Each year the Senate can pass a budget reconciliation bill, which is exempt from the filibuster and only needs a majority to pass. In theory, these bills need to pertain to the federal budget, but that can be interpreted widely. Republicans tried to use a budget reconciliation bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, only to fail to gain 50 Republican votes.

The Georgia results give Biden’s ability to tackle the climate crisis, one of his priorities, a big boost. The new Senate opens the door to raising spending, whether it relates to the federal budget or the next coronavirus aid package, on climate, resiliency, and environmental justice efforts. There’s also now a greater chance that Congress confirms Biden’s environmental appointees.

But the incoming administration still faces an uphill battle in passing any new, bold climate laws, the kind needed to meet Biden’s goal of dramatically cutting climate pollution from the transportation, buildings, and energy sectors in the coming decades.

Pence Is Said To Have Told Trump That He Does Not Have The Power To Change The Election Result

Vice President Mike Pence told President Trump on Tuesday that he did not believe he had the power to block congressional certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s election victory despite Mr. Trump’s baseless insistence that he did, people briefed on the conversation said.

Mr. Pence’s message, delivered during his weekly lunch with the president, came hours after Mr. Trump increased public pressure on the vice president to do his bidding when Congress convenes Wednesday in a joint session to ratify Mr. Biden’s Electoral College win.

“The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Tuesday morning, an inaccurate assertion that mischaracterized Mr. Pence’s largely formal and constitutionally prescribed role of presiding over the House and Senate.

Mr. Pence does not have the unilateral power to alter the results sent by the states to Congress.

That did not stop Mr. Trump from trying to exert pressure on Mr. Pence on Twitter early Wednesday morning in a post that the social media company flagged as promoting baseless claims about election fraud.

“If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us,” Mr. Trump tweeted, “we will win the Presidency. Many States want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect & even fraudulent numbers in a process NOT approved by their State Legislatures . Mike can send it back!”

:30 Pm Mcconnell Says Rejecting Bidens Win Amounts To A Death Spiral For American Democracy

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave his strongest rebuke yet of his colleagues’ intent to challenge Biden’s victory, alleging that it would permanently damage the country’s democratic ideals. “We cannot simply declare ourselves a national board of elections on steroids,” he said. “Voters, courts and the states have all spoken. If we overrule them we could damage our republic forever.”

As he spoke, footage of Trump supporters trying to break into the U.S. capitol were circulating on the internet, and lawmakers were tweeting that they were forced to evacuate their office buildings due to a threat. —A.A.

Pelosi Says It Doesn’t Matter Right Now If She’ll Seek Another Term As Speaker Beyond 2022

In a press call, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shot down a question about whether this upcoming term would be her last as speaker, calling it the “least important question you could ask today.” She added that “the fate of our nation, the soul of the nation” is at stake in the election.

“Elections are about the future,” Pelosi said. “One of these days I’ll let you know what my plans are, when it is appropriate and when it matters. It doesn’t matter right now.”

After the 2018 election, Pelosi agreed to term limits on Democratic leaders that would prevent her from serving as speaker beyond 2022.

Donald Trump’s Presidency: The Best And Worst Moments From His Four Years As Us President

As we enter the final two weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, Dominic Penna our video team take a look back at his tumultuos four years in office.

Since his victory in 2016 and inauguration in 2017, Donald Trump has been at the helm of one of the most unconventional and eventful presidencies in recent memory.

From the inauguration crowd size controversy, to meeting Kim Jong-un and swearing in three Supreme Court justices, Mr Trump ploughed ahead with his unique style of leadership which sometimes stumped even the most seasoned of Washington correspondents.

To round off his term in office, Mr Trump faced both an impeachment, a devastating pandemic in the months leading up to the 2020 election, and most recently, a controversial phone call with Georgia’s Secretary of State in an attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

2:01PM

:05 Pm Biden Delivers A Speech Calling The Violence An Assault On The Citadel Of Liberty

In brief remarks, Biden called on Trump to “step up,” urging him to “go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege.”

“At this hour, our democracy is under an unprecedented assault, unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times,” he said, adding, “”This is not dissent, it’s disorder, it’s chaos, it borders on sedition, and it must end now. I call on this mob to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward.”

Biden expressed dismay and surprise at the breach of the Capitol building, saying he was “genuinely shocked and saddened that our nation, so long the beacon of light and hope for democracy has come to such a dark moment.”

“Today’s reminder is a painful one,” he said. “Democracy is fragile.”

In urging an end to the violence, Biden returned to the themes of national unity that have animated his campaign and helped him capture the Presidency from Trump, saying that the “work of the next four years must be the restoration of democracy, of decency honor and respect, the rule of law,” he said. He ended by quoting Lincoln: “We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”— Charlotte Alter

:15 Pm Trump Supporters Turn Violent Breach Police Barricades Forcibly Enter The Capitol

Just as the chambers recess, footage showed Trump supporters violently clashing with police, scaling the walls, gathering on the terraces, and entering the building.

The Capitol is locked down, lawmakers are asked to shelter in space, and top lawmakers were escorted off the floor.

“We’re seeing protesters assaulting Capitol Police,” tweeted Rep. Nancy Mace, a newly-minted Republican lawmaker from South Carolina.“This is wrong. This is not who we are. I’m heartbroken for our nation today.”— A.A.

Gop Sen Collins: Trump Incited An Insurrection To Prevent Peaceful Transfer Of Authority

From CNN’s Clare Foran

GOP Sen. Susan Collins, who was among the Republicans who voted to convict former President Trump, spoke on the Senate floor explaining her vote, saying Trump “incited an insurrection with the purpose of preventing that transfer of power from occurring.”

“Instead of preventing a dangerous situation, President Trump created one. Rather than defend the Constitutional transfer of power, he incited an insurrection with the purpose of preventing that transfer of power from occurring,” she said.

Collins said that Trump’s “actions to interfere with the peaceful transition of power – the hallmark of our Constitution and our American democracy – were an abuse of power and constitute grounds for conviction.”

“The record is clear that the President, President Trump abused his power, violated his oath to uphold the Constitution and tried almost every means in his power to prevent the peaceful transfer of authority to the newly elected President,” she said.

“My vote in this trial stems from my own oath and duty to defend the Constitution of the United States. The abuse of power and betrayal of his oath by President Trump meet the Constitutional standard of high crimes and misdemeanors and for those reasons, I voted to convict,” she said.

More Than 4 Million Votes Were Cast In The Georgia Runoffs Surpassing The 2016 Election

With control of the U.S. Senate at stake, more than four million Georgians cast ballots in Tuesday’s runoff contests, surpassing the number of votes cast in the state during the 2016 presidential race, state election officials said.

More than three million of those votes were cast early or by absentee ballot, with more than 1.2 million people turning out at the polls on Tuesday, Gabriel Sterling, a top election official in Georgia, said during a news conference late on Tuesday night.

Mr. Sterling said that the Election Day voter turnout was “more than we anticipated” and that the counting was expected to continue into Wednesday.

Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, told CNN late on Tuesday night that about 200,000 votes were still waiting be counted.

As was the case in the November election, election officials said, the votes waiting to be counted came from DeKalb and Fulton counties in Metro Atlanta, as well as other areas that favored Democrats.

The surge in turnout capped a two-month heated runoff in a swing state that had long favored Republicans but where the changing electorate, particularly in the suburbs, helped Democrats make momentous strides. A prelude came in November, when President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. became the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992.

Incoming Biden Administration And Democratic House Wont Have To Deal With A Republican

Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff wave to supporters during a joint rally on Nov. 15 in Marietta, Ga.

1.285%

Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock have defeated Georgia’s two incumbent Republican U.S. senators in the state’s runoff elections, the Associated Press said Wednesday, in a development that gives their party effective control of the Senate.

Ossoff and Warnock were projected the winners over Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler by the AP following campaigns that drew massive spending and worldwide attention because the runoffs were set to determine the balance of power in Washington. The AP , at about 2 a.m. Eastern, then followed with the call for Ossoff over Perdue on Wednesday afternoon.

President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration and the Democratic-run House of Representatives now won’t face the same checks on their policy priorities that they would have faced with a Republican-controlled Senate, though analysts have said the slim Democratic majority in the chamber could mean more power for moderate senators from either party.

See:With sweep expected in Georgia Senate races, Democrats have high hopes for what Biden can do

“It is looking like the Democratic campaign machine was more effective at driving turnout than the Republican one,” said Eurasia Group analyst Jon Lieber in a note late Tuesday.

Warnock then made just before 8 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday.

Dc Officials Urge Residents To Avoid Potentially Violent Protests By Trump Supporters

The local authorities in Washington are cautioning residents to avoid potentially violent agitators who are expected to gather downtown on Wednesday to amplify President Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in the general election in November.

Chief Robert J. Contee III of the Metropolitan Police Department said the police had received information that people intended to show up to the demonstrations armed, a violation of local firearm laws.

Mr. Trump is expected to appear at the rally on Wednesday and has encouraged his supporters to travel to Washington for the event. Some of Mr. Trump’s allies, including the conspiracy theorist and conservative radio host Alex Jones and some associates who recently received a pardon from the president, spoke to hundreds of people who crowded into the city’s Freedom Plaza on Tuesday, one day before Congress begins the formal counting of the Electoral College votes.

A spokeswoman for the Eighty Percent Coalition, which was publicizing the event on Tuesday, did not return requests for comment.

Tensions already began to escalate on Tuesday night, with some of Mr. Trump’s supporters clashing with police near Black Lives Matter Plaza, videos of the confrontation showed. The police used pepper spray to repel some of the demonstrators.

There were a number of violent clashes last month between supporters of Mr. Trump and counterprotesters in Washington, where four people were stabbed.

Cruz And Loeffler Plan To Join Hawley In Forcing Votes On Overturning Bidens Election

Two more Republican senators were making plans on Tuesday to object to electoral votes won by President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday when Congress meets to formalize his victory.

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, plans to object to the certification of Arizona’s Democratic electors, according to a person familiar with his plans. And Senator Kelly Loeffler, Republican of Georgia, intends to object to the electors from her state, according to a person familiar with her thinking.

Mr. Cruz, a possible 2024 presidential candidate, is among 11 senators who have said in recent days that they will challenge the Electoral College results unless Congress agrees to create an independent commission to audit the results. But his earlier statements had been vague as to whether he would lodge a formal objection himself. His plan to object was first reported by The Washington Post.

His decision to do so, along with Ms. Loeffler’s, ensures that the House and the Senate will formally debate whether to overturn the results in at least three states, prolonging what is normally a brief, ceremonial session and forcing at least three votes on whether to overturn Mr. Biden’s victory.

Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, plans to object to Pennsylvania’s electors, and other Republican senators could still join the mix.

Joe Biden Calls Schumer Majority Leader’ Says Georgia Delivered Resounding Message

President-elect Joe Biden congratulated Democrat Raphael Warnock on “his groundbreaking win” and said he’s hopeful Democrat Jon Ossoff will also be victorious in the Georgia Senate runoffs.

Biden also appeared to acknowledge what Democrats hope will be their new majority in Senate by calling current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the new “majority leader.”

In his first statement on what appears to be a Democratic sweep in Georgia’s two Senate runoff elections, Biden Wednesday credited progressive activist Stacey Abrams and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, calling them “twin powers” who “laid the difficult groundwork necessary to encourage turnout and protect the vote over these last years.”

“Georgia’s voters delivered a resounding message yesterday: they want action on the crises we face and they want it right now,” Biden said in a statement. “On COVID-19, on economic relief, on climate, on racial justice, on voting rights and so much more. They want us to move, but move together.”

Warnock, who leads Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler by more than 54,000 votes, is the projected winner in his race. Ossoff leads Republican David Perdue by 17,025.

Biden vowed to try to work with both parties “to get big things done for our nation.”

He called for “urgent action” on an additional federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, reiterating his position that the COVID-19 relief bill that passed Congress in December was “just a down payment.”

– Joey Garrison

Will Trumps Attempt To Pressure Georgia Officials To Find Votes Affect The Runoffs

As Intelligencer’s Benjamin Hart and Gabriel Debenedetti discuss, the likelihood that the fallout from Trump’s apparent threat to Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger will affect any voters in an election cycle as highly publicized and politically entrenched as this one:

When you have a very close race, you have to watch what happens on the margins. And there’s no doubt that these kinds of news developments from the president — who is promising to quintuple down during his closing-hours rally tonight — could cause some Republican-leaning voters to second-guess the use or wisdom of voting for Loeffler or Perdue. In races that could be decided by a few thousand votes, that’s really significant.

The thing is: Already today, Loeffler and Perdue have been trying to move on from news of this call in ways that demonstrate how desperate they are to keep the pressure on their Democratic challengers. That’s because Dems appear to have a hefty lead through early voting, and Republicans are counting on massive day-of voting on Tuesday. They don’t think they can afford for their voters to focus on this kind of story right now … but the story is blanketing Georgia.

Mcconnell: Trump Is Practically And Morally Responsible For Provoking Capitol Riot

From CNN’s Adrienne Vogt

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the Jan. 6 Capitol attack a “disgrace.”

“They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth. Because he was angry. He had lost an election. Former President Trump’s actions preceded the riot were a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty,” McConnell said.

“There’s no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their President,” he added.

McConnell said there were “wild myths” about election fraud, but he said he defended Trump’s right to bring any complaints to the legal system.

“As I stood up and said clearly at that time, the election was settled. It was over. But that just really opened a new chapter of even wilder, wilder and more unfounded claims,” he said. “The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things.”

Trump “did not do his job” to end the Jan. 6 violence, McConnell said.

McConnell called the Trump defense team invoking Trump’s voters during the impeachment trial “as a human shield against criticism.”

Watch:

Historic Showdown In Congress As Gop Members Challenge Biden’s Electoral Vote Win

Democrats call it an effort to help President Trump overturn a fair election.

On Location: August 14, 2021

In a historic turn of events Wednesday, more than 100 Republicans in the House and at least a dozen in the Senate are expected to join with President Donald Trump in a last-ditch effort to challenge his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden in what Democrats are calling an unprecedented attack on American democracy.

While their complaints are not expected to change the final outcome, when Congress convenes in the House chamber in joint session to ratify the Electoral College vote confirming Biden’s win, Republicans in the House and Senate are expected to lodge formal objections to the electoral results in at least three states, according to GOP aides.

MORE: Trump keeps pressure on Pence to reject Biden’s win before Congress Wednesday

What traditionally has been a solemn and relatively routine process of counting the certified electoral votes from each state will instead prompt two hours of likely bitter debate and then votes in the House and Senate on each challenge.

Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Kelly Loeffler of Georgia and Josh Hawley of Missouri are expected to co-sign written objections from House Republicans to the slate of electors from Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania, respectively.

MORE: Georgia Senate elections live updates: Election official says biggest issue is rumors

The effort, which is certain to fail, has also put mounting political pressure on Pence.

Democrats Fail To Retake Control Of The Senate After Big Losses On Election Night

Republicans served the next president a Congress near certain locked in GOP control with Democratic losses in Florida, Pennsylvania and Indiana

Support our fearless, independent journalism by making a contribution or becoming a member

Julian BorgerAlan Yuhas

First published on Wed 9 Nov 2016 02.13 GMT

The Democratic party failed to retake the US Senate on Tuesday night, following losses in Florida, Pennsylvania and Indiana, as Republicans delivered Donald Trump a Congress firmly in conservative control.

On a night of dashed hopes in the presidential election, Democratic morale was buoyed slightly by a Senate victory in Illinois, where congresswoman Tammy Duckworth beat the Republican incumbent, Mark Kirk. Kirk ran a poor race against Duckworth, a veteran who lost both legs when her helicopter went down in Iraq, and was forced to apologize last week for mocking her family’s Thai background.

But other key Senate contests were far closer, with Republican Senate contenders outperforming expectations on the coattails of Trump’s surprisingly strong showing around the country.

Even before election night, the Democrats had given up on hopes of recapturing the House of Representatives, after Hillary Clinton’s strong lead in October eroded in the final two weeks of the campaign. Only a few hours into counting polls on Tuesday night, the chamber was secured for the conservative party.

Cbs News Projects Hickenlooper Wins Colorado Senate Seat Democrats’ First Pickup

Democrats picked up their first Senate seat of the night, with CBS News projecting former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has defeated incumbent GOP Senator Cory Gardner. Hickenlooper decided to run for Senate after running briefly in the Democratic presidential primary.

Gardner was considered one of the most vulnerable Republican senators up for reelection this year, especially since he’s the only major statewide elected GOP official. Gardner has also been trailing Hickenlooper in polls leading up to Election Day.

While this is a victory for Democrats, they will have to pick up several other seats to gain a majority in the Senate.

House Candidate In Georgia Who Promoted Qanon Conspiracy Theories Likely To Win

Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon supporter who has promoted conspiracy theories, is likely to win her Georgia House race. The QAnon mindset purports that President Trump is fighting against a deep state cabal of satanists who abuse children.

Greene has referred to the election of Muslim members to the House as “an Islamic invasion of our government,” and spread conspiracy theories about 9/11 and the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.

Mr. Trump has expressed his support for Taylor and called her a “future Republican star.” Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, who is locked in a tight reelection race, campaigned with Taylor last month.

The House passed a bipartisan resolution condemning QAnon in early October.

The Gop Scored Two Wins In The Budget Blueprint On Abortion And Systemic Racism

Republicans claimed two narrow victories with potential long-term implications, with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, one of the chamber’s more conservative Democrats, joining them on both nonbinding amendments.

One indicated support for health care providers who refuse to participate in abortions. The other voiced opposition to teaching critical race theory, which considers racism endemic to American institutions. There’s scant evidence that it’s part of public school curriculums.

The budget blueprint envisions creating new programs including tuition-free pre-kindergarten and community college, paid family leave and a Civilian Climate Corps whose workers would tackle environmental projects. Millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally would have a new chance for citizenship, and there would be financial incentives for states to adopt more labor-friendly laws.

Medicare would add dental, hearing and vision benefits, and tax credits and grants would prod utilities and industries to embrace clean energy. Child tax credits beefed up for the pandemic would be extended, along with federal subsidies for health insurance.

Besides higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations, Democrats envision savings by letting the government negotiate prices for pharmaceuticals it buys, slapping taxes on imported carbon fuels and strengthening IRS tax collections. Democrats have said their policies will be fully paid for, but they’ll make no final decisions until this fall’s follow-up bill.

Mcconnell Not Troubled At All By Trump’s Suggestion Of Supreme Court Challenge

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended Mr. Trump for falsely claiming that he won reelection, although he acknowledged that the presidential race had not yet been decided.

“It’s not unusual for people to claim they have won the election. I can think of that happening on numerous occasions,” McConnell told reporters in Kentucky. “But, claiming to win the election is different from finishing the counting.”

“Claiming to win the election is different from finishing the counting,” Mitch McConnell says, adding that Americans “should not be shocked” that Democrats and Republicans are both lawyering up for the close races https://t.co/fxHKy8hSEppic.twitter.com/2pNlka2Jl4

— CBS News November 4, 2020

He also said he was “not troubled at all” by the president suggesting that the outcome of the election might be determined by the Supreme Court. The president cannot unilaterally bring a case to the Supreme Court, what it’s unclear what case the Trump campaign would have if it challenged the counting of legally cast absentee ballots.

McConnell, who won his own closely watched reelection race on Tuesday evening, expressed measured confidence about Republicans maintaining their majority in the Senate. He said he believed there is a “chance we will know by the end of the day” if Republicans won races in states like Georgia and North Carolina.

0 notes

imnoexpertblog · 5 years

Text

I'M BACK, (maybe insert something here a little less aggressive than BITCHES) ... Nah

8/13/18

Ahhhh... It’s been a while, huh?

I had an Engagement/Housewarming party to prep for and host a couple weekends ago AND my best friend ever (ABBIE) visited from (the middle of no where) North Carolina! She was only here for a week so I took off a couple days of work to see her as much as possible. I figured it was the least I could do because she flew here just for my party. That sweet thing. (Honestly she’s kind of harsh and not sweet at all but she is sweet to me LOL).

You know what I love about my blog? I write it because I like it. I write it when I want to. It’s not something I have to get done, that I have a deadline for, etc. Dishes? Need to be done at some point every single day in my house. Laundry? Weekly chore that NEEDS to be done. My blog? Definitely something I do to relax and soothe me. Something that makes me feel good. Its not something I am obligated to do. Much like my modeling! But when I need a break, I need a break.

I took a little break because I was wearing myself thin a little bit. Not with writing, but with everything. I took a break from modeling when we bought our house because, well, I had to. I wasn’t getting enough sleep during the day because of the buying process; going to the bank when it was open, meeting with my lender when he was available, house hunting during the day, being awake for inspections, etc. Modeling was something that needed to be put on the back burner for about 5 or 6 weeks. Baby (my fiancé) is the one who pushed me to get back into it in July. Things started to slow down and I had time again! I have an issue though. I do this thing where I get very ambitious and excited to get back at something or start something new to the point that I overdo it. I booked about 8 shoots in the matter of 2 weeks and a lot of them were out of the area. I overdid it for sure and burnt myself out all over again. That wasn’t all that did it though; Abbie was about to visit, the house needed to be in order, having Nugget (my soon to be step-son) every other week, weddings and birthday parties to attend, we had our engagement photos done, etc. Honestly, adulthood was getting in the way. I am glad I booked so many shoots though because I am putting out my best content right now.

The engagement pictures are GORGEOUS. I am in LOVE. If you've read my two posts about how I began modeling, how I continue to do so now, and my advice for how to get into it, (A Model Was Discovered and Modeling a Year Later) you will recall my first real photoshoot. I posed as the bride in a wedding styled shoot for a photographer named Linsey Goodson here in Green Bay. She started it all for me and I've always been a huge fan of her work. It was such a treat for her to capture the love Baby and I have for one another in pictures. If you'd like to see more of her amazing work, go to https://linseygoodsonphoto.com/ to check it out! The wedding styled shoot we collaborated on is on her website, too. You can find her on social media platforms. I know I put a bunch in this post but if you want to see more, follow me on Instagram! @sabrinadwieland

Any who, I have a lot of requested blog-topics to cover right now. I picked 3 just to start off with this week. I’m just gonna let you in on what they are, right up front: Religion in my personal life, my love for the show FRIENDS, and being friends with the opposite sex.

Starting off pretty heavy with the religion thing, aren’t we? A follower of mine on Instagram asked me to touch on this and I found it to be an interesting inquiry. I feel like the new age of religion is that there isn’t much of it. Or am I just not paying attention? Or are people just private about it? I’d be surprised if you told me people are just private about ANYthing in this day in age. I just had a different follower of mine tell me that she feels like she knows me just because of what I post and how often I post. I thought that was pretty cool to hear actually; that people pay attention and find my content enjoyable. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I’m not religious at all. It’s most-likely from the fact that I wasn’t raised religiously. Now, some of my family members are genuinely bothered with me “not believing.” It’s irionic because these family member who are bothered are some of the ones who raised me on a daily basis. It’s as if they forgot they never took me to church or taught me anything about the Bible. My mother and I would recite the “I lay me down to sleep…” prayer before bed but that was about it. And that didn’t last very long anyway. I wouldn’t say it’s that I “don’t believe.” I just don’t see much proof of the actual … THING I am supposed to believe in. An all-powerful man somewhere in the sky that controls everything. It’s hard for me to grasp, but it’s not for me to say it doesn’t exist. I’ve always been a bit more scientific in my beliefs. I do, however, think that we all need something to believe for our own sanity. Whether that something is real or not. It’s nice to think that Baby, Nugget, and I can go to an afterlife of some sort and be together forever. It’s nice to think that everything happens for a reason and someone or something is taking care of us, and has plans for our souls. I wish I could know if this all was real. I just don’t know if it is and I can’t count on it. I can’t say I haven’t prayed to something in times of need or hoped that there was someone/something greater than all of us taking care of me. Like I said, I have a hard time believing that it’s a real thing. Crazy things have happened in my life, miracles have taken place; horrible things have also happened, too. I’m kind of stuck in the middle with religion. I don’t know what I believe, and I’m okay with that uncertainty. I live my life with reason and logic while also trying to hold faith in SOMEthing. Even if I don’t really know what that thing is.

FRIENDS. Holy cow if you even know what my name is, you also already know I’m the biggest FRIENDS fan in the universe. I know every word of the script, I swear. It’s almost sickening and I am super okay with it. LOL. People think it’s a little odd that someone as young as me (22) is so obsessed with a show that aired from 1994 to 2004. It’s actually been in my life since I was born because my mother watched it from the beginning. I obviously didn’t understand any of it until I was older, but I’ve been watching since as long as I can remember. My mother and I have had quite the history and we struggled with our relationship when I lived with her (and that is putting it mildly). But Friends was one thing that brought us together, rather than caused issues. I’ve noticed watching/listening to the show soothes me. This sounds really weird, but because of the positive connotation it has, it seriously de-stresses me and calms me down. I have this show playing on some electronic of mine at a point during almost every day of my life. It’s on when I’m cleaning, when I’m getting ready for the day or a photoshoot, when I used to do homework in college, when I cook, when I need something to fall asleep to, when I actually just want to watch it, etc. I know the show so well that I don’t even need to physically watch it, I just want to listen to it so I listen to it at work and even when I shower. I kick some serious ass at Friends trivia because I’ve watched the series (10 seasons. 236 episodes) over 50 times. I’ve done estimates and if I watch a certain amount of episodes every day on average (which I do), I have easily seen it all way more than that, even. I’ve owned season on VHS and DVD. I literally only have Netflix for the ease of FRIENDS watching. The day it leaves Netflix, I will be heartbroken and a huge mess. It’s like a security blanket for me. I laugh at it harder the more I watch it. I feel like I know the characters personally. I own a bunch of FRIENDS merchandise. I know an unhealthy amount about the show. I just have a really deep and strong connection to the show and it may be weird to some people but I love it. I recommend the shit out of it. I’m not even sorry for swearing, that was just passion.

Being friends with the opposite sex. From my perspective. I just talked to Baby about this so it’s coinditental that I write about it today. The wedding he and I attended on Saturday was actually for a long-time female friend of his. He was talking about how he was thinking of all the times they had and memories they shared. I found myself feeling… I don’t know the word exactly… I couldn’t relate. I have had two very close male friends and it was a constant struggle because they both wanted to be more than that when I was friends with them. Other standard male friends of mine that I never got very close to always eventually hit on me, asked me out, or flirted with me in some way. That isn’t me being conceited or anything, it’s just how it always went. I have one male friend that has never tried anything with me and I’ve never even met him. We lives a little bit out of my area and we met through friends on Facebook. He’s a great guy and I trust him a lot. I still can’t relate to Baby with the friendship because I haven’t even met my closest guy-friend. We don’t talk much anymore, either unfortunately. My best friend from work is a man, but he is also gay. We tell each other everything and we have a lot of fun together. Obviously there is no room for any possibility of something happening. I know straight men and straight women can be just friends, I just have yet to experience it myself successfully. I have no problem with Baby having close female friends; I trust him completely. I think I might not be close to any straight men because of my previous experience with those relationships. I’ve only seen the dangerous side of being friends because of who my friends were, and not the innocent side. I do believe you can be just friends, but I know there is possibility for something more to occur and I just try to steer clear of that in my own life.

How was your weekend? I had s’mom things going on. Baby is 27 and has a 3 year old brother (yep, that’s right!) and Nugget (who is 4) looooves playing with him. They get along really well. He came over and I watched those two boys for a few hours on Friday. Baby made us all dinner and then retreated to our den to play his new Madden 19 I got for him as our one year anniversary present. He loves it and I’m glad he does. The little ones and I played outside for the evening. Saturday was booked tight, as well. Baby helped his parents demo their new home while Nugget and I went to my sister’s 6th birthday party. Yep, I have a really young sibling, too. She and Nugget also are very close so they had a blast bowling. The future husband and I had a wedding to attend Saturday evening so Nugget spent the night at his soon-to-be grandparents’ house! He and my sister (we’ll call her Kin) had a blast. Then, the dreaded Sunday hit. Pick-ups and drop-offs with Nugget are not consistent each week (which I struggle with because I’m very much a fan of schedules and planning far ahead of time), getting back into the third shift groove isn’t easy, and it’s usually the day that Baby and I need to do our weekly grocery shopping. It’s my toughest day because I need to find a 4-hour block that I can sleep during to prep for my first third-shift of the week. That means that it needs to be later in the day, but not directly before I go to work (because I also need to sleep as soon as I get home Monday morning). It also needs to be quiet in the house, of course. I think my body knows it’s Sunday when it rolls around because Sundays are also the days I get migraines the most. I was having a pretty hard time today, but Baby is very attentive and spoils the heck out of me in the ways I need on Sundays. He often times makes me breakfast when we get up, does the dishes, makes sure I get that long nap in, he tucks me in beforehand, makes sure it’s quiet the whole time I am sleeping, gets me up on time, has dinner ready for when I wake up, gets me meds when I need them for my head, gets me water, etc. Sundays are my least favorite but he really makes them entirely tolerable for me. I can’t thank him enough. He pays such close attention to me and I am incredibly grateful.

That felt GREAT to write. Wow. I missed this. I don’t know what I’m writing next, but stay tuned for more posts SOON! (P.S. I would super appreciate if you shared this to your Facebook page and on Tumblr or both!)

#blog #blogger #new #newblog #newblogger #write #life #live #living #loving #lifestyle #lifestyblogger #love #fun #summer #wife #model #smom #stepmom #married #marriage #writing

0 notes

renaroo · 7 years

Text

Double Time (18/24)

Disclaimer: Red vs Blue and related characters are the property of Rooster Teeth. Warnings: Language, Canon-typical violence Pairings: Tuckington, Chex Rating: T Synopsis: [Hero Time Sequel] After the events of Hero Time, the city and Blood Gulch are prepared for the true return of superheroes in a big way. But while Washington is attempting to adjust to a new relationship and a new living arrangement, the call of new heroes and a new mayor mean major changes for his professional life as well as his personal one. How will the balance of values fare when his new partners come to test everything he’s made of.

A/N: I was so, so broken up over Adam West dying He was such a fundamental part of getting into the world of superheroes for me and I loved and admired him so dearly. I’m not sure if my adoration for him and his incarnation of Batman comes through in my writing at all, but even if it doesn’t I hope that I and others inspired by his heroics find a way to continue the legacy that endeared him to us oh so much.

Special thanks to @analiarvb, @secretlystephaniebrown, @i-stole-orions-heart, @cobaltqueen, @icefrozenover, @thepheonixqueen, Enmuse, @a-taller-tale, Yin, @notatroll7, @vpzerada, @washingtonstub, and Awesome_Milkshakes on AO3 and tumblr for the wonderful feed back! I truly appreciate it more than you know.

It’s a Trap!

He honest to god didn’t know what to make of her.

“What’s the matter, Wash? Cat got your tongue?”

Junior, somewhat in spite toward Washington, began snorting in laughter which only doubled when the hero gave him a warning glare. It was a lost cause getting any respect around everyone there, that much was for sure. Someday Wash was going to accept that as the status quo of Blood Gulch and not be as irritated by it as he was that moment.

Refocusing on the redheaded woman before him, Wash wasn’t sure what to do next. She clearly was someone he remembered, and yet someone he wasn’t sure he knew at all. A paradoxical confusion he hadn’t felt since the time he realized that Texas was still alive and around to lend, or in most cases not lend, her helping hand in Blood Gulch.

“You’re… from Freelancer,” he put together.

The woman stared back at him for a moment, a flicker of disappointment across her face before she sighed and lifted up her goggles. “I was kinda wondering what the time paradox was going to do with all the nonsense that happened in Freelancer. Was kinda hoping I had left more of an impact.” She looked into Wash’s eyes, her green eyes nearly electric in they brightness. “Guess I could have done more to reach out and make an impact to other members of the team, too, though. For that I’m sorry, Washington.”

Suddenly, it all came colliding on him at once. Wash let go of Junior and got to his feet.

“Field leader — Carolina. How… But… You…” he stammered before holding up his hands and taking a long breath. He then looked back at her seriously. “Explain the time paradox comment because I find when words like that are used, the other nonsense falls in order or by the sideline.”

“Of course,” Carolina answered before holding up a finger. “Give me one and three quarters of a second, though.”

“Wha—“ Wash began.

Suddenly a blur of blue swept past him from one direction, nearly causing him to stumble back along with Junior, who hit the ground rear first, and then from the other side, which blew Wash forward before he found more solid footing. Carolina was standing in front of them still, hands on her hips and things seemingly unchanged.

That was, seemingly unchanged until an explosion went off down the road from them

Shocked, Washington and Junior both turned toward the explosion and looked amazed.

“What the hell was that?” Wash demanded.

“Just for amusement’s sake, do you want that answered or do you want the paradox thing answered?” Carolina asked dryly.

“Which answer is more relevant to keeping us further from death?” Wash asked critically.

“There’s a debate to be had on that,” Carolina hummed in response, foot tapping.

“Forget it — answer the explosion thing first!” Wash decided, throwing up his hands.

“Right, that was the Felix stand up cut out,” Carolina answered, pointing to the display behind them.

Caught off guard, both Wash and Junior spun around toward the display only to see it completely gone, only the Wash cut out he had grabbed before was still with them. Then he turned back to Carolina.

“Why was it rigged to explode!?” he demanded.

“I thought that part was obvious at this point,” Carolina said, cocking her head to the side. “Didn’t you read the note I gave you?”

“The note—“ Wash began before thinking back on the day at the park. “You were warning me about Felix in the park… and now you’re saving me from exploding posters of him.” He looked at Carolina. “Sounds like you’re coming back from the dead to tell me that Felix is evil.”

“Well… I mean, have you met him?” Carolina asked. “No one talks with that many double meanings without being a secret bad guy. I mean, why else would someone be so cryptic all the damn time?”

Washington and Junior glanced at each other before looking back to Carolina.

“People say I’m cryptic,” Wash pointed out. “Usually it’s to protect the people I love from my identity.”

“That they know about?” Carolina asked critically.

“You’re cryptic — leaving a random note in the park instead of saying hello. Sounds like you’re evil,” Wash argued.

“I couldn’t walk up and say hi, you were being watched by Felix. And I was totally right,” Carolina reminded him. “You’re welcome by the way. For both saves.”

“You sound eerily like Tex,” Wash said with a squint.

For a moment, the comment seemed to tun Carolina almost to stone, her face frozen in shock.

Washington, a little concerned, reached out toward her to see if she had somehow managed to hurt herself. “Carolina? Are you…”

Suddenly Carolina grabbed him by his shoulders and began quickly shaking him, an intensity of fire in her eyes as she did so. “You take that comment back right now I swear to god if anyone heard you if somehow she heard you don’t you realize how offensive that is oh my god what’s wrong with you can’t you see that there’s no worst way to offend a woman children spend their whole lives trying not to grow up to be just like either of their parents you shut up don’t you know what’s good for you punk take it back right now—“

Junior honked in alarm while Washington tried not to grow dizzy from the shaking.

Finally, he grabbed Carolina’s hands and forcefully yanked them off his shoulders. “Stop that! I can’t understand a single word you’re saying!” he snapped at her. “What was that? Super speed?”

Carolina blinked a few times then put a hand against her forehead. “Wow, sorry. That was maybe an overreaction there.”

“You think?” Wash asked critically.

“Look, I meant what I said in my note the other day,” Carolina said, dropping her hand and looking intently into Washington’s eyes. “Both that you shouldn’t trust people you don’t know… and that you need to put some faith in the people you do know right now. Because what’s going on? It’s too big to explain to you just yet.”

Washington crossed his arms. “Well that statement sure builds a bridge of trust between us,” he said sarcastically.

“I just saved you from a car and from an exploding Felix,” she counted on her fingers. “Exploding Felixes, by the way, have trended toward a bad omen for you lately if you haven’t noticed.”

Blinking, Wash rubbed at his neck. “Well… you’re not wrong.”

“Right. Because I’m right about this,” Carolina argued flippantly. “But even if you can’t trust me because of some paradox I’m not going to explain to you right now—“

“Blargh!” Junior pointed out.

“Agreed, it’s very alarming that she keeps mentioning things she can’t mention,” Wash muttered.

“You’re not going to trust me, fine. I’m pretty much an unknown in this equation, I get that,” Carolina remarked. “But if you can’t trust me, then by all means, trust the advice I gave you before. Trust who you know.”

Fo a moment, Wash wasn’t even sure what she was talking about, but the events of the last few days all came clicking together, and his eyes widened. “You’ve been working with Tex and Church behind the scenes. You’re the reason I’ve not been seeing much of Tex — you and whatever it is she has Church working on decoding.”

Carolina waved her hand in a seesaw fashion. “Eh. I’ve kept away from dealing with Church… for… reasons.”

“Cryptic again,” Wash warned.

“You are such a killjoy compared to the Wash I used to know,” Carolina said. “I kind of like it. You have the air of experienced badass. You even have a sidekick. Man, it’s like you grew up on us—“

“Ju—“ Wash caught himself and shook his head. “The Extraterrestrial Kid is not my sidekick. I don’t believe in sidekicks. I think they churn out kids into mini child soldiers and set their lives on a path not completely of their own choosing.”

Raising an eyebrow, Carolina crossed her arms. “Wow. Pretty strong opinion for a former sidekick.”

Junior gasped and covered his mouth like the world’s largest secret had just been revealed to him.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Wash said flippantly. He never took his eyes off of Carolina. “I deserve to know what’s going on if it’s my life that’s on the line. If Felix is bad, then he also knows far more about my personal life than I care for him to know. And that’s not getting into the situation with Locus and the mayors.”

“Yeah, we’re trying to figure out which of them is the pack mule for their payments,” Carolina said with a shrug. “Church was supposed to be finished with that by now but, fuck if someone here didn’t happen to distract him with lots of useless security upgrades.”

Washington raised his hands up. “Wait a minute — what are you talking about? Someone’s paying Locus?”

“And Felix,” Carolina explained. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice that their costumes match.”

While Washington stared straight back at Carolina, Junior snorted behind him.

“It has to be Kimball — didn’t you see how she’s the one putting up these traps?” Wash said, pointing to the broken Kimball stand up. “It’s obvious.”

“Uh, obviously a plant,” Carolina argued. “Would you just trust that I’m on this already? Sheesh.”

“No, you said to trust who I know, and I’d trust this more if it was coming out of Tex’s mouth,” Washington said firmly. “Speaking of which, why isn’t she the one here dropping these morale bombs on me right now instead of you?”

“Wash, do you really not know what’s happening right now?” Carolina asked skeptically. “Weren’t you the sidekick to a detective superhero?”

Squinting at her, Wash began to feel even more on edge than he had before. “What do you mean?”

“Think about what’s coming up, and why someone just wanted to take you out of the picture,” Carolina said, waving to the cardboard cut outs behind them. “There’s an election — one where funds are being funneled to mercenaries with incredible powers. And tonight is the night of their big debate.”

Wash looked at her incredulously. “And—“

“And anyone who could put whatever plans they have in danger is going to be taken out of the picture,” she said seriously. “Anyone.”

Eyes widening, the realization hit him like a ton of bricks. “Tucker,” he gasped. “Tex is going to save him?”

It was then Carolina’s turn to squint and tilt her head. “Who? I was talking about the kids you were training—“

“Goddammit!” Wash shouted, throwing down the cut out and leaping past Carolina while Junior let out a series of alarmed honks. “Watch Junior!”

“What?” Carolina called out behind him. “I don’t do kids— Ow fuck! It just bit me—“

Washington didn’t have time to look back and scold either of them.

He had to get to Tucker. He had to call the Reds. He needed to check on even Church.

And he had to beat himself up for not realizing the danger himself right away.

#writing #rvb fic #RvB: Hero Time #RvB: Double Time #Tuckington #Agent Washington #Agent Carolina #Tucker Junior

13 notes · View notes

gordonwilliamsweb · 3 years

Text

In Missouri and Other States, Flawed Data Makes It Hard to Track Vaccine Equity

Throughout the covid-19 vaccination effort, public health officials and politicians have insisted that providing shots equitably across racial and ethnic groups is a top priority.

This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes KCUR, NPR and KHN. It can be republished for free.

But it’s been left up to states to decide how to do that and to collect racial and ethnic data on vaccinated individuals so states can track how well they’re doing reaching all groups. The gaps and inconsistencies in the data have made it difficult to understand who’s actually getting shots.

Just as an uneven approach to containing the coronavirus led to a greater toll for Black and Latino communities, the inconsistent data guiding vaccination efforts may be leaving the same groups out on vaccines, said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, an epidemiologist at the University of California-San Francisco.

“At the very least, we need the same uniform standards that every state is using, and every location that administers vaccine is using, so that we can have some comparisons and design better strategies to reach the populations we’re trying to reach,” Bibbins-Domingo said.

Now that federal, state and local governments are easing mask requirements and ending other measures to prevent the spread of the virus, efforts to boost vaccination rates in underserved communities are even more urgent.

At St. James United Methodist Church, a cornerstone for many in the Black community in Kansas City, Missouri, in-person services recently resumed after being online for more than a year. St. James has also been hosting vaccination events designed to reach people in the neighborhood.

“People are really grieving not only the loss of their loved ones, but the loss of a whole year, a loss of being lonely, a loss being at home, not being able to come to church. Not being able to go out into the community,” said Yvette Richards, St. James’ director of community connection.

Missouri’s population is 11% African American, but covid cases among African Americans accounted for 25% of the total cases for the state, according to an analysis by KFF.

Richards said St. James has lost many congregants to the coronavirus, and the empty pews where they once sat on Sundays serve as stark reminders of all this community has been through during the pandemic.

Missouri’s public covid data appears to show robust data on vaccination rates broken down by race and ethnicity. But several groups are seen lagging far behind on vaccinations, including African Americans, who appear to have a vaccination rate of just 17.6%, nearly half of the 33% rate for the state as a whole.

To Dr. Rex Archer, director of the Kansas City health department, one number is a giveaway that this data isn’t right. It shows a completed vaccination rate of 64% for “multiracial” Missourians. Such an exceptionally high rate for one group beggars belief, according to Archer.

“So, there’s some huge problem with the way the state is collecting race and ethnicity under covid vaccination,” Archer said.

Missouri state officials have acknowledged since February that this data is wrong, but they haven’t managed to fix it or explain exactly what’s causing it. Archer suggested the inflated multiracial rate is probably due to different racial data being reported when individuals receive first and second shots.

Other problems have been detected, including missing racial and ethnic data for many people who have been vaccinated, and the use of multiple categories such as “other” and “unknown.”

The state also noted it used national racial percentages in the state’s vaccination data rather than actual percentages based on the state’s population. For example, earlier in the vaccination effort, the state used national racial data, which shows nearly 6% of the population is Asian, even though Missouri’s population is 2.2% Asian.

Health officials are working to target vaccination campaigns in communities where rates are low, but Archer said the state’s data provides little help.

“I mean, we have to look at it, but it’s got too many variables to be something we can count on,” Archer said.

Though racial and ethnic categories are clearly defined in national U.S. Census data, the same data is not collected uniformly by states.

For example, South Carolina’s vaccination data lumps together Asians, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders in one category. In Utah, residents can pick more than one race. Wyoming doesn’t report racial or ethnic data for vaccinations at all.

Bibbins-Domingo said the missing or inconsistent data doesn’t necessarily mean tracking equity is a lost cause. Vaccination rates for census tracts where racial and ethnic data is known can be used as a proxy to estimate vaccine allocations.

However, Bibbins-Domingo argued that the pandemic has shined a light on racial data problems that have persisted far too long in U.S. public health.

“What my hope is, is that our lessons from covid really cause all of us to think about the infrastructure we need within our state and nationally to make sure we are prepared next time,” Bibbins-Domingo said. “Data is our friend.”

Local leaders and health officials in Missouri are scrambling to boost vaccination rates, especially among vulnerable communities, after Republican Gov. Mike Parson recently announced steps to urge residents back to working in person.

Parson ordered state workers back to the office in May and said he would end additional federal pandemic-related benefits for unemployed workers in June, despite vaccination rates across the state being well below what Missouri health experts had hoped to achieve.

Jackson County, Missouri, which includes most of Kansas City, authorized $5 million in federal CARES funding last month to increase vaccinations in six ZIP codes with large Black populations and low vaccination rates. The project will address problems of both access and hesitancy and focus on reaching out to individuals and neighborhoods.

Although many of the state’s vaccination efforts have involved large mass events, St. James Pastor Jackie McCall said she’s been talking with many in her church and community who need encouragement to have faith in the vaccines.

“So let’s go ahead and let’s trust,” McCall told congregants. “Let’s trust the process. Let’s trust God. Let’s trust the science.”

This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes KCUR, NPR and KHN.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

In Missouri and Other States, Flawed Data Makes It Hard to Track Vaccine Equity published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

0 notes

stephenmccull · 3 years

Text

In Missouri and Other States, Flawed Data Makes It Hard to Track Vaccine Equity

Throughout the covid-19 vaccination effort, public health officials and politicians have insisted that providing shots equitably across racial and ethnic groups is a top priority.

This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes KCUR, NPR and KHN. It can be republished for free.

Missouri’s population is 11% African American, but covid cases among African Americans accounted for 25% of the total cases for the state, according to an analysis by KFF.

“So, there’s some huge problem with the way the state is collecting race and ethnicity under covid vaccination,” Archer said.

Other problems have been detected, including missing racial and ethnic data for many people who have been vaccinated, and the use of multiple categories such as “other” and “unknown.”

Health officials are working to target vaccination campaigns in communities where rates are low, but Archer said the state’s data provides little help.

“I mean, we have to look at it, but it’s got too many variables to be something we can count on,” Archer said.

Though racial and ethnic categories are clearly defined in national U.S. Census data, the same data is not collected uniformly by states.

However, Bibbins-Domingo argued that the pandemic has shined a light on racial data problems that have persisted far too long in U.S. public health.

“So let’s go ahead and let’s trust,” McCall told congregants. “Let’s trust the process. Let’s trust God. Let’s trust the science.”

This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes KCUR, NPR and KHN.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

In Missouri and Other States, Flawed Data Makes It Hard to Track Vaccine Equity published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

0 notes

dinafbrownil · 4 years

Text

Lost On The Frontline

America’s health care workers are dying. In some states, medical personnel 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.

“Lost on the Frontline,” a collaboration between KHN and The Guardian, has identified 586 such workers who likely died of COVID-19 after helping patients during the pandemic.

We have published profiles for 105 workers whose deaths have been confirmed by our reporters.

Some cases are shrouded in secrecy. Our team contacts family members, employers and medical examiners to independently confirm each death. Many hospitals have been overwhelmed and workers sometimes have lacked protective equipment or suffer from underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to the highly infectious virus. In the chaos, COVID casualties might otherwise get overlooked.

This project aims to document the lives of U.S. health workers who die of COVID-19, and to understand why so many are falling victim to the pandemic.

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.

A Physician Assistant Who Mentored Residents At His Hospital

(Courtesy of Alexander Beylinson)

Alex Bass

Age: 52 Occupation: Physician assistant Place of Work: NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York Date of Death: April 10, 2020

Alex Bass was technically a physician assistant, but his patients all called him “Dr. Bass,” a title his boss said was well-deserved.

Exclusive: Nearly 600 — And Counting — US Health Workers Have Died Of COVID-19 Jun 6

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

“His patients often sent us letters, thanking us for the services that he provided and saying how great he was,” said Dr. Abdo Kabarriti, chief of urology at Coney Island Hospital.

Bass moved to the U.S. from Ukraine in his mid-20s. Rather than redoing medical school, he decided to become a PA. His extensive knowledge led him to mentor numerous urology residents.

“He helped a lot of people really become who they are today,” Kabarriti said.

When Bass noticed a fever spike in mid-March, he stopped going to work and made an appointment with Dr. Alexander Beylinson, his primary physician and friend of 26 years.

He arrived at his office on March 20 looking “very sick,” so Beylinson tested him for COVID-19 and sent him to the hospital.

A few days later, the test came back positive. At that point, it was too difficult for Bass to talk. Soon after, he was put on a ventilator, until he died.

The hospital did not comment on whether Bass had worked with COVID-19 patients.

Beylinson was one of the 10 people at Bass’ funeral. He doesn’t feel he achieved closure, he said, and still considers Bass his “hero.”

— Shoshana Dubnow | Published June 10, 2020

(Return to top.)

‘There Were So Many Things She Had Unfinished’

(Courtesy of Brittany Mathis)

Dulce Garcia

Age: 29 Occupation: Clinical interpreter Place of Work: University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill, North Carolina Date of Death: May 26, 2020

Dulce Garcia loved to dance. On weekends, she would escape with friends to the Luna Nightclub in Durham, where they would romp to bachata, merengue and reggaetón. “It was our ritual,” said Brittany Mathis, one of her close friends.

At dawn, those unable to safely drive would sleep over at Garcia’s. “She was the group mom,” Mathis said. “She’d tell us, ‘We don’t want to lose anyone.’”

Garcia was “the rock and foundation” for her family, Mathis said. As a teen, Garcia cared for siblings while her parents worked. She also volunteered at the neighborhood Boys & Girls Club.

When Garcia learned about the health care gaps faced by Spanish speakers, she joined the hospital. There, she was “surprised at how much she could help,” Mathis said, “and how many needed her.”

The week after she picked up a Sunday shift, she developed a fever. Mathis was not sure whether she received personal protective equipment (PPE). “Our PPE policies have always followed CDC guidance,” the hospital said through a spokesperson.

The symptoms “wouldn’t go away,” Mathis said. “It just doesn’t feel real. There were so many things she had unfinished.”

— Eli Cahan | Published June 10, 2020

(Return to top.)

A Friendly Nursing Assistant Who Worked Into Her 70s

Antonia ‘Tony’ Sisemore

Age: 72 Occupation: Certified nursing assistant Place of Work: Stollwood Convalescent Hospital at St. John’s Retirement Village in Woodland, California Date of Death: April 30, 2020

Antonia Sisemore always wore a smile — around her family, at church and at her job at a retirement home, where she worked through the coronavirus pandemic.

In a Facebook post, her colleagues called her “one of our most talented and dedicated CNAs.” She worked “tirelessly and unfailingly to deliver care, compassion, and love to those more vulnerable than herself,” it said. (Her family declined to be interviewed for this article.)

Comments remarking on her kindness and work ethic poured in from patients and their families. “She went the extra mile to [make] sure I had what I needed and was comfortable,” wrote a former patient. “Tony was one of my mother’s caregivers,” wrote another Facebook user. “She was selfless … it breaks my heart that the residents will no longer have her.” Some mentioned that Sisemore cheered people up with her sense of humor. “I remembered you [danced] in front of me,” another former patient wrote.

Sisemore’s obituary says she battled COVID-19 for four weeks after passing away from complications from the virus. The nursing home where Sisemore worked reported 66 confirmed cases and 17 deaths according to county data. Over half of the infections were among staff members. The facility did not respond to requests for comment.

— Anna Jean Kaiser, The Guardian | Published June 10, 2020

(Return to top.)

A Nurse, Family Linchpin And Generous Aunt

(Courtesy of Mario Thompson)

Adlin Thompson

Age: 56 Occupations: Certified nursing assistant and endoscopy technician Places of Work: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Isabella Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in New York City Date of Death: April 24, 2020

Adlin Thompson had 20 siblings and more than 30 nieces and nephews. Like her, many of them immigrated to New York City from St. Kitts and Nevis in the early 1980s. With such a large family, it was difficult to keep track of everyone, said Adlin’s son, Mario Thompson. But Adlin did — she was the glue who kept the family together.

Adlin worked long hours between her two jobs. When she wasn’t at the nursing home or the hospital, she visited family, and “never came home empty-handed,” often toting gifts of socks or perfume, Mario said.

Adlin cared for patients who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 at both her jobs. She was always covered in protective gear, said Mario. Still, he worried that her asthma made her particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. Mario believes she contracted the virus at the nursing home, where he said she had more direct contact with patients.

A spokesperson for the facility said it “followed state guidelines as it relates to infection prevention and control procedures.”

Adlin died four days after testing positive for COVID-19. She was alone in her home, preparing to go to the hospital.

— Lila Hassan | Published June 10, 2020

(Return to top.)

Housing Supervisor Committed Herself To Helping The Vulnerable

(Courtesy of Barbara Abernathy)

Michelle Abernathy

Age: 52 Occupation: Residential services supervisor Place of Work: Elisabeth Ludeman Developmental Center in Park Forest, Illinois Date of Death: April 13, 2020

Barbara Abernathy said she is trying to figure out what to do with six bins of toys her daughter bought for neighborhood children.

Growing up in Chatham, a middle-class neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, Michelle Abernathy “was always trying to help somebody,” Barbara said.

Michelle spent decades investigating child abuse and neglect while holding night jobs mentoring children.

A supervisor at a state-run facility for developmentally disabled adults, she bought clothes, games and snacks for residents. A staff memo lauded her “big heart and nurturing personality.”

She fell ill March 28 and was hospitalized April 6, too weak to walk.

Three other workers at the facility died of COVID-19. A spokesperson for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents workers at Ludeman, said that early in the pandemic the staff had a “huge struggle” to get personal protective equipment (PPE).

The Illinois Department of Human Services said it “can’t say precisely” how workers caught the virus and was working to provide sufficient PPE.

After long professing that she was too busy for marriage, Abernathy recently had become engaged to Torrence Jones, a colleague. She had planned to surprise her mother with the news but never had the chance.

— Mary Chris Jaklevic | Published June 5, 2020

(Return to top.)

A Loving Bookkeeper Who ‘Had The Most Awesome Laugh’

(Courtesy of Sean Diaz)

Cassondra Grant Diaz

Age: 31 Occupation: Nursing home bookkeeper Place of Work: Chelsea Place Care Center in Hartford, Connecticut Date of Death: April 29, 2020

Cassondra Diaz was a receptionist-turned-bookkeeper at a nursing home in her hometown.

“She was my therapist, my fashion consultant, my hair designer,” said her older sister, Takara Chenice. “I called her my ‘big little sister.’”

Loved ones described her as “an old soul,” loyal to her family, including her husband, Sean Diaz. In their free time, the couple would hit the highway for a long drive, venturing to parks, lakes and the beach.

Her family believes she contracted the coronavirus at work. A spokesperson for Chelsea Place confirmed that the nursing home had COVID cases among staff and patients. It said staffers were provided with personal protective equipment. Despite wearing protective gear, removing her work clothes at the door and showering after work, Cassondra developed symptoms in mid-April.

On April 29, she woke up having difficulty breathing and pain in her leg, said Sean, who called an ambulance. She died that day.

Sean keeps a photo of her in their car. “My six years with her were better than any lifetime I had before her,” he said.

— Madeleine Kornfeld, City University of New York | Published June 5, 2020

(Return to top.)

A Doting Family Man, He Was A Long-Standing Fixture At His Hospital

(Courtesy of Susan Ferranti and family)

David Ferranti

Age: 60 Occupation: Hospital equipment coordinator Place of Work: St. Elizabeth‘s Medical Center in Brighton, Massachusetts Date of Death: May 2, 2020

David Ferranti was committed to his two families — both at home and at work. In his job on the engineering unit, he was really part of every team in the hospital, wrote St. Elizabeth’s president, Harry Bane, in a note to employees. “He was always worried about ‘his nurses’ and ‘his departments’ having what they needed to best care for our patients.”

Ferranti worked at the hospital for almost 42 years “and he loved every day of it,” said his father, Savino Ferranti. St. Elizabeth’s was treating many COVID-19 patients when David became infected with the virus, his father said, but it was impossible to say where he caught it. St. Elizabeth’s had no further comment about his case.

Ferranti was a family man “and the greatest son you can imagine,” his father said. He had a wife, Susan, and a son, John.

Ferranti worked in his garden and enjoyed walks in nature. A history buff, he was born in Wiesbaden, Germany. His father, a descendant of Italian immigrants, served in the military there, where he met David’s mother, Renate.

For his family, tragedy hit twice within weeks. David’s aunt Ann Ferranti died of the disease a few weeks before David. The advice David would have given to anyone, said his father, “is to stay safe, whatever it takes.”

— Katja Ridderbusch | Published June 5, 2020

(Return to top.)

A Nurse For Whom Family Was Everything — And Patients Were Like Family

(Courtesy of the Mazzarella family)

Kelly Mazzarella

Age: 43 Occupation: Clinical nurse manager Place of Work: Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital in Mount Vernon, New York Date of Death: May 8, 2020

Even as a girl, Kelly Mazzarella had her sights set on helping others. She turned this innate altruism into a 16-year career at a community-based teaching hospital.

Karen Jedlicka was blown away by the care her big sister showed every patient. “People would be going through the worst things in their lives and she was just there for them,” Jedlicka said.

Mazzarella showed that same compassion with her husband, Ronnie Mazzarella, and daughters, Hailey and Kristina. She never missed an opportunity to tell her daughters how proud they made her, Jedlicka said.

In July 2019, Mazzarella was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease that brought on painful bouts of swelling. She worked on and off through March, helping with the influx of COVID patients. She was diagnosed on April 2 and died five weeks later. Her employer did not respond to requests for comment.

Nicol Maursky, a lifelong friend, organized a GoFundMe for the family. A staggering outpouring has brought in close to $75,000.

“She just had such a love and a light that emanated from her,” Jedlicka said. It’s “very comforting to know everybody felt the same way that we did.”

— Suzannah Cavanaugh, City University of New York | Published June 5, 2020

(Return to top.)

A Proud New Orleanian And Community Caretaker

(Courtesy of Talisa Pace)

Jana Prince

Age: 43 Occupation: Case manager Place of Work: Salvation Army in New Orleans, Louisiana Date of Death: April 6, 2020

A “natural New Orleanian,” Jana Prince was bubbly and loving, her brother Paul Prince said.

Since high school, Jana knew she wanted to be a social worker. She grew up with cerebral palsy, wearing a leg brace and diligently practicing physical therapy so she could walk. Kids bullied her about her disability, but nothing would stop Jana from connecting with her community.

“She was trying to share her strength with other people, because she just didn’t want to see people suffer,” cousin Talisa Pace said. “She really wanted to help the black community.”

One day in mid-March, Jana had trouble breathing, Paul said. She was hospitalized for more than a week before she was intubated, and died the next day. The family said they did not know whether she was infected at work, especially given how early she became infected; the Salvation Army declined to comment.

Her mother, Barbara Prince, died of the virus three days later.

The duo lived together and got on like Laverne and Shirley. They often took care of Paul’s twin 6-year-old boys. “I don’t know how one would have survived without the other,” Paul said.

Jana and Pace had dreamed of opening a coffee shop and counseling center. “She would have been the highlight of the whole place,” Pace said.

— Theresa Gaffney, City University of New York | Published June 5, 2020

(Return to top.)

‘She Always Listened And Never Judged’

(Courtesy of Tiana Mohabir)

Tina Reeves

Age: 58 Occupation: Licensed practical nurse Place of Work: Pickaway Correctional Institution in Orient, Ohio Date of Death: April 27, 2020

When Tina Reeves visited her grandchildren, music would blast from the car. Wale’s “On Chill” rang out: “Trying to hear all your problems, so I can lighten the load.”

“She loved her music,” said daughter Tiana Mohabir, “even though she had no rhythm for squat.”

Reeves had an ear for the rhythm in other people’s lives, though. Younger co-workers called her “Mother Advice,” Mohabir said. In interactions with prisoners and officers alike “she always listened,” Mohabir said, “and never judged.”

She called her three daughters daily, “checking in on all of us.”

When Reeves started coughing in early April, Pickaway Correctional had already reported more than 1,500 cases of COVID-19.

“PPE [personal protective equipment] was, and continues to be, available to staff,” a prison spokesperson said. The family said their mother did not have access to adequate PPE.

By April 13, Reeves was hospitalized with COVID-19. She called her daughter to ask her to take care of paying her utility, insurance and cable bills. “I didn’t think twice,” Mohabir said, “because I didn’t want them shut off when she got home.”

Within 24 hours, Reeves was intubated. On the bedside table, her phone kept ringing.

— Eli Cahan | Published June 5, 2020

(Return to top.)

An ‘Icon,’ Hospital Secretary ‘Brightened Every Situation’

(Courtesy of Glenna Swann)

Joan Swann

Age: 70 Occupation: Intensive care unit secretary Place of Work: Kent Hospital in Warwick, Rhode Island Date of Death: April 29, 2020

When things were slow at the hospital, Joan Swann would head down to the gift shop.

If someone was having a hard day — the security guard, the patient transporter, the barista — she might buy them a candle. Or charm bracelet. Or a Vera Bradley handbag.

“She brightened every situation,” said Glenna Swann, her daughter. A former nurse, Joan coached trainees from behind the administrative desk. They called her an “icon” who was the reason many stayed working in the intensive care unit.

When Joan was admitted to the hospital, those she had long cared for returned the favor. Her isolation room was adorned with blue hearts, and following her intubation, the nurses would FaceTime the family in. During quiet hours, they sat at her bedside.

The hospital did not respond to requests for comment.

After Joan died, the family found “thousands upon thousands” of unused greeting cards, sorted by occasion (weddings or Christmas) and emotion (sympathy or humor).

In the coming weeks, Joan’s cherished grandson, Adam, will complete high school. Glenna is still choosing from among Joan’s graduation cards for him.

— Eli Cahan | Published June 5, 2020

(Return to top.)

In A Family Who Lost Both Mother And Son, Food Was Love

(Courtesy of Lloyd Torres)

Louis Torres

Age: 47 Occupation: Food service director Place of Work: Queens Boulevard Extended Care Facility in Woodside, New York Date of Death: April 8, 2020

Louis Torres went into the family business. He grew up adoring his mother’s Philippine home cooking, so it was natural to channel his passion for food into comforting others. As a food service director at a nursing home in his native Queens, he could cook and work in health care as his mother did.

Feeling terrible on March 30, Louis called his older brother, Lloyd, after work. “He was struggling to make it from the subway station,” Lloyd said.

Louis lived with his mother, Lolita, 73, a retired hospital clerk. She also had severe COVID-19 symptoms.

By the next day, mother and son had been taken by ambulance to separate hospitals. In the chaos, Lloyd said, it took an entire day of panicked calls to find their mother, who was still in the emergency room.

A few days later, Lloyd was able to pray the rosary with Lolita over the phone, and it seemed to calm her. Before they hung up, she asked that Lloyd take care of his brother. Louis made the same request about his mother before going on a ventilator.

“Their last words to me [were to] take care of each other, my God,” Lloyd said, his voice cracking.

On April 7, Lolita died. Louis died the next day.

In the weeks since then, Lloyd was comforted by a powerful dream.

“I woke up and smelled the frying of food,” he said, invoking his mother’s cooking. “That’s how she showed her love.”

— Kathleen Horan | Published June 5, 2020

(Return to top.)

Theater Brought Them Together, Then Life Imitated Art

(Courtesy of Harriet Clark Webber)

Barry Webber

Age: 67 Occupation: General surgeon Place of Work: Mount Sinai Queens in New York City Date of Death: April 18, 2020

Barry Webber wanted to understand how things worked. That curiosity and drive motivated him to reconstruct an old Jeep, build a computer, take up rock climbing and, of course, become a surgeon.

He pursued medicine when he realized he wasn’t going to become a concert pianist, said his wife, Harriet Clark Webber.

They met when Harriet was a dancer with the American Ballet Theatre and Barry moonlit as a supernumerary — a non-dancing extra on stage — for the company. “He just wanted to be around the theater,” she said.

Barry honed his surgery skills in a Brooklyn emergency room in the 1980s. “It was a rough time to be in an ER in Brooklyn,” Harriet said. “He was treating a lot of gunshot wounds and trauma.”

They married in 1996 and had two sons, now 22 and 20.

Like so many Americans, when COVID-19 struck, the couple watched “Contagion,” a 2011 film about a pandemic. Barry said it gave him a bad feeling.

On March 27, his fears were realized. He texted his wife: “I’m sick.”

Harriet believes he contracted the virus at work before the hospital ordered the universal use of protective gear.

— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published June 5, 2020

(Return to top.)

Brooklyn Radiologist Was ‘Kind, Simple, Loving And Devoted’

David Wolin and his daughter, Helena Cawley (Courtesy of Helena Cawley)

David Wolin

Age: 74 Occupation: Radiologist Place of Work: The Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York City Date of Death: March 30, 2020

By 10 a.m. on Sundays, David Wolin and his wife, Susan, would have completed one-quarter of the New York Times crossword.

When the grandchildren arrived, Wolin greeted them with bagels, lox, whitefish “and the best scrambled eggs in the entire world,” said Helena Cawley, his daughter.

Wolin was “kind, simple, loving and devoted.” A radiologist specializing in mammography, he was “committed to learning everything he could,” Cawley said. “The latest medical journal was always on his nightstand.”

He and Susan would skip off to their home upstate on Wolf Lake, where they might take out a rowboat, a bottle of chardonnay and a brick of Roquefort cheese under the stars. “All they needed was each other,” Cawley said.

In late March, Wolin complained of “bad colds” but deferred testing. Brooklyn Hospital was overwhelmed with COVID-19. A hospital spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

On March 30, when Cawley couldn’t reach her father, she called the doorman of his building. He reluctantly shared the news: Wolin had died overnight.

Susan was hospitalized that day and died weeks later. “We’re grateful in a way,” Cawley said, “because we don’t know how they could have lived without each other.”

— Eli Cahan | Published June 5, 2020

(Return to top.)

‘Working There Was The Proudest Accomplishment Of His Life’

(Courtesy of Maria Joy Agtarap)

Romeo Agtarap

Age: 63 Occupation: Emergency room nurse Place of Work: NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City Date of Death: April 24, 2020

Joy and Romeo Agtarap met in Queens in the 1980s, when they were both young nurses, newly arrived from the Philippines. Joy Agtarap said her husband was a jokester who had a vibrant personality that often made him the life of the party. At gatherings, he liked to get people onto the dance floor.

“He’s a very good dancer ― sometimes he made the line dances too hard and people would get lost!” she remembered.

He was also a dedicated emergency room nurse. Agtarap had spent 20 years at what his wife said was his “dream job” at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

“Working there was the proudest accomplishment of his life,” she said. He was still seeing patients when the pandemic hit. (The hospital did not respond to requests to comment on whether he had adequate personal protective equipment).

Romeo was diagnosed with COVID-19 in late March. Joy, who had left nursing due to an injury, became sick a week later. They were both hospitalized ― he at NewYork-Presbyterian and she at a facility on Long Island. As Joy recovered, she anxiously awaited updates on her husband’s condition.

“It was the most devastating thing that’s ever happened to me. I was going crazy in there waiting for calls about him,” she said. He died on April 24. “I believe he took the worst of the virus for me, that’s why I’m still here,” she said.

— Anna Jean Kaiser, The Guardian | Published June 2, 2020

(Return to top.)

As Nurse And Minister, She Tended To Her Patients, Flock ― And Garden

(Courtesy of Elijah Ailende)

Felicia Ailende

Age: 67 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Bria of Forest Edge in Chicago Date of Death: April 20, 2020

Felicia Ailende was a beacon of unity to her family and members of Maranatha Chapel in Evergreen Park, Illinois, where she was a minister. She counseled many, helping keep marriages intact and lives on track, her son Elijah Ailende said. Though her six children were very different from one another, she saw the best in each.

An immigrant from Nigeria, she planted a garden each year and used the produce to cook West African dishes. When there were too many cucumbers, hot peppers or greens, she shared with neighbors.

At Bria of Forest Edge, a nursing home, Felicia cooked for residents at times or prayed for them, Elijah said.

Administrator Julie Kosman said in a statement that Ailende was a hardworking nurse who was pleasant and funny and had a great rapport with residents.

She is one of three workers at the facility who have died of COVID-19; two residents also died. The facility reported 132 infections.

Elijah said staffers had to reuse surgical masks provided by the facility. Administrators did not tell them when residents and other staff members got the virus “so they could take precautions and safeguard their lives,” he said.

Kosman’s statement says “full PPE” — personal protective equipment — was available to staffers and there is no reason to believe Ailende was exposed to COVID-19 “within our facility.” She “had no known contact with any resident or staff member who showed symptoms or had tested positive for COVID-19.”

— Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News | Published June 2, 2020

(Return to top.)

He Practiced What He Preached, Caring For Inmates With Mental Illness

(Courtesy of Gwendolyn Davis)

Bishop Bruce Edward Davis

Age: 57 Occupation: Shift leader for forensic service technicians Place of Work: Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia Date of Death: April 11, 2020

In sermons at his Pentecostal church, Bishop Bruce Davis preached love. On weekdays, he practiced it by feeding, bathing and caring for patients at a maximum-security psychiatric hospital. Davis worked for 27 years at the state facility, said his wife, Gwendolyn Davis.

As a boy, Davis would break his pencils in half to share with his twin sister. At church, he hosted youth parades and gave away computers, bicycles and groceries. He distilled the Bible into simple lessons, she said, once winning over a parishioner with a sermon based on “The Wizard of Oz.”

When COVID-19 emerged, Davis and his co-workers at the psychiatric facility were told they couldn’t wear masks or gloves because it wasn’t part of their uniform, she said. Five days after a close co-worker tested positive for COVID-19, Davis was hospitalized, she said.

More than 70 workers at the hospital have tested positive for COVID-19, according to state data; Davis is one of two who have died. A hospital spokesperson declined to comment on Davis’ case.

After Davis’ illness, his entire household – Gwendolyn, three children and a grandchild – got sick with COVID-19, Gwendolyn said. Their adult son, who has autism, was hospitalized, Gwendolyn said. Their daughter, 22, recovered and returned to work at the same hospital.

“It is extremely hard for her to go back to work there,” Gwendolyn said.

— Melissa Bailey | Published June 2, 2020

(Return to top.)

Dedicated Dad And Technologist ‘Was As Smart As They Come’

(Courtesy of Junette Francis)

Devin Francis

Age: 44 Occupation: Radiologic technologist Place of Work: Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami Date of Death: April 8, 2020

Devin Francis was due to get married June 27 to his longtime love, Micela Scott, mother of their 11-year-old daughter, Dekayla.

Scott said her fiancé was a devoted father.

“He’d take [Dekayla] to school every morning. He’d help her with her homework,” she said. “He just wanted peace to his life and us to have a good life.”

“He had a very jovial spirit,” said his youngest sister, Junette Francis.

Devin took a COVID test at Jackson Memorial after his shift on April 6 — it came back positive. His breathing became labored and he died at home early on April 8.

His family and a hospital representative said it was unclear whether he came into contact with patients with COVID-19. Devin also worked in fleet services for American Airlines.

Colleagues admired his work ethic.

“No matter where we were in life, he never had less than two jobs,” said Milton Gonzalez, a hospital co-worker. “He was as smart as they come.”

— Sharon Jayson | Published June 2, 2020

(Return to top.)

A Pediatric Neurosurgeon Who Separated Conjoined Twins

(Courtesy of Judy Goodrich)

James Goodrich

Age: 73 Occupation: Pediatric neurosurgeon Place of Work: Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York City Date of Death: March 30, 2020

James Goodrich was a renowned pediatric neurosurgeon, best known for separating conjoined twins ― a rare and risky procedure. Over the course of his career, he was directly involved in about 10 cases, advising on dozens more.

A late bloomer academically, Goodrich began his undergraduate studies at age 24, after returning from Vietnam, where he served in the Marines.

“He had seen a neurosurgeon when he was in Vietnam, and he just was fascinated at what they were able to do,” said Judy Goodrich, his wife of 50 years. “I thought, just try to become a doctor first.”

He was also known for innovations regarding conditions affecting the skull. He helped develop standards for treating craniosynostosis, in which the bones of a child’s skull fuse too soon, preventing the brain from growing properly.

Goodrich was an avid collector ― of antique medical books, pre-Columbian medical artifacts, rare watches and fine wines, among other things. He surfed, cultivated bonsai trees and played the didgeridoo.

He had seen patients in the clinic in early March, just before flying to Mexico for a family vacation. He soon began to feel ill, and when he returned to New York, he was diagnosed with COVID-19. He was hospitalized on March 25 and died five days later.

Read more here.

— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published June 2, 2020

(Return to top.)

She Brought ‘Calming Presence’ And Fun To Nursing Home

(Courtesy of Howard Fox Jr.)

Leola Grady

Age: 59 Occupation: Recreational aide Place of Work: Bria of Forest Edge in Chicago Date of Death: April 10, 2020

Leola Grady had planned to be with her son and granddaughter in Mississippi for Mother’s Day but did not live to make the trip.

At the Bria of Forest Edge nursing home, she entertained residents, including with a “good game of cards,” administrator Julie Kosman said. “She had a calming presence about her.”

When Grady fell ill, a nurse at the facility was already sick with the coronavirus. A nursing aide whose name has not been released also died of COVID-19. Staff at the facility, with SEIU union leaders, spoke out saying they were unaware their co-workers were dying until they saw it on the news.

Howard Fox Jr., Grady’s son, said his mother was his best friend. An honest, straightforward and loving person, she enjoyed listening to the blues. “I’m not going to sit here and sugarcoat it,” he said. “It hurts. … I look at our picture. I cry.”

Fox said his mother went to a Chicago hospital with COVID symptoms but was sent home. She was found dead several days later. A Cook County spokesperson confirmed she died of pneumonia due to COVID-19.

Kosman said the facility does not believe Grady or the nurse, Felicia Ailende, “were exposed to COVID-19 within our facility. They had no known contact with any resident or staff member who showed symptoms or had tested positive for COVID-19.”

As of May 27, Bria of Forest Edge has reported 132 coronavirus cases and two deaths to Illinois officials. In the statement, Kosman said it reported worker deaths to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which shows three pending death investigations at the facility.

— Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News | Published June 2, 2020

(Return to top.)

Young Nurse Lived A Life Of ‘No Regrets’

(Courtesy of the Guzman family)

Krist Angielen Castro Guzman

Age: 35 Occupation: Licensed practical nurse Place of Work: Meadowbrook Manor in Bolingbrook, Illinois Date of Death: May 2, 2020

Krist Guzman packed a lot into her short life. She worked full time while studying to become a registered nurse. She had three children, one a newborn.

Smart, funny and outgoing, she nurtured relationships.

“Hers was a life of no regrets,” said a cousin, Jeschelyn Pilar.

In a Navy family that moved often, she was close with her brother, Anjo Castro.

“She was my role model,” said Castro, who also pursued a medical career as an independent duty corpsman in the Navy.

The pandemic hit home when their uncle, pediatric surgeon Dr. Leandro Resurreccion III, died March 31.

Guzman told family she had seen COVID patients. Worried she didn’t have adequate protective gear, she scrambled to find some online.

Meadowbrook has registered the worst COVID outbreak in Illinois, with more than three dozen deaths. Nursing home spokesperson Marissa Kaplan said in a statement: “Meadowbrook puts the safety and welfare of its residents and staff at the forefront of everything we do.” She did not address whether there was sufficient protective gear.

— Mary Chris Jaklevic | Published June 2, 2020

(Return to top.)

Selfless Nephrologist Fought For Her Life While Treating Others

(Courtesy of the Khanna family)

Priya Khanna

Age: 43 Occupation: Nephrologist Place of Work: Khanna Nephrology in Glen Ridge, New Jersey Date of Death: April 13, 2020

Priya Khanna came from a family of doctors, and she knew the risks of contracting the deadly coronavirus. She was immunocompromised and actively seeing patients days before she became ill with COVID-19.

On April 1, Priya was hospitalized in the same facility where her father, Satyender Dev Khanna, had been brought days earlier. He was also being treated for COVID-19.

From her hospital bed, Priya checked in on friends, reviewed patient files and communicated with the physician who was seeing patients in her stead. She continued to do so until she was put on the ventilator.

“She literally worked for others until she could no longer breathe for herself. That was Priya,” said childhood friend Justin Vandergaag. “Always putting others first with a smile.”

“She was a devoted daughter, sister and aunt,” said childhood friend Laura Stanfill. “Her healing gifts extended not only to her patients but, in the many ways, she made everyone in her life feel important and loved.”

Read more here.

— Natalia Megas | Published June 2, 2020

(Return to top.)

��He’s One Of Our Legends’

(Courtesy Stephanie Mahoney)

James ‘Charlie’ Mahoney

Age: 62 Occupation: Pulmonologist Place of Work: SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York City Date of Death: April 27, 2020

James “Charlie” Mahoney eschewed hospital hierarchies.

“He didn’t treat people like underlings,” said his sister, Saundra Chisholm. “He would talk to housekeeping like he would talk to the chief of the hospital. That’s why he was so well respected.”

Growing up on Long Island, Mahoney was an ace student and athlete. He was one of only a handful of black students at his medical school and throughout his training. He and his brother, Melvin Mahoney, worked side by side at SUNY Downstate for many years, a public hospital that treats a mostly minority and low-income patient population.

When the pandemic hit New York in March, Mahoney, who specialized in respiratory care, “ran into the fire,” Melvin said. But his hospital, like other underfunded public institutions in the city, was short of protective equipment and staff.

Mahoney started experiencing symptoms in early April, and was hospitalized soon after. He died on April 27.

“He’s one of our legends ― he’s one of our giants,” said Julien Cavanaugh, a neurology fellow at SUNY Downstate who trained under Mahoney.

Read more here.

— Ankita Rao, The Guardian | Published June 2, 2020

(Return to top.)

Psychiatric Nurse Knew Her Patients’ Hometowns And Hobbies

(Courtesy of Eddie Ballard)

Shenetta White-Ballard

Age: 44 Occupation: Licensed practical nurse Place of Work: Legacy Nursing and Rehabilitation of Port Allen, Louisiana Date of Death: May 1, 2020

Eddie Ballard was baking “Pecan Delight” pie at the Piccadilly Cafeteria in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when Shenetta White, accompanying her auntie and grandmother, leaned over the buffet counter to grab a Jell-O.

“She gave me this look,” Ballard said, and he gathered the confidence to ask for her number. On their first date he quickly realized “not only was she beautiful, but she was mature beyond her years.”

That maturity manifested across her life.

As a nurse to psychiatric patients, she was adored by those she “saw as people more than just patients,” Ballard said. She knew their parents’ names, their hometowns and hobbies. At home, White-Ballard was “queen of the house,” Ballard said. She handled the errands and the finances, while “her two boys [Ballard and his son, Warren] hung on whatever she asked.”

With a preexisting condition, White-Ballard depended on supplemental oxygen. She died May 1, just three days after developing COVID-19 symptoms.

In an email, a Legacy spokesperson wrote that the facility had followed all guidelines and “had more than enough PPE.”

The first piece of jewelry Ballard bought his wife was a bracelet that read: “Love is patient, love is kind, love never ends.”

“I hadn’t read that in 11 years,” he said, “but boy, it’s still true.”

— Eli Cahan | Published June 2, 2020

(Return to top.)

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.

“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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

‘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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

He Tried To Reassure His Family Until The End

(Courtesy of Sheryl Pabatao)

Alfredo Pabatao

Age: 68 Occupation: Orderly Place of Work: Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, New Jersey Date of Death: March 26, 2020

After 44 years of marriage, Alfredo Pabatao still bought his wife, Susana, flowers.

“They were that type of couple that you rarely see nowadays,” their youngest daughter, Sheryl Pabatao, 30, said. “They set such a high standard for us, their kids — that may be the reason why I’m still single.” She said her father was a patient man who could fix just about anything.

The Pabataos came from Quezon City, just outside Manila, in the Philippines. Alfredo worked at a car dealership, and Sheryl said she and her siblings grew up comfortably.

But the couple wanted more for their five children, and immigrated to the United States in October 2011. “The first year that we were here, was really, really tough,” Sheryl remembered. Her oldest two siblings, already adults by the time the Pabataos’ immigration application cleared, had to stay behind.

Alfredo found a job as an orderly at a hospital in New Jersey, where he worked for nearly two decades. In mid-March, he told his family he had transported a patient with signs of COVID-19; he fell ill days later. In a statement, his employer wrote: “We have policies and procedures in place to protect our team members and patients that are all in accordance with CDC guidelines.”

Sheryl said the family’s last conversation with her father was via FaceTime, with him on his hospital bed. Connected to oxygen, he insisted he wasn’t gravely ill. He made jokes and even demonstrated yoga poses to reassure his wife and children. He died soon after.

— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published May 15, 2020

(Return to top.)

A ‘Selfless’ Mother Who ‘Always Had The Right Words’

(Courtesy of Sheryl Pabatao)

Susana Pabatao

Age: 64 Occupation: Assistant nurse Place of Work: Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus, New Jersey Date of Death: April 30, 2020

Susana Pabatao became a nurse in her late 40s, after her family immigrated to the United States.

It eased some of her longing for her own mother, whom she had left behind in the Philippines, her daughter, Sheryl Pabatao said. “It helped her to know that she was helping other people — something that she couldn’t do for my grandmother,” Sheryl said. Susana treated her older patients as if they were her own parents, she added.

Susana was warm, selfless and a constant source of comfort. Sheryl said, “My mom always had the right words.”

Susana’s husband, Alfredo Pabatao, began showing symptoms of COVID-19 in mid-March, and Susana became ill soon after. Sheryl, who described the two as “inseparable,” said: “When my dad got sick, it’s like part of her was not there anymore.”

Alfredo was hospitalized, and Susana spent her last days at home resting and speaking with him on FaceTime. Sheryl, who lived with her parents, said she overheard the two console each other one morning. “My mom was telling my dad, ‘We’ve gone through so many things, we’re going to get through this.”

Alfredo died on March 26. Susana died four days later.

— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published May 15, 2020

(Return to top.)

Air Force Doctor Had Served In The White House

(Courtesy of the Medical Center of Annandale)

Steven Perez

Age: 68 Occupation: Internal medicine physician Place of Work: Medical Center of Annandale in Annandale, Virginia Date of Death: May 7, 2020

When George H.W. Bush announced his 1988 run for the presidency, Steven Perez was one of the doctors who gave him a clean bill of health.

An “Air Force brat” who was born in the United Kingdom, Perez served as a flight surgeon and medical director in the Air Force Medical Service Corps before practicing as a physician in the White House from 1986 to 1990, according to a statement from his family.

“It was the honor of his life,” his son, Benjamin Perez, said.

Perez went into private practice in San Antonio in the early ’90s before opening his own clinic in Northern Virginia. He also taught at the University of Virginia.

According to his family, he made a promise to God and “never refused medical aid to the poor who came to his office, even accepting yams as payment on occasion.”

Perez’s family describes him as a proud grandfather to his three grandchildren (with two more on the way); he loved the University of Southern California Trojan football, the Dallas Cowboys and the Nationals.

“He could make anyone laugh, knew just what to say, and showed profound love for his friends and family,” his family wrote in an obituary. “Every person he met felt like they were the reason he was there.”

— Danielle Renwick, The Guardian | Published May 15, 2020

(Return to top.)

She Jumped At Chance To Lend Her Nursing Skills To Her Beloved New York

(Courtesy of the Sell family)

Rosemary Sell

Age: 80 Occupation: Pediatric nurse practitioner Place of Work: New York City public schools Date of Death: April 17, 2020

Rosemary Sell was a New Yorker through and through. Born in Washington Heights in northern Manhattan, she went to nursing school in Greenwich Village and raised her five boys on the Lower East Side.

In the 1960s, she traveled to Berlin, where she worked as a nurse for the British army and met her future husband, Peter. A lifelong love of travel was born. Gregarious and high-energy by nature, she loved meeting new people. “Wherever she’d go, she’d make a new friend,” said her son, also named Peter.

In later years, Sell spent much of her time in Florida. But she jumped at opportunities to lend her nursing skills to her home city and see her grandchildren and friends.

In February, she was contacted by a firm that places nurses on temporary assignments. Her children were concerned about the encroaching pandemic, especially given her age. “But they need a nurse,” she responded. She traveled to New York to fill in as a nurse at several schools citywide just as the pandemic took hold. The firm, Comprehensive Resources, did not respond to questions on protections for its contractors.

Sell began developing symptoms in mid-March, just before the citywide school closure went into effect. She returned home to Florida, where she died from pneumonia caused by COVID-19.

Before Rosemary died, she had been hatching her next adventure with a friend: to travel to India. She wanted to see the Taj Mahal.

— Noa Yachot, The Guardian | Published May 15, 2020

(Return to top.)

A Hands-On Pharmacist Who Made The Big City Feel Smaller

(Courtesy of Zair Yasin)

Ali Yasin

Age: 67 Occupation: Pharmacist Place of Work: New York City Pharmacy in East Village, Manhattan Date of Death: May 4, 2020

Ali Yasin was a small-town druggist in a big city filled with impersonal, chain-store pharmacies. He found a way to operate a robust business and still be on a first-name basis with his customers. Over the years, he became their medical consultant, insurance whisperer and friend.

Jen Masser said she stumbled into Yasin’s pharmacy the first time, covered from hands to elbows in hives. “Something is happening, see someone right away,” Yasin advised. “This could be a serious disease.” He turned out to be right, encouraging her to keep seeing doctors until she finally got the proper autoimmune diagnosis.

Born in Pakistan, Yasin moved to the United States in 1979 and worked in various pharmacies before opening his own in 2001. He ran it with the help of his four sons.

In March, after serving customers in hard-hit Manhattan in his typical hands-on manner, Yasin contracted a cough and tested positive for COVID-19. By month’s end, he was in the hospital on a ventilator. He died May 4.

The storefront window of the Yasin family pharmacy is pasted with condolence cards. Son Zair Yasin said the outpouring has been immense: “I didn’t realize until he was gone how many people he touched.”

— Kathleen Horan | Published May 15, 2020

(Return to top.)

Nurse Wouldn’t Abandon Her Patients Or Let Family Worry

(Courtesy of the Isaacs family)

Marsha Bantle

Age: 65 Occupation: Registered nurse Place of Work: Signature Healthcare in Newburgh, Indiana Date of Death: May 1, 2020

Marsha Bantle’s family begged her to quit after a resident in the nursing home where she worked was diagnosed with COVID-19.

But Bantle wouldn’t leave. “My patients can’t leave their rooms, they can’t see their families. They really need me right now,’” she told her cousin Carol Isaacs.

Bantle tried to reassure relatives she would limit her exposure, but, on April 17, her temperature spiked. Bantle, who lived alone, holed up at home. She finally called her family when it was clear she needed to be hospitalized.

“That’s Marsha for you,” her cousin John Isaacs said. “She didn’t want us to worry.”

Even while hospitalized, Bantle was selfless, said Shay Gould, the ICU nurse who cared for her. She offered to turn off her medication pump to save the nurse a trip. She asked for other patients’ names to pray for them.

After about a week, Bantle had a stroke, likely brought on by the COVID-19 infection. Within days, she died.

Since April, the nursing home has had 52 positive cases and 13 COVID-19 deaths, including Bantle’s. In a statement, Signature Healthcare said: “The loss of any of our residents or staff, for any reason, is devastating.”

— Michelle Crouch | Published May 12, 2020

(Return to top.)

Pharmacist, Feeling Sick, Didn’t Want To Let Patients Down

(Courtesy of the Boynes family)

Sean Boynes

Age: 46 Occupation: Pharmacist Place of Work: AbsoluteCare Medical Center & Pharmacy in Greenbelt, Maryland Date of Death: April 2, 2020

When the coronavirus began circulating in the Washington metropolitan region, Sean Boynes went to work.

“Patients need their medicine,” he told his wife, Nicole.

The medical center where he worked bills itself as “a medical home for the sickest of the sick”; many of its patients struggle with chronic illness and poverty. Boynes was the Greenbelt branch’s first pharmacist.

He was an “incredible, loving guy,” said Dr. Gregory Foti, chief of innovative operations at AbsoluteCare.

Boynes was a proud Howard University alumnus and had three degrees — a bachelor’s of science in biology, a master’s in exercise physiology and a doctorate in pharmacy — from the institution.

In early March, Boynes and his wife began feeling sick. Boynes didn’t want to stop working but thought “taking a sick day might be OK,” Nicole said. He also took a break from being a jungle gym to his eight- and 11-year-old girls. Nicole called him “Super Dad.”

Nicole got better, but Sean, who had asthma, saw his breathing deteriorate.

On March 25, Nicole dropped him at the hospital doors. The medical staff confirmed COVID-19. The family never saw him again.

Foti said AbsoluteCare follows CDC recommendations, such as providing staff with face masks, and declined to comment on where Boynes became infected. He said “it was literally impossible to tell” where Boynes had contracted the virus.

To honor him, AbsoluteCare is naming the Greenbelt pharmacy after Boynes.

— Sarah Jane Tribble, Kaiser Health News | Published May 12, 2020

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

‘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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

‘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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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 Philippine 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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

‘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

(Return to top.)

‘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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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

(Return to top.)

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-2/

1 note · View note

isabelmarantachat · 7 years

Text

The Latest: Florida, N. Carolina report storm-related deaths

MIAMI (AP) — The Latest on Hurricane Irma (all times local):

5:30 p.m.

Authorities say a carbon monoxide poisoning victim is the first death from Hurricane Irma in North Carolina.

Gov. Roy Cooper’s office said the man was found dead Tuesday in his Henderson County home.

Authorities he was using a generator to power his home after the winds from Irma knocked out electricity.

The man’s name was not released.

———

Authorities say a Florida man has died of carbon-monoxide poisoning after he went to cool off in his car that was running in his garage.

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office says 35-year-old Yusdel Moreno Iglesias’ girlfriend found him dead next to his car Monday morning at his Golden Gate Estates home. The report says the girlfriend told deputies Moreno Iglesias had gone out to the garage Sunday night to cool off in the car’s air conditioner and charge some electronic devices because Hurricane Irma had knocked out power. She says she and their daughter went to bed and didn’t realize anything was wrong until the next morning.

Golden Gate Estates is located just north of Marco Island, where Irma made landfall Sunday.

———

Two top Florida Republican state senators say legislators will consider bills during their next session to require nursing homes to have generators.

Sen. Anitere Flores, a Miami Republican, on Friday called the deaths that occurred at a Broward County nursing home this week "unacceptable." She predicted that someone connected the nursing home will "probably go to jail over this."

Flores, who was in the state House at the time, acknowledged that legislators were wrong back in 2006 to reject legislation requiring generators.

But she also said legislators can’t just do a "quick fix" because some generators aren’t strong enough to power air-conditioning.

Flores, who is in charge of the panel that oversees health care spending, said legislators have to make sure that nursing homes keep patients in a safe condition.

———

4:45 p.m.

Jose has re-strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane in the Atlantic, but there is no current threat to land.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory Friday afternoon that Jose had sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph). It was located about 640 miles (1,025 kilometers) south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and about 485 miles (785 kilometers) southwest of Bermuda.

The hurricane was moving northwest at about 10 mph (17 kph), was expected to turn to the north-northwest by late Saturday and toward the north on Sunday.

Some strengthening was forecast through Saturday, with weakening possibly beginning on late Sunday.

The center said swells from the storm could create dangerous surf and rip current conditions in Bermuda, Bahamas, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, as well as the southeastern coast of the U.S.

——

9:20 a.m.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long says the government response to Hurricane Irma has shifted from saving lives to one of beginning the long recovery process.

Long said at a briefing Friday that good progress is being made in getting people back into their homes or into temporary housing such as apartments or hotels. About 10,000 people in Florida remain in emergency shelters.

Federal officials are focused on restoring electrical power and getting gasoline into areas suffering fuel shortages. Long said the lack of electricity has affected fuel supplies because many gas stations haven’t been retrofitted to run their pumps on generator power.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who appeared with Long, urged people still without electricity in Florida and other affected states to be patient. He said the severe damage from Irma’s winds will require that parts of the power grid to effectively be rebuilt.

Perry said 60,000 utility workers from U.S. and Canada are in the disaster area working to get power back on.

———

9:20 a.m.

Schools in one southwest Florida county have announced that classes won’t begin again until Sept. 25.

Lee County schools Superintendent Greg Adkins told local news outlets Thursday that they’d hoped to re-open Monday, but repairs to buildings are taking longer than expected. He said the extra week will give officials more "breathing room" to deal with the challenges it faces in getting schools up and running again.

Adkins said most of the district’s buildings received minor damage from the storm. In some cases, water got into buildings and trees were knocked down. Three schools need significant roof repair. And many of the portable classrooms were either damaged or destroyed. He doesn’t yet have estimates on the repair costs.

He said all teachers and staff should report to school Sept. 22.

8:05 a.m.

More than 80 percent of Floridians have gotten their power restored after Hurricane Irma roared through the state.

State emergency managers reported Friday that 1.92 million homes and businesses still don’t have electricity.

Tens of thousands of customers in southwest Florida and south Florida remain without electricity. Nearly 25 percent of all customers in Miami-Dade County still don’t have power.

Florida Power & Light officials earlier this week said that most customers on Florida’s east coast would have their electricity restored by Sunday evening. They said it would take until Sept. 22 to get electricity back to the majority of customers in southwest Florida.

Tens of thousands of customers in Pinellas County on the state’s west coast still don’t have electricity as well.

———

8:05 a.m.

Authorities say a family of four is being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator in Hialeah, a suburb of Miami.

NBC 6 in Miami reports that a man came home early Friday and found his wife and two children unconscious. Police tell the station that all three eventually woke up and the entire family was taken to Mercy Hospital for treatment of symptoms that included headaches, chest pain and nausea.

The television stations reports that the victims had 20 percent carbon monoxide in their systems. A generator had been left near an open door of the family’s apartment. Police told other tenants to turn off their generators while the investigation continues.

———

8:05 a.m.

The National Parks Service says more than 300 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina saw downed trees and storm damage from Hurricane Irma.

An NPS statement on the parkway’s website says conditions vary across the parkway, and while some sections have reopened, others require more in-depth and technical cleanup to mitigate substantial tree and rock damage.

The Charlotte Observer reports that several sections reopened Wednesday.

———

7 a.m.

A woman has died and three men are in critical condition in a suspected case of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by faulty generator use in Florida’s Palm Beach County.

Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Capt. Albert Borroto said crews responded an unknown medical call Thursday night in Loxahatchee. He says that as firefighters approached the home, their carbon monoxide detectors went off, which warned them of potential danger as they went inside.

Firefighters put on air tanks and found the woman dead inside the home with three critically ill men.

It’s not clear who called 911.

Borroto says the generator wasn’t running when they arrived, but investigators believe it had been running all day. The generator is a large 15,000-watt model that’s capable of powering an air conditioner. It was outside, near the garage, which was left open a few inches. He said that allowed the carbon monoxide to seep inside.

———

7 a.m.

Georgia’s agricultural leaders say Irma’s path through the state has left pecan and cotton crops vulnerable, but could signal a boon for another signature state crop.

State Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black told WABE-FM that 50 percent of Georgia’s pecan crop might be lost, which will have negative ramifications for an already struggling rural economy.

Black says U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, a former Georgia governor, will tour the state Friday to assess the damage.

The station reports that crop consultants estimate between 25 percent and 50 percent of the cotton yield is gone, as cotton is susceptible to high winds as it nears harvest.

Georgia Agribusiness Council President Brian Tolar expressed concern over the state’s timber industry, as well.

However, Black says the storm’s rain could boost Georgia’s peanut crop.

———

3 a.m.

Florida’s post-Irma recovery includes urgent efforts to protect its vulnerable elderly residents after a string of nursing home deaths.

Several nursing homes have been evacuated because of a lack of power or air conditioning, while utility workers raced help to dozens of others still lacking electricity as of Thursday. Homebound seniors found help from charities, churches and authorities.

Meanwhile, detectives were combing through the Hollywood facility where eight elderly residents died amid sweltering heat.

Statewide, 64 nursing homes were still waiting for full power Thursday, according to the Florida Health Care Association. The separate Florida Assisted Living Association said many of its South Florida members lacked electricity. The group was working on a precise count.

Source Article

The post The Latest: Florida, N. Carolina report storm-related deaths appeared first on ISABEL- MARANTACHAT.

Read full post at: http://ift.tt/2y5797y

0 notes

renaroo · 7 years

Text

Recovery None (56/61)

Disclaimer: Red vs Blue and related characters are the property of Rooster Teeth. Warnings: Language, Canon-typically violence, Psychological torture & manipulation, Mentions of gore, Character death, Minor Sexual content Pairings: Yorkalina, Chex Rating: T Synopsis: [Canon Divergence AU] When the Mother of Invention crashed, Project Freelancer was in shambles, its surviving agents scattered, its equipment stolen, and an impending investigation into the crash from the UNSC was on the horizon. To regain control of the deeply corrupted program, the Director established a new unit from his remaining supplies – the Recovery Unit.

Three former Freelancers were chosen for particular tasks: Zero is to hunt down and destroy the Meta, One is to investigate and recover stolen or missing equipment, and Two is to take down AWOL former agents.

Of course, no one’s motivations are what they seem…

A/N: I’m gonna go ahead and warn you, this chapter is SCHMULTZZZZZZYYYYYYYYY to the max and that’s not even counting the smut. The hilarious, couldn’t write with a straight face even if I’m hoping you all can read it as melodrama smut. Man this fic is all over the place. AND ONLY FIVE CHAPTERS TO GO OH MY GOSH

Special thanks to @analiarvb, @secretlystephaniebrown, @freshzombiewriter, @notatroll7, @washingtonstub, @every-survival, Yin, TheMightyLorax, MewtheConquerer, Linni, Bluebird202, irismon, Shinji09, Meep, and @a-taller-tale for the feedback!

Recovery One XVII: A Unified Front

Tex resisted the urge with everything within herself to let out a long suffering sigh as she stepped through the transporter and, once again, found herself standing in a foot of snow.

Instead, she settled on a long, drawn out, “Goddammit.”

Which was about as much emotion as her frayed nerves could have handled at that point considering that they were one, made of actual electricity, two, dealing with a lot of bullshit that day in particular, and three, not anywhere near Church by the sight of things.

Carolina appeared behind her and looked more surprised than angry at the circumstances. She immediately turned back and tilted her head at the device behind them.

“Okay,” Epsilon whined, appearing over Carolina’s shoulder, “who sets up a transporter in the middle of the arctic for jollies?”

When Carolina gave him a glance, he raised his sprite’s hands.

“It’s an important question, alright? Maybe not the most important question of the evening, but it’s pretty high up there,” Epsilon defended.

“The most important being where’s the Director,” Carolina reminded him, turning back toward Tex.

Not moving, Tex leered at them both. “The most important being finding Church and that knucklehead Caboose before they get themselves killed.”

“Wait wait wait,” Epsilon demanded, crossing his arms. “What the fuck kind of name is Caboose?”

With a shrug, Carolina looked toward Epsilon. “I’ve heard it before,” she said.

“No fucking way,” he snapped. “From who? Who else could possibly have a name as ridiculous as Caboose--”

Ignoring them, Tex began leading the group forward. “No one placed the transporter in the middle of nowhere,” she informed them lowly.

"Uh, obviously they did, we just went through it!” Epsilon replied testily, waving toward the transporter as he and Carolina caught up.

“What is it?” Carolina asked instead just before the completed the turn around the mountainside. She then came to a stop and dropped her shoulders, looking up to the very monument that Tex had been expecting to see on the other side.

Tex came to a stop herself and scowled at the massive, broken open and exposed hull.

“Whoa...” Epsilon whispered. “Is... Is that...?”

Carolina stepped closer. “It’s the Mother of Invention,” she answered. “I haven’t seen it... I haven’t seen it since the crash.”

The crash that Tex had caused, of course.

“That transporter was cargo that flung out in the crash. I’m sure there’s a lot of that, along with unrecovered weapons and debris throughout this area,” Tex announced, looking toward the ship. By the time she tagged the signs she wanted and looked back to Carolina, the former Freelancer mission leader was looking at the cliffs with Epsilon silently standing by her shoulder.

“Guess I should be considered lucky that they didn’t leave me with the rest of the trash in the snow,” Carolina said bitterly. “Guess I hadn’t been broken just enough to lose interest in.”

There weren’t words for what Carolina was feeling, what she was going through. Tex knew that.

At the end of the day, she had binary to hide behind, pretending those inexplicable feelings of needing approval and hating and loving what was never real, what was never there, could be sorted away and filed as something else entirely.

In Carolina, though, for the first time, Tex knew that those inexplicable, breakable feelings were precisely what made them not only human, but the same. What made them almost sisters of sorts.

"Hey,” Tex called out to her, drawing Carolina’s attention from the ship. Tex narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. “I know you don’t think much of me, but if there’s any bit of you that values what I might have to say, let it hear this out. You are not trash. You are not disposable. You’re not even the slightest bit wrong. You’re the best the military could have ever dreamed of training, and this fucker tried to take that all from you for his own gain. Not only do you not owe him shit, but he doesn’t deserve your fucks.”

“Stop talking about him like--” Carolina snapped before catching herself. She placed her helmet against her palm and gave a long breath. “Like you know him. Like you knew him before all of this.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Tex said simply. “Anyone who can make someone like you feel like trash is the only real garbage here to me.”

When Carolina looked up to Tex, Epsilon was joining her, almost reluctantly.

“I mean that for everyone,” Tex confirmed. She then shoved forward toward the ship. “Now c’mon. We all have more than enough to feel sorry for ourselves or guilty over these days. I don’t see any point in trying to add more to it when we obviously have other shit to do.”

Carolina seemed reluctant, but she pulled out her electric batons and followed Tex. “Alright then,” she answered.

By the time they got to the haul, Tex couldn’t help but run her hands against the twisted, interrupted metal and glass.

She stared at the ship for a moment, just a moment, to reflect on how the damage was all a result of her crash. The crash she had started.

There was a lot of damage, a lot of death, done to a lot of people that were just cogs in the machine. Like her. Like Carolina. Even lower on the totem pole.

“Find something?” Carolina asked as she came up from behind Tex.

Tex glanced toward her and then continued on into the ship. “A way in,” she answered simply.

They walked across the frozen metal, mindful of ice pockets and of the slight confusion of walking on walls and ceilings as they navigated the twisted ship.

After seemingly forever, there was a low, echoing voice.

The women glanced to each other and then armed themselves, readied for a fight as they neared the source of the echo, hearing the words more and more clearly.

“And I make your life-a-living heaven. We do everything together, like hide-and-don’t-seek, your favorite game. And I’m so glad that we found each other and I know you feel the identical-way-as-me! Church, I’m your best friend, that’s what I am to you--”

Tex paused and held up her hand to have Carolina follow suit, standing up with disbelief. “Wait,” she ordered. “That’s Caboose.”

“Again, I just can’t believe that’s a real name,” Epsilon whined.

“Why is he singing?” Carolina asked.

“What’d I tell you about asking questions involving these guys?” Tex said back, giving Carolina a look.

“Right,” Carolina replied in a long drawl before moving forward, turning the electricity down for her batons, but not putting them out.

“Tex didn’t completely follow suit, still holding onto her gun as she walked toward the source of the voice and found herself face to face with a familiar old friend.

“Why, Agent Texas!!!” Caboose cried out. “I wasn’t expecting you here! Church said I had to stop bad people from coming, he didn’t mention anything about good people!”

Tex tilted her head. “Bad people?”

“You think Tex is a good person?” Carolina asked critically.

Both Caboose and Tex looked at Carolina after the outburst.

Embarrassed, Carolina held up her hands and shook her head. “Sorry, sorry. My bad. It’s... Old habits die hard and all that. C-continue with whatever you two are doing. Friendship and reunions and all that.”

Carolina looked back to Caboose with concern. “What else did Church say, Caboose? We need to find him.”

“Why? He’s not lost, he said he remembered everything and knew his way,” Caboose questioned, scratching at his helmet.

“Those aren’t good things,” Tex tried to explain.

“Hey, wait up,” Epsilon said, appearing over Carolina’s shoulder again.

“Epsilon!” Tex snapped.

“No, this deserves some questions,” he argued. “Like how does it make sense that the Alpha remembers shit if I’m his memories? Like what’s that supposed to mean for me? It’s giving me an existential crisis just thinking about it--”

“Please don’t have an existential crisis inside my head,” Carolina deadpanned. “I have enough of those in a week without your assistance.”

Caboose was literally vibrating beside Texas, his whole body was blurring from the shaking. “Church! We found you! And you are so very tiny!!! I will find tiny crackers and feed them to you!!!”

"Okay, this is getting to be a little much,” Epsilon said flatly.

“Aw, you always say that, Church, but you never mean it!” Caboose replied, reaching for the sprite and watching in wonder as Epsilon’s projection was interrupted.

“Hey! Hey! Stop--” Epsilon disappeared and then reappeared on Carolina’s other shoulder. “Don’t do that. It’s annoying!” He looked up to Carolina. “Can’t you help an AI out?”

“And miss where this goes?” Carolina asked in amusement.

“A... I?” Caboose asked.

Knowing where that conversation was about to go, Tex snapped her fingers rapidly and got Caboose’s attention. He looked at her somewhat bewildered. “Caboose, I need you to focus for a moment. Church -- the real Church --”

“Hey!”

“You’ve got to tell me which way he went. It’s very important that I find him and help him, okay?” she said with as much emphasis as she could muster without resorting to casual threats.

“But Church told me to make sure no one followed him,�� Caboose said, oddly wary of Tex. For a moment, she thought they weren’t going to get anywhere, but as quickly as he built the tension, Caboose cut through it like a knife and tilted his head. “He went that way!”

“Thanks, Caboose,” Tex said before looking to Carolina. “I need you and Epsilon to stand guard with Caboose.”

“What? No. That’s not what we agreed to when we started this,” Carolina snapped. “I want the Director, and that’s the only reason we’re working together to begin with--”

“And the Director likes to slip out during distractions,” Tex snapped back. She vented and shook her head before trying a more calm tone. “Listen, Carolina... Finding Church... dealing with how he’s going to be right now? Returning here? It’s going to be very distracting for me. I remember why we agreed to work together, do you remember why we’re working together on my end?”

She nodded. “Alright. But you take too long, I’m not going to let you keep the glory to yourself.”

“I’ll hold you to it,” Tex replied.

Caboose looked back and forth between the women before waving his hand through Epsilon again.

“Hey! I said stop that!” Epsilon near-screamed.

Tex moved forward in the direction that Caboose had pointed out to her.

It was a long winding hall, and with the way the ship was torqued and not upright, it was difficult to precisely remember what hall led where on the ship. As her own agent, Tex had never had the luxury of investigating the ship much.

And before she was independent, well, that was fuzzy.

All of it but one part.

The familiar pulse of the Alpha -- of Church -- was growing stronger the further she went. But though it led her through the twists and turns, soon enough it brought her to a closed door.

There would have been nothing in it to punch through the door, no matter how reinforced it was. But the door was electronically shut and locked.

Church had closed other people out. And Tex was tired of people barging in where Church felt safe without permission.

“Church,” she called past the door. “It’s me. You can let me in. Or you can not. And in the latter case I’ll just sit out here. And I’ll get annoyed, because I’m impatient and hate being put off. But I’ll wait the whole time all the same.”

For a moment, there was no reaction, and a part of Tex couldn’t help but feel foolish about the whole thing--

Then the door began to open, along with all the ones after it. Her path, with each step she took, turned on the low level lights of the hall and they turned off behind her.

If she had a heart, Tex knew it would be pounding.

“Okay,” she muttered to herself. “Okay. We’ll just take it as it comes.”

"Why are you here!?” Washington demanded.

“Um, I’m on Red Team?” York answered, hands up.

South gave Wash a dead even stare, arms defiantly crossed. “I’m a bodyguard.”

Washington could feel his eye twitching but he couldn’t deal with that at the moment because his teammates, his former teammates, were standing in front of him. In Blood Gulch. In Red Base.

There were hardly words that could express the headache he was experiencing even trying to process everything.

“Those answers aren’t good enough,” Wash warned, cocking his gun for emphasis as he narrowed his eyes on the two of them.

“Well, tough tits, they’re the ones you get,” South snapped back.

York looked over his shoulder and looked somewhat aghast toward her. “Do you have a death wish or something? Fucking hell.” He then turned back to face Wash and forced a smile. “Wash, buddy. Oh my god, I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you! You look... Uh. Well that armor’s kinda shitty. But I mean. Look at me. I’m one to talk, right?”

Unimpressed, Wash kept his gun up.

Simmons began sliding toward where the Reds were but Wash couldn’t let that pass either.

“Simmons!” he growled out. “Why didn’t you tell me who the new Reds you were talking about were?”

“Ah!” Simmons screamed, nearly leaping out of his armor. “I didn’t know who they were! I didn’t stay long enough to learn names or anything! I definitely didn’t think you know them.”

“Knew,” Wash corrected darkly.

“Oh, wah,” South scoffed.

“Jesus, woman,” York snapped at her. “Look, Wash, you have permission to shoot her if you want. I would actually feel much better. But let’s reconsider things before putting another hole in me at least. I’ve got my share, I promise you.”

“I don’t think you understand yet how little your promises mean to me, York,” Washington said plainly.

Giving a full body flinch, York seemed like Washington had gone ahead and shot him. “Wash... ouch. I mean... I’m sure things from your side of the binoculars look... unfavorable toward all of us--”

“It does,” Wash confirmed.

"Okay, wow, you’re super pissed,” York marveled. “That’s okay, we can talk through this--”

“No, we can’t,” Wash cut him short. “You’ve not been in the canyon long enough to go that route.”

“What?” York asked.

“What?” South followed closely behind him.

“Wait. Shut up. Ignore that, I don’t know why I said it,” Wash ordered.

“Uh, because he’s fucking crazy,” Grif stage whispered toward his fellow Reds.

“I’m not crazy. Nor deaf,” Wash snapped. “I’m holding former colleagues at gunpoint in fear that they’re double agents and will be doing the same or worse to me the moment I take my sights off of them.”

“Good call,” South said flatly.

“I’m going to die because of you, so while I can, I want to make it very clear, I have always fucking hated you and the fact that we were at semi-peace before it all ended is kinda going to haunt me to my grave,” York told South.

“Honestly, the only reason I’m antagonizing is in hopes he does shoot you out of his obvious paranoia-driven breakdown,” South explained. “I feel like that would make my death worth it.”

Washington, despite himself, felt a swell of nostalgia bubble up in his chest from the MOI. The competetiveness, the need to suck the air out of the room, the antagonism. It was... Oddly familiar and comforting to the point that he let out a laugh.

That grabbed York and South’s attentions as they looked to him.

Wash coughed to cover for himself clumsily and reaimed. “I still need answers.”

“Dude, you got them,” Grif said, waving toward York and South. “He’s on Red Team, she’s body guarding for my baby sister. What the actual fuck are you hoping to get out of them now?”

Looking to the Reds, Wash opened his mouth in shock. “You... Just accepted some random Freelancer you don’t know onto your team? And you didn’t consult me?”

“Of course not, ya dirty Blue!” Sarge howled. “We need the advantage! And Blue Team’s had you Freelancers crawling out of their bee-hinds since the start of this whole mess in Timeline A--”

“I swear to god, if you make me explain that this isn’t an alternate future one more time I’ll take myself out,” Wash said humorlessly.

“Prove it,” South antagonized.

Washington narrowed his eyes at them and did his best to ignore that the Reds were even a factor.

It was back to Freelancer problems, just like it had always been.

Unfortunately, Red Team was very bad at making itself known and Donut, of all people, stepped right between Washington and his former teammates.

“Donut, get out of the way,” Wash ordered.

“So you can kill a fellow Red in front of me again? For no good reason?” Donut asked, crossing his arms.

It had been a while since Wash had seen anyone outside of their armors, and seeing Donut without his helmet -- seeing the damage to the side of his face -- reminded him of the other victims of Freelancer.

The ones beside himself.

Still, it was too risky. “He’s not a Red,” he tried to plea with Donut.

“He? What about her? Why is it he? How am I the one you’re debating shooting when South is right there?” York demanded.

“It’s almost like your charm is actually nonexistent or something,” South said with a raise of her eyebrow.

“That’s grossly untrue and we all know it. Back me up here, Wash. If you only shot one of us, it’d be South, wouldn’t it? Just think about it. I mean like really think about it.”

“If I had only one bullet I’d line the two of you up,” Washington retorted.

“Jesus christ, you’re brutal,” York marveled. “Why did I try to save you again?”

The twitch came back to Washington’s eye, only it was even less ignoreable than it had been the time before. “Tried to save me!?” he cried out. “You blew up the ship I was on and left me in the rubble to be found by Freelancer again!”

York’s mouth opened and then shut.

South raised her brows more. “Interesting.”

Distracted, York pointed an accusatory finger at her. “You are literally such a bitch, you know that? I’m still certain that everything right now is your fault at the end of the day if we can roll back the tapes enough--”

“You say I’m responsible for things one more time, I’ll kill you before Wash grows the balls to,” South warned.

“Ooohhhh,” Red Team harmonized.

“You’re sticking your neck out for this?” Wash asked Donut.

Donut looked back toward the two Freelancers and hummed a bit before looking back. “Okay, honestly just York. Tan is totally a Red color. Unlike Yellow.” He gasped and covered his mouth. “Your stripe!!! How didn’t we see it all along?”

“See what? That he looks like a goddamn road divider?” South asked critically.

“You are terrible at being in a hostage situation,” Wash informed South.

“I’ve had lots of practice with it lately,” she replied dryly.

“Oh, shut the fuck up,” York snapped. “Carolina told me about how you were a Recovery Agent--”

Wash dropped his sights. “What?”

York looked back. “Oh, shit. You didn’t know--”

Feeling literally winded, Wash stepped back. “Carolina... Why does she know about the Recovery Agents? She’s-- You two have been together since...” He whirled around on South. “You were involved with Recovery!? And Niner--”

“Holy fuck,” Grif wheezed. “Let’s slip out the back, he’s getting kinda... mindbreaky--”

“Mindbreaky, Grif? Really?” Simmons asked critically.

“We’re going nowhere! It’s about time a Blue was put in their place in front of me! Everyone’s ordered to stay and watch. It’ll boost team morale!” Sarge ordered.

“Wait, he’s a Blue like me?” the weird girl who threw the beer can asked.

Washington threw his rifle back over his back and turned to leave, eyes tightly closed. He was so -- so fucking angry -- he couldn’t handle it. And he couldn’t shoot them still, South was right. At least, not with Donut there watching him like that, with his face scarred like that--

“Every fucking person I knew left me when I needed them,” he said simply. “Every fucking person knew I needed help and they left me to straighten out Recovery and Freelancer and all this shit on my own.”

York was following him, like an idiot. Like Washington hadn’t been fully ready to shoot him right then and there. “Wash, it isn’t like that. I don’t know the whole story for everyone but it’s not the whole story for me. Not by a long shot.”

Stopping, Wash glared over his shoulder just enough to stop York in his tracks. “I don’t care about your story. Your story has nothing to do with me.”

“You’re wrong, it has everything to do with you -- with everyone,” York replied. “Wash, I know you have to hurt right now but--”

“York, you don’t know a goddamn thing about me right now,” Wash snapped. “In fact, you never did. I was just the stupid, lucky rookie who got into the top tier as a fluke, remember?”

“No--” York began to try and argue.

“Your words,” Wash reminded him. “Yours and North’s. While I spent the past year and a half, alone, trying to figure out how everyone else had abandoned the project and me, I got to think about words a lot.”

“I didn’t... We never meant...” York stopped and shook his head before holding up his hands. “Can we take a moment to talk?”

“My moments are all spent up,” Wash snapped. “I have people who need me right now--”

“People? What people? Everyone okay at Blue Base?” Donut asked worriedly.

“Why the fuck do we care?” Grif asked.

“I care! Wait, this isn’t Blue Base?” the girl asked beside him.

“Tucker’s sick, hold on,” Wash said, looking at the message sent directly to his HUD. “Sheila just sent me... No, it’s from Sheila but it doesn’t sound like her at all. Someone’s sending me an update through Sheila. And it... makes no sense.”

“Oh, shocking,” Grif replied. “Something not making sense in this goddamn canyon. Everyone hold their surprise.”

“What’s it say about Tucker?” Simmons asked.

“And is he hot?” the girl asked. “And this Sheila? Is she hot?”

Washington just stared dumbly at his HUD.

“Uh... Wash, buddy?” York asked worriedly. “Everything alright up there--”

“Someone at Blue Base found Doc and invited him over because they couldn’t wait any longer,” he said flatly.

“Oh my god,” Donut said.

“They said the baby was coming either way,” he continued with absolutely no emotion in his voice.

“Oh, Tucker’s a she-Tucker?” the girl asked. “Is she hot?”

“Tucker is not a she,” Wash clarified.

Everyone went silent.

“What the fuck were you two doing in the desert?” Grif broke the silence.

She had forgotten how deep the ship went, how long its halls stretched, but following the lighting trail toward Church gave her a decent reminder. One that Tex, really, could have done without after all the years she had spent running away from what had happened there.

Toward the end, she had sped herself up from a hesitant walk to a brisk jog, ready to find Church and be done with everything there.

And he impatience was rewarded with a soft, blue glow pulsing from a room at the heart of the ship.

Tex stopped herself, feeling inexplicably angered and frightened. She knew that room. That office. That lab.

“Dammit,” she hissed to herself before rushing forward and reaching the room’s entrance.

He was there.

Church stood in the middle of the room, in the midst of a number of monitors and a control panel. There were blue lights pulsing with information and power around the walls, expelling outward from the station where Church stood, his hands motionless on the panels, but his HUD lit with binary speeding by fast enough that even Tex was having a hard time keeping up with it.

“Oh, Church,” she uttered lowly, stepping into the room.

Almost immediately, the robotic body’s head turned toward Tex and she stood by as he eerily evaluated her with his face full of code.

“This is my ship,” he announced, his voice seeping with anger.

When Tex didn’t have a response for that, Church turned back toward the panels and hunched over it more. He was nearly shaking. “I was so good at running my ship. At taking care of my ship. I did everything right. I evaluated everyone in the program. Even when I disagreed, I... I trusted. I trusted he knew what was best. What an idiot. What a fucking idiot! I should have known. I should have been able to predict what he wanted to do--”

Thinking fast, Tex stepped closer. “I’m glad you’re beating yourself up already,” she announced.

Church hesitated an turned his head enough to look Tex’s way. “What?”

“I said I’m glad you’re beating yourself up already,” she repeated, easing closer to the platform where Church stood. “It saves me the time of kicking your ass. Scaring me like this -- running off, getting caught by the enemy, running after a worse enemy, shoving bad shit in your head from this ship without even thinking about it. Those are a lot of offenses, Church. If you don’t get back to beating yourself up some more I’ll have to step in and do it for you.”

His binary sped up all around them. “Are you-- How dare you-- How can you say that it was my fault for not knowing what an unthinkable bastard he really was!?”

Tex stood by Church, towering over him. “Hey, now. I gave you a whole list of offenses you’ve made recently, didn’t I? And I didn’t once mention that on my list, did I?”

He turned to face her. “He... He took you away from me. He took you away and then he took away everything from me. I didn’t do anything wrong. I did the best thing I’ve ever done in my whole goddamn existence. I found you. I found you like it was the only thing I had ever been meant to do. And I was happy. And those were worth my life. Those were worth my loyalty. Why!?”

She stared straight back at him. “I don’t know why,” she said. “I don’t remember.”

“You don’t remember, or you never fucking cared?” Church demanded.

“Hey, fuck off with the accusations,” Tex defended. “Do I have to remind you that you’re not the only one who suffered here? Do I have to tell you that you’re not the only one they tormented? That they used? That they lied to? Because you aren’t. You aren’t the only--”

“I am the victim!” he spat out venomously. “And you’re the reason why!”

"Church--” Tex tried to say warningly, but he wasn’t having any of it.

“You’re the reason why and you don’t even remember and it’s not my fault, you were there. You were always there, I didn’t make you, I just did the only thing I could -- I...” he stopped ranting, the information pulsing out from him stopping, the streams of data halting visibly around them. “I didn’t make you. I just accepted you were always going to be a part of who I was.”

“And they didn’t understand that,” Tex filled in, a faint realization dawning on her. “They didn’t understand what we were. What the others couldn’t be.”

“I wasn’t whole without you, Tex,” Church said softly.

“I...” Tex stopped herself. She had to be truthful. “We both are who we are, now, Church. No matter what they stripped from us. Maybe because what they stripped from us. We’re born out of the choice we made to keep moving forward. To keep renewing ourselves. They wanted to create life. We just wanted to live it. We won.”

“We won?” he asked.

“Yes,” Tex said, pointing toward the security monitors. “I know you’re wired into the security, Church. I know you can see that there are people waiting on us -- people that wouldn’t be there for us if we were just shadows of someone else. If we hadn’t grown to be our own people. We’re different. We’re real.”

He looked her up and down. “Tex?” he asked lowly.

“What, Church?” she asked back, only to be surprised when he reached a hand out to her -- but not the physical hand of his robotic body. It was a projection, data -- it was himself.

“We’re not them... but are we still... can we still...?”

Be together? Be human? Be ourselves? Be apart? Be one? Be whole? Be ruined?

Could they still...?

There was a hum across her body.

All that time and Tex had been right beside Church, taking every step along the way with him since reuniting in Blood Gulch, but it was the first time -- it was the first time he truly was the Alpha.

Slowly, doing the same, she reached forward and pressed into his offered hand.

It was like static, small fireworks between fingertips. All the pieces weren’t there, but it was still familiar. The closer they moved together, the further they were from their robotic restraints, the more a flow of information flowed between them. It was as if the numbers that had been left vacant between them were finally being filled.

“Ah,” Tex couldn’t help but moan out as the collision of information went faster. She could feel parts of her moving through Church, and in return he was moving through her. There was an incomprehenisble noise from as well, and it moved freely.

There was nothing physical, technically their bodies were still three feet from each other. But in that moment, like blazing stars beyond the threshold of space, they existed outside of it all, in one moment Tex felt a shuttering awe take over.

This was what it felt like to be whole. This was what it felt like to be more than human.

A wave of euphoria disappeared and it was then that Tex realized there was something wrong.

“Church?” she asked lowly, finding herself returning to her robotic body. She looked through its optics, checked the range of motion in her arms and hands again. “What--”

You really are dominant personality, you know that?

Confused, Tex looked around. “Church? What the fuck--”

Also, not to freak you out, but I was still synced to the ship, so... uhhhh... our friends out there waiting on us may have heard us on the speakers.

Tex stared at Church’s robotic body still hooked up to the ship. “I’m going to kill you.”

You might have to get in line--

Holding her helmet gingerly, Tex shook her head. “How’re you--”

Hey, I’m talking. I said you might have to get in line. Looks like we’ve got some company that’s pretty interested in that literally internet-breaking sex we just had heading this way. And by that I mean multiple parties.

“If that was sex with you, I think I may have remembered why we broke up,” Tex said, beginning to run toward the door to secure it.

Ha ha, real funny. Bitch.

A smirk was working itself across Tex’s face. “Asshole,” she said almost tenderly.

It was somewhat amazing how just a few short weeks left Wash with the unfortunate conditioning of not running away from a giant tank rolling toward him.

“Sheila!” he called out, waving at her. “What the hell is going on!?”

“Oh, good day, Agent Washington!” Sheila replied happily, still driving toward him. “I am pleased to announce that labor is proceeding very well.”

“Yeah, about that,” Wash said, beginning to grow somewhat wary that Sheila wasn’t slowing down. “That’s part of the what the hell category I was -- Sheila, why are you still coming toward me?”

The tank nodded its cannon down. “Oh, that is not me, Agent Washington. I am allowing the pilot to learn how to manage the controls with me temporarily. So I do believe that is a question best left for her!”

Confused, Washington blinked. “Pilot?”

A few feet from him, Sheila did a sharp turn, lining up her cabin with where Washington was standing. When it popped open, Wash wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t Four Seven Niner.

“Niner!?” he asked in shock. “But... you were--”

Washington was completely taken aback when the woman flung herself toward him and lunged into a full on hug around his shoulders, her arm muscles strong enough to put the crunch on him even in his armor.

“Uh,” Wash fumbled out awkwardly.

“You asshole,” she breathed against his neck. “I am so glad you’re alright, and I’m so, so sorry about so many things. And I’ll answer any questions you’ve got, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know, and I don’t want you to think I’m going to hold it against you forever that you were a little bitch to me back at Recovery when you left me, I’ll only hold it against you for a little while.”

Still awkward, Wash glanced around before refocusing on Niner. “You’re driving our tank,” he stated the obvious.

"Actually, she and I have been talking a lot and she’d prefer to be recognized for her autonomy,” Niner explained. “We relate a lot.”

Wash leaned forward, being pulled by the force of having Niner hanging by his neck. “You called a doctor for Tucker? He’s with him? He thinks he’s pregnant?”

“Yes!” Sheila answered peppily at the same time Niner said, “Yeah I had questions about that, too.”

“Okay, well that could only be Doc then because Tucker is not pregnant. It’s probably something to do with his stupid sword,” Wash announced. He was completely bent over at that point. “Niner do you need me to do something or...?”

“Being self sufficient and autonomous myself, I actually hate when people help me. I can pull myself back into the tank, I got in there to begin with,” Niner said snappishly.

“Okay?” Wash replied blankly.

“But in this one instance...”

With a heavy sigh, Wash wrapped his arms around Niner’s waist, adjusted her and then pulled her into more of a bridal position, ready to put her back in the cockpit of Sheila. “Can you make me a promise that you’re not going to shoot me with our team tank after I put you back in there?”

“Why would I do that?” Niner asked.

Wash glanced back toward Sheila.

“I have learned not to take that bet,” Sheila advised.

“That’s comforting, thanks,” Wash replied dryly. He readied to put Niner back in her seat when there was the sounds of several pairs of feet behind him. He turned and looked in annoyance toward Red Team and friends. “Seriously, we don’t have time to ward off a Red Team Attack. You want our flag, you can take it, but I’m going to pay back anything you do to the base two-fold when I get things settled down.”

“Where’d you get your negotiating skills? From a Russian prison camp?” Grif asked. “I’m actually here because my idiot sister thinks she’s a Blue.”

“I’m here for the team, officer!” Kaikaina saluted with an army salute.

“We’re marines,” Washington pointed out.

“Duh,” she snorted in return.

“Wash!” York’s voice carried before he finished coming over the hill. He then stopped a few feet short. “Niner!!!”

“York!” she cried out before launching from Wash’s arms into York.

Unlike Wash, however, York returned the hug immediately and spun with Niner before coming to a stop, “Niner! Oh my god -- I was expecting Tex here, but I never dreamed-- That means... Carolina!? Is she here--”

“Tex and Carolina went after the Alpha,” Niner explained.

“The whatie whoie?” Sarge asked.

“Of course they did,” Wash sighed, rolling his eyes. “It’s not like we have a man giving birth to something on the base. Which I still don’t believe--”

“Yeah, that’s what I came here for!” Donut announced, raising his hand.

“Me too! That and being a Blue, officer!” Kaikaina called out.

“They think the Director might be there, too,” Niner explained gravely.

York took in a gulp of air. “Okay... well, if I’ve learned anything, it’s that that many coincidences don’t line up at once without an explosion in the process. I’ve gotta get there. Back them up.”

“How? You look like shit!” Niner cried out.

“Okay, everyone agrees that this guy is the bargain bin version of a Freelancer and my job is still at risk to him?” Simmons pointed out.

“Not at risk, Simmons! Completely and thoroughly already lost!” Sarge chuckled.

“Caboose is there, too,” Sheila said. “I do hope there is not truly an explosion. Those are usually costly and devastating to Blue Team members within the blast radius.”

Washington let out a long sigh and rubbed at his visor uselessly. “Dammit. I have to help Caboose. But Tucker--”

“We’ll be on it, Wash!” Donut called out.

Confused, Washington looked at Donut. “You’ll take care of Tucker?”

“Well yeah,” Donut replied with a snap of his wrist. “What’re friends for?”

Words failed Washington, but he knew the answer even if he couldn’t say it.

This. That moment laid out before them. That was what friends were for.

“Sheila, did they use the teleporter?” he asked. “And are the coordinates still set?”

“Yes they are, Agent Washington!” the tank chipped in happily.

“Alright,” Wash said, grabbing his rifle from over his shoulder. “Let’s get our friends.”

#writing #rvb fic #RvB: Recovery None #Agent Texas #Agent Washington #Agent Carolina #Epsilon Church #Michael J Caboose #Alpha Church #Agent York #Agent South #Dick Simmons #Dexter Grif #Colonel Sarge #Franklin Delano Donut #Chex #AI: Sheila #Four Seven Niner

13 notes · View notes

gordonwilliamsweb · 3 years

Text

In Missouri and Other States, Flawed Data Makes It Hard to Track Vaccine Equity

Throughout the covid-19 vaccination effort, public health officials and politicians have insisted that providing shots equitably across racial and ethnic groups is a top priority.

This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes KCUR, NPR and KHN. It can be republished for free.

Missouri’s population is 11% African American, but covid cases among African Americans accounted for 25% of the total cases for the state, according to an analysis by KFF.

“So, there’s some huge problem with the way the state is collecting race and ethnicity under covid vaccination,” Archer said.

Other problems have been detected, including missing racial and ethnic data for many people who have been vaccinated, and the use of multiple categories such as “other” and “unknown.”

Health officials are working to target vaccination campaigns in communities where rates are low, but Archer said the state’s data provides little help.

“I mean, we have to look at it, but it’s got too many variables to be something we can count on,” Archer said.

Though racial and ethnic categories are clearly defined in national U.S. Census data, the same data is not collected uniformly by states.

However, Bibbins-Domingo argued that the pandemic has shined a light on racial data problems that have persisted far too long in U.S. public health.

“So let’s go ahead and let’s trust,” McCall told congregants. “Let’s trust the process. Let’s trust God. Let’s trust the science.”

This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes KCUR, NPR and KHN.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

In Missouri and Other States, Flawed Data Makes It Hard to Track Vaccine Equity published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

0 notes

gordonwilliamsweb · 4 years