BLOG: Remembering those we lost to COVID-19
The other day, I was sitting in Sparrow Hospital’s cafeteria having lunch before rounding, when I heard a peculiar music clip from the overhead speakers. I felt goosebumps.
Hearing the music, I had mixed emotions; happiness but a bit of concern, hope and fear. Hospital speakers are used to announce various codes to hospital staff — fire codes, CPR codes, child danger codes, etc. There is also the “lullaby” tune, which is played every time a baby is born in the obstetrics unit. I wrote about the lullaby in a prior post.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, our hospital started playing another tune: a kind of a quick celebratory tune of victory when a patient is discharged from the hospital.
We have heard this musical tune so many times, especially during the multiple surges we witnessed in our area of Michigan. Those were happy moments of celebration. The hospital also kept a bulletin board by the cafeteria, now removed, with a daily update of the number of COVID-19 patients discharged.
Sadly, we also have lost so many people to coronavirus in the hospital, in the area, in the state, in the country and around the world.
Most of us have lost or almost lost a loved one or have heard about friends who lost loved ones. Some of us work in health care and have seen people dying firsthand. This pandemic has been a very sad time for all humanity, the likes of which has not been encountered since the influenza of a century ago.
Most people lost to the coronavirus passed away quietly, often alone on hospital beds, in the absence of family members. Some we lost were featured in the media, their life stories celebrated. These stories featured sacrifice, heroism, sorrow, grief, support.
I have written about some of these stories. There have been many more stories, and I wish I could write about them all.
We are now, hopefully, closing in on the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, at least here in the U.S., where most of the population is vaccinated. Again, there are mixed emotions. While there is a hope, there are still concerns: vaccination hesitancy and the emergence of more virus variants.
It is reassuring to see the numbers of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths declining by the day; however, we are still hurting remembering all of those we lost. This week, the U.S. COVID-19 death toll exceeded 600,000, in little over 1 year. This is similar to the annual mortality rate for cancer.
I hope there is a better tomorrow when we can declare victory over the worst pandemic of our lifetime!
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