Boise hospital chaplain witnesses painful goodbyes over the phone with coronavirus deaths
As Idaho’s number of coronavirus cases grows, so does the number of fatalities across the state, and hospitals are trying to care for patients who can’t be with family.
Many of the gravely ill, hospitalized patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, are saying goodbye to their families over the phone.
As of Wednesday, 41 people had died in Idaho as a result of the coronavirus.
St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center Chaplain Rick Kerr talked about how the coronavirus has put medical staff and patients in unique circumstances. Patients who are contagious cannot have visitors, unlike other gravely ill patients before the pandemic, who may have had family at their bedside.
“We are in times right now that we never expected to be,” Kerr said in a video interview provided by St. Luke’s Health System.
He offered the example of a COVID-19 patient who died in the hospital recently and an ICU nurse had used her phone to FaceTime with the patient’s family members as they said goodbye to their loved one.
“It was extremely challenging,” he said.
Another case stuck with him because of how badly the family wanted to be by their loved one’s side, he said.
“It was pretty challenging as the family was trying to find out how they could come in,” Kerr said.
Kerr spoke to the man’s wife on the phone: “Her words were, ‘I never dreamed I’d be saying goodbye to my husband over the phone.’ It’s pretty emotional for the team to process that,” Kerr said.
The hospital staff, he said, “will take care of them like they’re family. They will be loved and cared for.”
When the community shows supports for hospital staff, or when restaurants send meals to staff, it speaks volumes to how much they care, Kerr said in the interview.
