COVID-19 has brought havoc to nursing homes. Will pandemic end 'warehousing' the elderly?
Denise Plank has cried so much over the past weeks her tears have left her cheeks chafed and raw.
Her 84-year-old father, Edward, has a form of blood cancer that may kill him. She might never again hold his hand. She may never give him a hug. She might not even be able to sit in the same room with him.
Hes in a Fresno nursing home, which shes forbidden to enter out of fears she and other guests could spread the new coronavirus to residents and staff. Given the severity of his condition, shes unable to take him home.
So, for now, her daily visits with her father are through a closed glass window. For a few minutes each day, they talk and pray together over the phone as she stands on the concrete outside his room. Plank said shes terrified shell spend the rest of his life this way close to his bedside, yet painfully apart.
Read more: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article242042731.html