I tried ‘to be a little more human’

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Doctor in viral photo comforting elderly COVID patient: I tried ‘to be a little more human’

Houston doctor who drew attention after a photo went viral showing him comforting a patient in a coronavirus intensive care unit on Thanksgiving opens up about the experience, saying he was trying “to be a little more human “.

Dr Joseph Varon, who serves as chief of staff at United Memorial Medical Center, told CNN’s John Berman on Monday that the viral moment came shortly after spotting the old man crying and dying. ‘trying to leave the unit after the doctor entered the room last Thursday. .

Varon said a photographer had also followed him to the special unit, noting that he “usually has media” for transparency “so people can see what’s going on.”

“So I have the photographer following me, and as I go inside my COVID unit I see this elderly patient is out of bed and trying to get out of the room and he is crying,” he said. Varon said.

Varon, who was in protective gear at the time, said he had “come close” to the patient and asked him why he was crying, to which he replied that the man replied, “I want to. to be with my wife ”.

Dr. Joseph Varon kisses and comforts a patient # COVID-19[FEMALE[FEMININE intensive care unit during #Thanksgiving at United Memorial Medical Center in #Houston #Texas : Come on Nakamura pic.twitter.com/h2Vk18cKUp

– Getty Images News (@GettyImagesNews) November 27, 2020

“So I grab him. I hold him. I didn’t know I was pictured at the time. And he was just crying and finally he felt better and he stopped crying,” Varon said. .

The doctor said the man will not be able to be with his wife until he completes his treatment and recovers.

“He has to be negative on his swabs so that we can then send him out of the hospital,” Varon said.

“But, it’s very difficult,” Varon added of the coronavirus intensive care unit. “You can imagine, you are in a room where people come in spacesuits and you have no communication with anyone else, by phone, if you are lucky.”

“And when you’re a senior, it’s even more difficult because you feel lonely,” he continued. “You feel isolated.

Varon said he felt “very sorry” for the patient during the viral encounter last week.

“I felt sad like him,” Varon said. “And I just remembered all the patients I had to do similar things with.”

“I’m going to go to their rooms. I’m going to sit on their bed and chat with them because they really need someone to give them a hand,” he said. “And my staff are very good at it.”

“But we have so many patients that sometimes we can’t hold every patient, or grab a patient’s hand or at least try to be a little more human,” he said.

Fortunately, Varon said the patient “has been doing a lot better” since then, adding that staff are hopeful that “before the end of the week he can be released from the hospital.”