A Very Covid Christmas
How the sick find peace and happiness amid a health crisis
People think Christmas on the hospital’s COVID unit is sad and dreary. Oh, how sad the patients must be, right?
Well, those sick in the hospital on Christmas Day still find reasons for gratitude. Oddly enough, a common cause for thanks is their health.
Even patients with mild COVID wonder if death is upon them. We’ve all heard the stories which could come right out of a suspense thriller about suffocating, heart attacks, being denied care repeatedly.
Many of the severely I’ll patients fought off the angel of death. Those who saw the reaper at their doorstep used their will to live to keep death at bay. Those patients especially find peace in laying on a hospital bed staring at the ceiling alive.
As I made my rounds on Christmas Day, I felt eerily like Santa. Instead of a red suit and pom-pomed stocking cap, I wore an isolation gown and a PAPR hood. Instead of gifts of cheer and pleasure, I brought smiles, encouraging words, and medications.
