I didn't write this. A nurse wrote this. I'm just passing it along.
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Portland True Blue writes ...
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"I am an RN, BSN, CCRN with over 10 years clinical experience in CCU/ICU. I care for the critically ill and those seriously injured, I am familiar with death and dying. Since the pandemic started, I have worked in a COVID CCU. Dying there is very different from the hospital deaths I have experienced in the past. There are no family, friends, or loved ones there to support the patient or each other during the patient’s final journey. There is no religious leader to lead prayers or recite scripture. Just an RN in their PAPR, kitted out in full PPE. Sometimes that nurse is me. I hold my patient’s hand in mine and a phone with the other so their families can say goodbye. I turn the sound off the sound on the monitors so there is silence. As death draws nearer, I can feel the body heat leave their hands as their fingers turn blue. When that last spark of life leaves and the lines on the monitor go flat, it is profound. I note the time of death and begin packaging my patient for transport to the morgue. Nurses need to remain professional but in the privacy of my patient’s AIIR, I do sometimes cry and pray, the 23rd psalm. I am a CCU/ICU nurse, I care for the sick and sometimes the dying, it’s what I do and who I am."

Profoundly sad.

All the way around.

My mom passed away in the summer of 2019 (on my birthday). We spent the last 48 hours by her side. I deeply feel for those who cannot be with their critically ill family member. I cannot imagine how unbearable it would have been to know Mom was alone in her last hours. The only comfort we had was to be there if she awoke and to ensure she was comfortable and warm. And to be able to say good-bye, even though she wasn't conscious. Hard for us but easier for her that way.

The news stories of the grieving families are beyond heartbreaking.

I feel for the medical and nursing staff too. As a nurse, at the best of times it can be tough, I know, to control one's emotions at the heartbreaks that are part of our calling. COVID is a standalone tragedy of all tragedies in our lifetimes. I cannot imagine going through so much risk and heartbreak day after day after day.

I'm glad people are speaking up. The stories need to be told. But man, the sorrow goes far and deep.

I would have been even more devastated had my wife died alone in a hospital bed. It was almost more than I could bare being with her.

Lethbridge Reprobate Wrote:
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> I would have been even more devastated had my wife
> died alone in a hospital bed. It was almost more
> than I could bare being with her.

I am feeling with you, LR.

Me too, LR. Hope you're with friends/family today.

How desperately sad. Too upsetting to add more.

I'm glad that I was with my mom as she passed. It's terrible for the Covid patients, but at least they have a caring nurse by their sides, holding their hands. Bless the nurses and other medical professionals. They have been doing an outstanding job.

summer Wrote:
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> Bless the nurses and other medical
> professionals. They have been doing an outstanding job.

And it's taking an enormous toll, as we've glimpsed. I can't imagine the depths of PTSD that many first responders and other front line workers will likely suffer. I sure hope the help they will need will be available to them all. They richly deserve it.

When I worked with inpatients and they were in their last hours of life with no family present, I would get my meds, etc. given to my other patients. Then, I’d take a computer on wheels into the dying patient’s room to do my charting so I’m could be there with them as their life slipped away.

I had a patient back in Springtime whose wife died in the hospital from COVID. As her condition worsened, he could not visit her, and he didn’t see her again until the funeral. I will never forget his sorrow. It was heartbreaking. So, when I see people who are flippant about COVID or refuse to take wearing a mask seriously, I get sort of angry.

This is beautifully written, the empathy obvious.

Thank you