Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Friends And Family Of Coronavirus Patients Have To Say Their Goodbyes Through Nurses, If They Get To At All
The New York Times: ‘A Heart-Wrenching Thing’: Hospital Bans On Visits Devastate Families
The last time Peter John Dario saw his father alive was on March 14, at the entrance to a hospital in Edison, N.J. An employee took him away in a wheelchair, telling Mr. Dario and his mother gently but unequivocally that they could not go in the building. In a fog of worry and confusion, as he watched his father’s diminished silhouette disappear through the door, Mr. Dario forgot to say goodbye. Five days later, his father, Peter Dario, died of respiratory failure from an infection caused by the coronavirus. He was 59. None of the members of his large family — several of them now also sick with Covid-19 — were at his side. (Hafner, 3/29)
The Associated Press: As Virus Makes Goodbyes Hard, Fears Of Many More Rise In US
The coronavirus outbreak could kill 100,000 to 200,000 Americans, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease expert warned on Sunday as family members described wrenching farewells through hospital windows with dying loved ones. Faced with that grim projection and the possibility even more could die in the U.S. without measures to keep people away from one another, President Donald Trump extended federal guidelines recommending people stay home for another 30 days until the end of April to prevent the spread of the virus. (Sedensky, Sisak and Dazio, 3/29)
The Associated Press: Grandma Is Gone: Coronavirus Keeps Kids From Older Family
A few weeks ago, Debbie Cameron saw her grandsons most days, playing the piano, making after-school snacks or singing nursery rhymes with the baby in her Chandler, Arizona, home. Then the cornavirus crisis hit and the boys were suddenly gone. Cameron is 68 and has asthma, making her one of the people most at risk of getting seriously ill or dying. Now she sees her grandchildren from behind the glass of a window or a phone screen. “Looking at them through the window and not being able hug them, it’s just a dang killer,” she said. (Whitehurst, 3/30)
Meanwhile, many elderly patients face blocked doors at nursing homes —
The Washington Post: Coronavirus Limbo For Seniors Whose Nursing Homes Won’t Let Them Return
In the scramble to contain the novel coronavirus, seniors are having difficulty returning to their nursing homes and rehabilitation centers after leaving for hospital visits, routine medical appointments or funerals. Nursing home staff say the residents need to provide a negative test before returning out of fear they could import the disease. Anticipating a surge in patients, hospitals are discharging those who do not need extensive care. At the same time, nursing homes are closing their doors to try to prevent the kind of outbreaks that have invaded at least 146 facilities in 27 states, including Life Care Center in the Seattle suburbs, where more than 30 people have died of covid-19. (Mettler and Oldham, 3/28)
Kaiser Health News: Coronavirus Patients Caught In Conflict Between Hospital And Nursing Homes
A wrenching conflict is emerging as the COVID-19 virus storms through U.S. communities: Some patients are falling into a no man’s land between hospitals and nursing homes. Hospitals need to clear out patients who no longer need acute care. But nursing homes don’t want to take patients discharged from hospitals for fear they’ll bring the coronavirus with them. (Graham, 3/30)
