Advocate hits new low - emotional FB style journalism

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Anne Cerniglia set up an iPad at the bedside of a dying coronavirus patient so her family could see her one last time. She placed her hand on the patient’s shoulder so the family would know their loved one was not alone.

Then, the patient’s brothers and sisters began to sing a gospel hymn.

The call ran past the allotted five minutes. But how do you tell a patient’s family that they need to hurry up and finish what may be their last phone call together?

As she listened to the singing, Cerniglia began to cry into her respirator. She had tried desperately not to — she knew that if her protective gear got wet with tears and mucus, it would compromise her safety. But she couldn’t help herself.

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Anne Cerniglia doesn’t feel like a hero when she’s nursing patients with coronavirus in the ICU at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge. At the moment, she feels like a soldier, ruthlessly fighting in the trenches of a never-ending war against an invisible enemy. “What’s it like on the frontlines?” Cerniglia said. “It’s hell.”

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Out of nowhere, another patient’s fever began to rise. To cool the patient off, a nurse rushed to pour ice water down the patient's feeding tube as doctors and nurses sprinted to put on masks, gloves and gowns to enter the room.

After two hours, a doctor determined there was nothing else that could be done.

As they exited the hospital room, one of nurses newer to the unit attempted to re-enter, yelling, “He can’t die alone. We can’t let him die alone. He shouldn’t have to die alone.”

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Later that shift, an elderly patient, who decided he did not want to be placed on a breathing machine, began to deteriorate.

Cerniglia could see the anguish in the patient’s eyes as his body convulsed. They gave him morphine to make him more comfortable and watched as his heartbeat slowed to a stop. Soon after, they started losing another patient.

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