<p>America&rsquo;s health care workers are dying. In some states, medical staff account for as many as 20% of known coronavirus cases. They tend to patients in hospitals, treating them, serving them food and cleaning their rooms. Others at risk work in nursing homes or are employed as home health aides.</p>
<p>Some of them do not survive the encounter. Many hospitals are overwhelmed and some workers lack protective equipment or suffer from underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to the highly infectious virus.</p>
<p>Many cases are shrouded in secrecy. &ldquo;Lost on the Frontline&rdquo; is a collaboration between The Guardian and Kaiser Health News that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/15/why-were-tracking-every-us-health-worker-who-dies-from-coronavirus" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">aims to document</a> the lives of health care workers in the U.S. who die of COVID-19, and to understand why so many are falling victim to the pandemic.</p>
<p>These are some of the first tragic cases.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<figure><div><a href="https://khn.org/#accad"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_Accad-1.jpg" alt="Debbie Accad" width="100%"></a></div>
<div><a href="https://khn.org/#baumbach"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_Baumbach-1.jpg" alt="Jeff Baumbach" width="100%"></a></div>
<div><a href="https://khn.org/#buendia"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_BuendiaIlagan-1.jpg" alt="Araceli Buendia Ilagan " width="100%"></a></div>
<div><a href="https://khn.org/#cruz"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_DelaCruz-1.jpg" alt="Leo Dela Cruz" width="100%"></a></div>
<div><a href="https://khn.org/#doronila"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_Doronila-1.jpg" alt="Daisy Doronila" width="100%"></a></div>
<div><a href="https://khn.org/#echeverri"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_EcheverriCasarez-1.jpg" alt="Monica Echeverri Casarez" width="100%"></a></div>
<div><a href="https://khn.org/#gabrin"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_Gabrin-1.jpg" alt="Frank Gabrin" width="100%"></a></div>
<div><a href="https://khn.org/#harrison"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_Harrison-1.jpg" alt="Rose Harrison" width="100%"></a></div>
<div><a href="https://khn.org/#hunt"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_Hunt-1.jpg" alt="Curtis Hunt" width="100%"></a></div>
<div><a href="https://khn.org/#king"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_King-Smith-1.jpg" alt="Kim King-Smith" width="100%"></a></div>
<div><a href="https://khn.org/#sclar"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_Sclar-1.jpg" alt="Gary Sclar" width="100%"></a></div>
<div><a href="https://khn.org/#simmons"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_Simmons-1.jpg" alt="Alvin Simmons"></a></div>
<div><a href="https://khn.org/#thompson"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_Thompson-1.jpg" alt="Vianna Thompson" width="100%"></a></div>
<div><a href="https://khn.org/#verrier"><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Nav-Image_Verrier-1.jpg" alt="J. Ronald Verrier" width="100%"></a></div>
</figure><div></div>
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													<h3>
		Lost On The Frontline	</h3>
<div>	<div>
		<p>This project<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/15/why-were-tracking-every-us-health-worker-who-dies-from-coronavirus"> aims to document</a> the life of every health care worker in America who dies from COVID-19. If you have a colleague or loved one we should include, please <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/13/lost-on-the-frontline-us-healthcare-coronavirus-deaths" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">share their story</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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									</aside><h3>Surgical Technician Made Friends Everywhere She Went</h3>
<div><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/EcheverriCasarez_400sq.jpg" alt="Monica Echeverri Casarez" width="100%"> (Courtesy of Jorge Casarez)
</div>
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<h3>Monica Echeverri Casarez</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 49<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Surgical technician<br><strong>Place of Work:</strong> Detroit Medical Center Harper University Hospital in Detroit<br><strong>Date of Death:</strong> April 11, 2020<br><a></a></p>
</div>
<div></div>
<p>Monica Echeverri Casarez was in constant motion, said her husband, Jorge Casarez. The daughter of Colombian immigrants, she worked as a Spanish-English interpreter in clinical settings. She was the kind of person whose arrival at a mom and pop restaurant would elicit hugs from the owners. She also co-founded Southwest Detroit Restaurant Week, a nonprofit that supports local businesses.</p>
				<aside><div>
													<h3>
		Read More	</h3>
<div>	<ul><li>
			<a href="https://khn.org/news/osha-probing-health-worker-deaths-but-urges-inspectors-to-spare-the-penalties/">
				<img width="170" height="113" src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/05/GettyImages-1210579275_1350.jpg?w=170&amp;h=113&amp;crop=1" alt=""></a>
			<p>
			<a href="https://khn.org/news/osha-probing-health-worker-deaths-but-urges-inspectors-to-spare-the-penalties/">OSHA Probing Health Worker Deaths But Urges Inspectors To Spare The Penalties</a>
			Apr 22</p>
	</li>
			<li>
			<a href="https://khn.org/news/true-toll-of-covid-19-on-u-s-health-care-workers-unknown/">
				<img width="170" height="113" src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/GettyImages-1209373304_1350.jpg?w=170&amp;h=113&amp;crop=1" alt=""></a>
			<p>
			<a href="https://khn.org/news/true-toll-of-covid-19-on-u-s-health-care-workers-unknown/">True Toll Of COVID-19 On U.S. Health Care Workers Unknown</a>
			Apr 15</p>
	</li>
	</ul></div><!--/.slab-container -->						</div>
									</aside><p>Twice a month, she scrubbed in as a surgical technician at Harper University Hospital. &ldquo;She liked discovering the beauty of how the body works and how science is clear and orderly,&rdquo; Casarez said. She was organized and intuitive, qualities that are assets in the operating room. On March 21, she <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=909415092829473&amp;set=a.133575220413468&amp;type=3&amp;theater" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">posted a photo</a> of herself in protective gear with the caption: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d be lying if I said I wan&rsquo;t at least a bit nervous to be there now.&rdquo; Since many elective surgeries had been canceled, Echeverri Casarez was tasked with taking the temperatures of people who walked into the hospital and making sure their hands were sterilized.</p>
<p>Soon after, Echeverri Casarez and Casarez began feeling ill. Quarantined together, Echeverri Casarez tried to make the best of the situation. She baked her husband a cake &mdash; chocolate with white frosting. She died a few days later.</p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/danielle-renwick" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Danielle Renwick, The Guardian</a></em> | <em>Published April 24, 2020</em></p>
<p>(<a href="https://khn.org/#top">Return to top.</a>)<br><a></a></p>
<hr><h3>A Whip-Smart Neurologist Endlessly Fascinated With The Brain</h3>
<div><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Sclar2_400sq.jpg" alt="Gary Sclar" width="100%"> (Courtesy of Jennifer Sclar)
</div>
<div>
<h3>Gary Sclar</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 66<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Neurologist<br><strong>Place of Work:</strong> Mount Sinai Queens in New York City<br><strong>Date of Death:</strong> April 12, 2020</p>
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<p>Gary Sclar was a whip-smart neurologist who loved comic books, &ldquo;Game of Thrones&rdquo; and &ldquo;Star Wars,&rdquo; said his daughter, Jennifer Sclar. He was deeply compassionate with a blunt bedside manner.</p>
<p>&ldquo;My dad was fascinated with the brain and with science,&rdquo; Jennifer Sclar said. &ldquo;His work was his passion, and it&rsquo;s what made him the happiest, besides my brother and me.&rdquo; Set to retire in June, he was looking forward to writing about politics and neurology.</p>
<p>Gary Sclar saw patients who were showing COVID-19 symptoms and knew his age and underlying health conditions &#8213; he had diabetes &mdash; put him at risk for developing complications from the illness. His daughter pleaded with him to stop going to the hospital.</p>
<p>In early April, he mentioned having lost his sense of smell, and on April 8 he collapsed in his home. He was hospitalized a few days later and agreed to be intubated. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he realized, like, that this was the end,&rdquo; Jennifer Sclar said. &ldquo;He brought his keys. He brought his wallet.&rdquo;</p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/danielle-renwick" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Danielle Renwick, The Guardian</a></em> | <em>Published April 24, 2020</em></p>
<p>(<a href="https://khn.org/#top">Return to top.</a>)<br><a></a></p>
<hr><h3>An Exacting But Loving Aunt, She Was A Mentor Until The End</h3>
<div>
<p><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/BuendiaIlagan1_400sq.jpg" alt="Araceli Buendia Ilagan " width="100%"> (Courtesy of Jhoanna Mariel Buendia)</p>
</div>
<div>
<h3>Araceli Buendia Ilagan</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 63<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Intensive care unit nurse<br><strong>Place of Work:</strong> Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami<br><strong>Date of Death:</strong> March 27, 2020</p>
</div>
<div></div>
<p>For Jhoanna Mariel Buendia, her aunt was a constant &#8213; if distant &mdash; presence. Araceli Buendia Ilagan emigrated from their hometown Baguio, in the Philippines, to the U.S. before Buendia was born, but she remained close to her family and communicated with them nearly every day.</p>
<p>&ldquo;She was one of the smartest people I ever knew,&rdquo; Buendia, 27, said. Buendia Ilagan, who at one point looked into adopting her niece so she could join her and her husband the United States, encouraged Buendia to become a nurse, and talked her through grueling coursework in anatomy and physiology. Buendia is now a nurse in London.</p>
<p>Buendia Ilagan was also demanding. &ldquo;Whenever she visited the Philippines, she wanted everything to be organized and squeaky-clean,&rdquo; Buendia said.</p>
<p>The last time the two spoke, in late March, Buendia Ilagan didn&rsquo;t mention anything about feeling ill. Instead, the two commiserated over their experiences of treating patients with COVID-19; as always, her aunt offered her advice on staying safe while giving the best possible care. She died four days later.</p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/danielle-renwick" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Danielle Renwick, The Guardian</a></em> | <em>Published April 22, 2020</em></p>
<p>(<a href="https://khn.org/#top">Return to top.</a>)<br><a></a></p>
<hr><h3>A Beloved Geriatric Psychiatrist And Church Musician Remembered For His Cooking Skills</h3>
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<p><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/DelaCruz_400sq.jpg">(Courtesy of Nida Gonzales)</p>
</div>
<div>
<h3>Leo Dela Cruz</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 57<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Geriatric psychiatrist<br><strong>Place of Work:</strong> Christ Hospital and CarePoint Health in Jersey City, New Jersey<br><strong>Date of Death:</strong> April 8, 2020</p>
</div>
<div></div>
<p>Dr. Leo Dela Cruz was nervous about going to work in the weeks before he died, his friends said. Like many in the region, Christ Hospital had an influx of COVID-19 patients and <a href="https://www.nj.com/hudson/2020/03/the-greatest-challenge-this-hospital-ever-faces-christ-hospital-losing-ground-in-the-war-with-coronavirus.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">faced a shortage</a> of ventilators and masks.</p>
<p>Dela Cruz was a geriatric psychiatrist and didn&rsquo;t work in coronavirus wards. But he continued to see patients in person. In early April, Dela Cruz, who lived alone, complained only of migraines, his friends said. Within a week, his condition worsened, and he was put on a ventilator at a nearby hospital. He died soon after.</p>
<p>Friends said he may have been exposed at the hospital. (In a statement, hospital representatives said he didn&rsquo;t treat COVID-19 patients.)</p>
<p>Dela Cruz, the oldest of 10 siblings, came from a family of health care professionals. His friends and family &mdash; from Cebu, Philippines, to Teaneck, New Jersey &mdash; remembered his jovial personality on Facebook. He won &ldquo;best doctor of the year&rdquo; awards, played tennis and cooked traditional Cebu dishes.</p>
<p>Nida Gonzales, a colleague, said he always supported people, whether funding a student&rsquo;s education or running a church mental health program. &ldquo;I feel like I lost a brother,&rdquo; she said.</p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ankita-rao" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ankita Rao, The Guardian</a></em> | <em>Published April 22, 2020</em></p>
<p>(<a href="https://khn.org/#top">Return to top.</a>)<br><a></a></p>
<hr><h3>Alabama Nurse Remembered As Selfless But Sassy</h3>
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<p><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Harrison2_400sq.jpg" alt="Rose Harrison" width="100%"> (Courtesy of Amanda Williams)</p>
</div>
<div>
<h3>Rose Harrison</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 60<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Nurse<br><strong>Place of Work:</strong> Marion Regional Nursing Home in Hamilton, Alabama<br><strong>Date of Death:</strong> April 6, 2020</p>
</div>
<div></div>
<p>Rose Harrison, 60, lived to serve others &#8213; her husband, three daughters, grandchildren and the residents of the nursing home where she worked. Though the Alabama nurse was selfless, she also had a sassy edge to her personality and a penchant for road rage, her daughter, Amanda Williams said.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Her personality was so funny, you automatically loved her,&rdquo; Williams said. &ldquo;She was so outspoken. If she didn&rsquo;t agree with you, she&rsquo;d tell you in a respectful way.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Williams was not wearing a mask when she cared for a patient who later tested positive for COVID-19 at Marion Regional Nursing Home in Hamilton, Alabama, her daughter said. She later developed a cough, fatigue and a low-grade fever, but kept reporting to duty all week. Officials from the nursing home did not return calls for comment.</p>
<p>On April 3, Williams drove her mother to a hospital. The following evening, Harrison discussed the option of going on a ventilator with loved ones on a video call, agreeing it was the best course. Williams believed that her mother fully expected to recover. She died April 6.</p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://khn.org/news/author/christina-jewett/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News</a></em> | <em>Published April 22, 2020</em></p>
<p>(<a href="https://khn.org/#top">Return to top.</a>)<br><a></a></p>
<hr><h3>Connecticut Social Worker Had Angelic Singing Voice And A Zest For Life</h3>
<div>
<p><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Hunt1_400sq.jpg">(Courtesy of the Hunt family)</p>
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<div>
<h3>Curtis Hunt</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 57<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Social worker<br><strong>Places of Work:</strong> Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center and New Reach, both in New Haven, Connecticut<br><strong>Date of Death:</strong> March 23, 2020</p>
</div>
<div></div>
<p>At a shelter for adults recovering from addiction, residents looked forward to the days when Marion &ldquo;Curtis&rdquo; Hunt would take the stage, emceeing talent shows and belting out Broadway and gospel tunes.</p>
<p>It wasn&rsquo;t part of his job description as a social worker. It was just one of the ways he went &ldquo;above and beyond,&rdquo; said his supervisor at Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, Daena Murphy. &ldquo;He had a beautiful voice,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;He was just a wonderful person &mdash; funny, engaging, always a huge smile on his face.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Hunt, the youngest of four brothers, earned his master&rsquo;s in social work from Fordham University at 52, and was baptized at his brother&rsquo;s Pentecostal church at 54. He was a devoted uncle who doted on his dog and cat, Mya and Milo.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s unclear how Hunt got infected, but one patient he worked with had tested positive for COVID-19, as did two co-workers, according to Dr. Ece Tek, another supervisor at Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center. Hunt died on March 23, one week after developing flu-like symptoms, said his brother John Mann Jr.</p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://khn.org/news/author/melissa-bailey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Melissa Bailey</a></em> | <em>Published April 22, 2020 </em></p>
<p>(<a href="https://khn.org/#top">Return to top.</a>)<br><a></a></p>
<hr><h3>To The End, King-Smith Was Driven By A Desire To Help Others</h3>
<div>
<p><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/King-Smith1_400sq.jpg" alt="Kim King-Smith" width="100%"> (Courtesy of Hassana Salaam-Rivers)</p>
</div>
<div>
<h3>Kim King-Smith</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 53<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Electrocardiogram technician<br><strong>Place of Work:</strong> University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey<br><strong>Date of Death:</strong> March 31, 2020</p>
</div>
<div></div>
<p>Kim King-Smith was a natural caregiver. An only child, she grew up close to her extended family, including her cousins Hassana Salaam-Rivers and Sharonda Salaam. After Salaam developed multiple sclerosis, King-Smith visited her every day.</p>
<p>&ldquo;She&rsquo;d bring her sweets that she wasn&rsquo;t supposed to have and share them with her,&rdquo; Salaam-Rivers said. King-Smith&rsquo;s desire to care for others was the reason she became an electrocardiogram technician, her cousin added. &ldquo;If a friend of a friend or family member went to the hospital, she would always go and visit them as soon as her shift was over,&rdquo; she said.</p>
<p>In March, King-Smith cared for a patient she said had symptoms of COVID-19; she soon fell ill herself and tested positive for the virus. It seemed like a mild case at first, and she stayed in touch with family via FaceTime while trying to isolate from her husband, Lenny.</p>
<p>On March 29, Salaam-Rivers checked in on her cousin and noticed she was struggling to breathe. She urged her to call an ambulance. After King-Smith was hospitalized, she exchanged text messages with her mother and cousin. As the day progressed, her messages carried increasingly grave news, Salaam-Rivers said. Then she stopped responding.</p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/danielle-renwick" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Danielle Renwick, The Guardian</a></em> | <em>Published April 22, 2020 </em></p>
<p>(<a href="https://khn.org/#top">Return to top.</a>)<br><a></a></p>
<hr><h3>On The Eve Of Retirement, VA Nurse Succumbs To COVID-19</h3>
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<p><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Accad_FB_1_400sq.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="400"> (Courtesy of Mark Accad)</p>
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<div>
<h3>Debbie Accad</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 72<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Clinical nursing coordinator<br><strong>Place of Work:</strong> Detroit VA Medical Center in Detroit, Michigan<br><strong>Date of Death:</strong> March 30, 2020</p>
</div>
<div></div>
<p>Nurse Divina &ldquo;Debbie&rdquo; Accad had cared for veterans for over 25 years and was set to retire in April. But after contracting the novel coronavirus, she spent her final 11 days on a ventilator &mdash; and didn&rsquo;t survive past March.</p>
<p>She joined a growing list of health care professionals working on the front lines of the pandemic who have died from COVID-19.</p>
<p>Accad, 72, a clinical nursing coordinator at the Detroit VA Medical Center, dedicated her life to nursing, according to her son Mark Accad.</p>
<p>&ldquo;She died doing what she loved most,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That was caring for people.&rdquo;</p>
<p>She was born Divina Amo in the Philippine town of Alimodian, known for its sweet bananas. The eldest of four children, she was a precocious student. She finished high school at age 14 and had to wait a year to pursue her dream of nursing school. She graduated from Central Philippine University with a bachelor&rsquo;s in nursing in 1969.</p>
<p>Yearning to move abroad, she applied to a &ldquo;fly now, pay later&rdquo; program for nurses and landed a job in Chicago, joining <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/05/28/filipino-nurses-in-the-us-podcast/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tens of thousands of Filipino nurses</a> who have migrated to the United States. She later moved to Taylor, Michigan, where she married William Accad in 1985 and raised four children with him.</p>
<p>Her niece April Amada lives in Accad&rsquo;s hometown. She remembers her aunt as a generous cook: A visit from Tita Debbie (Aunt Debbie) meant <em>unli-kainan</em>, or &ldquo;unlimited food&rdquo;: She served up big American breakfasts, cooked spicy kielbasa with cabbage and introduced her family to Jell-O.</p>
<p>Accad was the &ldquo;pillar of the family,&rdquo; Amada said, improving their quality of life by sending home money, and even supporting her younger sister through nursing school.</p>
<p>Amada said her aunt first signaled she was sick on the evening of March 16, telling relatives she had a fever and loose stool. On March 19, she reported feeling better by taking Tylenol. But the following day, she was hospitalized with pneumonia, a complication of COVID-19. She told her family in the Philippines that she had tested positive for the disease caused by the coronavirus and asked them to pray for her and to spread the word to local pastors, Amada said.</p>
<p>Amada, who is also a nurse, said her family felt helpless watching their beloved matriarch suffer from afar, and being unable to travel to her bedside because of the infectious nature of the disease. They last saw her face on a video call.</p>
<p>Mark Accad, 36, who lives across the street from his parents, said his mother had diabetes, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/groups-at-higher-risk.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a risk factor</a> for serious complications from COVID-19. In her last phone call with him, he said, she was preoccupied with her family&rsquo;s health more than her own. But he could hear in her voice that she was worried.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just terrible that we all couldn&rsquo;t be there for her,&rdquo; he said.</p>
<p>Mark Accad said he believes his mother was exposed by infected co-workers, though that hasn&rsquo;t been confirmed. She was a nursing supervisor who often stepped in to care for patients, he said.</p>
<p>The Department of Veterans Affairs is <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/veterans-affairs-hospitals-facing-serious-shortage-of-protective-gear-internal-memos-show-11586384293" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">facing serious shortages</a> in protective equipment for its health care workers, according to internal memos obtained by The Wall Street Journal. Mark Accad said he doesn&rsquo;t know whether his mother had adequate protective gear.</p>
<p>In a statement, the Detroit VA Medical Center declined to comment on Accad&rsquo;s case, citing privacy concerns, but confirmed that an employee of her age died from coronavirus complications.</p>
<p>The VA has &ldquo;implemented appropriate measures to ensure the safest health care environment for each Veteran, visitor and employee,&rdquo; including immediately isolating patients known to be at risk for a COVID-19 infection. As of Monday, nine VA health care workers systemwide had died of COVID-19 complications, and over 1,500 were being quarantined because of coronavirus infections, according to VA spokesperson Christina Noel.</p>
<p>Mark Accad said he would like his mother&rsquo;s story to raise awareness of the risks health care workers face in the global pandemic.</p>
<p>&ldquo;She&rsquo;s a hero for what she did,&rdquo; he said.</p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://khn.org/news/author/melissa-bailey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Melissa Bailey</a></em> | <em>Published April 15, 2020</em></p>
<p>(<a href="https://khn.org/#top">Return to top.</a>)<br><a></a></p>
<hr><h3>California Nurse Thrived In ER and ICU, But Couldn&rsquo;t Survive COVID-19</h3>
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<p><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Baumbach1_400sq.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="400"> (Courtesy of the Baumbach family)</p>
</div>
<div>
<h3>Jeff Baumbach</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 57<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Nurse<br><strong>Place of Work:</strong> St. Joseph&rsquo;s Medical Center in Stockton, California<br><strong>Date of Death:</strong> March 31, 2020</p>
</div>
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<p>Jeff Baumbach, 57, was a seasoned nurse of 28 years when the novel coronavirus began to circulate in California. He&rsquo;d worked in the ER, the ICU and on a cardiac floor. Hepatitis and tuberculosis had been around over the years but never posed a major concern. He&rsquo;d cared for patients who had tuberculosis.</p>
<p>Jeff and his wife, Karen Baumbach, also a nurse, initially didn&rsquo;t consider it significantly riskier than challenges they&rsquo;d faced for years.</p>
<p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;d worked in the ICU. He was exposed to so many things, and we never got anything,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;This was just ramping up.&rdquo;</p>
<p>One day during work, Jeff sent a sarcastic text to his wife: &ldquo;I love wearing a mask every day.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Within weeks, he would wage a difficult and steady fight against the virus that ended with a sudden collapse. Across the U.S., dozens of other health care workers have died, according to reports compiled by The Guardian and Kaiser Health News. The CDC has not yet issued a full tally, and many states have said little about how many health workers are dying.</p>
<p>Jeff was working at St. Joseph&rsquo;s Medical Center in Stockton, California, about an hour south of Sacramento, where he was a case manager for Kaiser Permanente patients treated there. (Kaiser Health News is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.)</p>
<p>In mid-March, Jeff and his wife traveled to New York City to help their younger son, one of four adult children, settle into an apartment. As they were leaving, bars and restaurants were starting to shut down. The feeling set in that something serious was taking place.</p>
<p>Back home, Karen said her husband was notified that he may have been around a co-worker who tested positive for the coronavirus. Jeff would need to wear a mask. On March 23, he called in sick. The next day, he was told to get a COVID-19 test.</p>
<p>Jeff&rsquo;s test was positive. Soon after, so was Karen&rsquo;s. The couple hunkered down together at home, Karen with body aches and congestion and Jeff with a fever and cough.</p>
<p>Their home had been the site of countless family brunches and barbecues, for which Jeff was often the chef. It was where he solved massive jigsaw puzzles with his kids, sealed them together and put them on the ceiling of the garage.</p>
<p>Kaila Baumbach, 26, the last child living in their Lodi home, had moved out as a precaution. She and her dad were close. They had gotten tattoos together on a family trip to Hawaii. Hers, a peace sign. His had two large Celtic hearts and four smaller ones to represent his children. Kaila said she didn&rsquo;t text or call her dad when he was sick.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I thought he was invincible,&rdquo; she said during a phone interview, through tears.</p>
<p>Karen took Jeff to the emergency room on March 26, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia, but chose to recuperate at home. On March 31, he collapsed in an upstairs bathroom.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was just like that,&rdquo; Karen said. &ldquo;It went downhill really fast.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Karen called 911 and went with him to Adventist Health Lodi Memorial, the hospital where she worked. She sat in her car getting updates by phone. Kaila waited in another car.</p>
<p>The ventilator Jeff was connected to had little effect and he remained unresponsive.</p>
<p>When it seemed hopeless, Karen went in, suited with full protective medical gear, and told Jeff, her husband of 33 years, she loved him. The kids love him. And she was sorry.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We both sat here all those days with him getting worse before my eyes and me not seeing it,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;The doctor reassured me that several times people have seemed to be OK and then they just fall off and then it&rsquo;s just too late.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Karen returned home alone, still in quarantine.</p>
<p>The next day, Kaila organized about 50 family and loved ones to drive by the couple&rsquo;s home and shine their phone flashlights to show support. Karen&rsquo;s mother, Sharleen Leal, called her at 8 p.m.: &ldquo;Look outside.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Karen looked out an upstairs window. Lights from lines of cars going in both directions on the avenue shone bright. Grieving, and awash with gratitude, she cried.</p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://khn.org/news/author/christina-jewett/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News</a></em> | <em>Published April 15, 2020</em></p>
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<hr><h3>Nurse&rsquo;s Faith Led Her To Care For Prisoners At A New Jersey Jail</h3>
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<p><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Doronila1_400sq.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="400"> (Courtesy of Denise Rendor)</p>
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<h3>Daisy Doronila</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 60<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Nurse<br><strong>Place of Work:</strong> Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny, New Jersey<br><strong>Date of Death:</strong> April 5, 2020</p>
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<p>Daisy Doronila had a different perspective than most who worked at the Hudson County Correctional Facility, a New Jersey lockup 11 miles from Manhattan. It was a place where the veteran nurse could put her Catholic faith into action, showing kindness to marginalized people.</p>
<p>&ldquo;There would be people there for the most heinous crimes,&rdquo; said her daughter, Denise Rendor, 28, &ldquo;but they would just melt towards my mother because she really was there to give them care with no judgment.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Doronila, 60, died April 5, two weeks after testing positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The jail has been hit hard by the virus, with 27 inmates and 68 staff members having tested positive. Among those, another nurse, a correctional officer and a clerk also died, according to Ron Edwards, Hudson County&rsquo;s director of corrections.</p>
<p>Doronila fell ill before the scope of the jail infections were known. She was picking up extra shifts in the weeks before, her daughter said, and planning on a trip to Israel soon with friends from church.</p>
<p>That plan began to fall apart March 14, when someone at the jail noticed her coughing and asked her to go home and visit a doctor.</p>
<p>Doronila, of Nutley, New Jersey, went to her doctor and a local hospital in the coming days but was told she had strep throat, so she wouldn&rsquo;t get a coronavirus test. Then she was told her fever wasn&rsquo;t high enough to merit a test.</p>
<p>Edwards, the jail chief, said Doronila offered to come back to work after she started feeling ill, not wanting to let him down. He told her to stay home and rest.</p>
<p>&ldquo;She was one of my hardest workers,&rdquo; he said, describing her as sophisticated, intelligent and compassionate. &ldquo;Daisy could handle herself. If someone got obnoxious with her, she&rsquo;d put them in their place and call for help if she needed to.&rdquo;</p>
<p>As days went by in March, her condition got worse. Feeling breathless, she went to an urgent care center on March 21.</p>
<p>Her oxygen saturation level was 77 &#8213; far below levels that should be close to 100 &mdash; so she was sent by ambulance to the hospital. The next day, she was transferred to the ICU, where she was put on a ventilator, never to talk to her family again.</p>
<p>Rendor, who was not allowed to visit her mother, said time crawled as she awaited updates from nurses and doctors.</p>
<p>On her fifth day in the hospital, her mother went into cardiac arrest and was revived. On Day Nine, she was put on dialysis.</p>
<p>By Day 14, it was futile.</p>
<p>Rendor said her mother emigrated from the Philippines as a young nurse. She loved to dress in fashionable clothes and eat seafood on the waterfront in New York City.</p>
<p>The two loved to shop together and were looking forward to the next chapters in life. For the mother, retirement at 65. For Rendor, marriage and perhaps starting her own family.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was about to get really, really good,&rdquo; Rendor said.</p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://khn.org/news/author/christina-jewett/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News</a></em> | <em>Published April 15, 2020</em></p>
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<hr><h3>An Army Veteran, Hospital Custodian &lsquo;Loved Helping People&rsquo;</h3>
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<p><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Simmons_400sq-1.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="400"> (Courtesy of Michelle Wilcox)</p>
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<h3>Alvin Simmons</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 54<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Environmental service assistant<br><strong>Place of Work:</strong> Rochester General Hospital in Rochester, New York<br><strong>Death:</strong> March 17, 2020</p>
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<p>Alvin Simmons started working as a custodian at Rochester General Hospital, in New York state, weeks before he fell ill. &ldquo;He loved helping people and he figured the best place to do that would be in a hospital,&rdquo; his sister, Michelle Wilcox said.</p>
<p>An Army veteran who had served in the first Gulf War, Simmons loved karaoke and doted on his three grandchildren, Wilcox said. &ldquo;He was a dedicated, hardworking individual who had just changed his life around&rdquo; since a prison stint, she said.</p>
<p>According to Wilcox, Simmons began developing symptoms shortly after cleaning the room of a woman he believed was infected with the novel coronavirus. &ldquo;Other hospital employees did not want to clean the room because they said they weren&rsquo;t properly trained&rdquo; to clean the room of someone potentially infected, she said. &ldquo;They got my brother from a different floor, because he had just started there,&rdquo; she said. (In an email, a hospital spokesperson said they had &ldquo;no evidence to suggest that Mr. Simmons was at a heightened risk of exposure to COVID-19 by virtue of his training or employment duties at RGH.&rdquo;)</p>
<p>On March 11, he visited the emergency room at Rochester General, where he was tested for&nbsp;COVID-19, Wilcox said. Over the next few days, as he rested at his girlfriend&rsquo;s home, his breathing became more labored and he began to cough up blood. He was rushed to the hospital on March 13, where he was later declared brain-dead. Subsequently,&nbsp;he received a COVID-19 diagnosis. Simmons died on March 17.</p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/danielle-renwick" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Danielle Renwick, The Guardian</a></em> | <em>Published April 15, 2020</em></p>
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<hr><h3>Nurse At Nevada VA Dies After Caring For Infected Colleague</h3>
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<p><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Thompson2_400sq.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="400"> (Courtesy of Bob Thompson)</p>
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<h3>Vianna Thompson</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 52<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Nurse<br><strong>Places of Work:</strong> VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System and Northern Nevada Medical Center in Reno, Nevada<br><strong>Date of Death:</strong> April 7, 2020</p>
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<p>Nurse Vianna Thompson, 52, spent two night shifts caring for a fellow Veterans Affairs health care worker who was dying from COVID-19.</p>
<p>Two weeks later, she too was lying in a hospital intensive care unit, with a co-worker holding her hand as she died.</p>
<p>Thompson and the man she treated were among <a href="https://mynews4.com/news/local/third-reno-va-hospital-employees-dies-from-coronavirus" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">three VA health care workers</a> in Reno, Nevada, to die in two weeks from complications of the novel coronavirus.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty devastating. It&rsquo;s surreal. Reno&rsquo;s not that big of a city,&rdquo; said Robyn Underhill, a night nurse who worked with Thompson in the ER at Reno&rsquo;s VA hospital the past two years.</p>
<p>Thompson, who dreamed of teaching nursing one day, died April 7, joining a growing list of health care professionals killed in the pandemic.</p>
<p>Born Vianna Fye in Port Huron, Michigan, she became a go-getter nurse who worked almost exclusively at night, putting in five or six 12-hour shifts a week, according to her husband, Bob Thompson, 60.</p>
<p>The couple met in 1991 on the Osan Air Base in South Korea, where he was an inventory management specialist in the Air Force, and she was a veterinary technician in the Army, caring for military police dogs. They bonded over two-step dancing and country music.</p>
<p>Vianna was a &ldquo;proud momma,&rdquo; often showing off photos and videos of their three sons on her phone, her husband said. As the main breadwinner for over eight years, she juggled two jobs to make sure her boys had everything they needed, including saxophones, drums and keyboards so they could play jazz and country music. &ldquo;She was just sweet, big-hearted, caring, unselfish,&rdquo; he said.</p>
<p>Before she died, Thompson was working two jobs: full time in the ER at the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System in Reno, and part time in the ICU at Northern Nevada Medical Center.</p>
<p>In the ICU, she tended to a fellow VA health care worker who had fallen ill with COVID-19, according to nurse Underhill. Two days later, on March 29, Thompson arrived at work with a cough.</p>
<p>&ldquo;She came to work sick, and we were all very concerned,&rdquo; Underhill said. &ldquo;Call it intuition, call it &lsquo;Spidey sense,&rsquo; but I knew that moment that she was coughing that this was not going to end well.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Underhill said Thompson already had a slight smoker&rsquo;s cough, so she may have overlooked the fact that her cough was a classic symptom of COVID-19.</p>
<p>&ldquo;She was in denial that she was taking care of this high-risk population,&rdquo; Underhill said. And she was reluctant to miss work.</p>
<p>That Sunday shift would be Thompson&rsquo;s last. Over the next four days, she wrestled with fever, weakness and shortness of breath. The following Thursday, she texted her husband from the bedroom: &ldquo;Call the ambulance, I can hardly breathe.&rdquo;</p>
<p>She was taken to the VA hospital where she worked and immediately sedated and put on a ventilator.</p>
<p>The next Tuesday, her organs were failing and it was time to remove life support, her husband said. They connected him on FaceTime to say goodbye, and a nurse held her hand as she died.</p>
<p>As a veteran, she qualified for an &ldquo;honor flight,&rdquo; in which the patient&rsquo;s body is covered with a black box, draped with an American flag and wheeled through the hospital while others line up and salute.</p>
<p>Because of the infectious nature of the coronavirus, a flag could not be safely draped over her body, so someone walked in front of her with a flag.</p>
<p>Bob Thompson said the honor flight ceremony drew more people into the hallways than staff had seen in 20 years, &ldquo;all the way from the ICU to the morgue.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;God&rsquo;s getting a hell of a nurse,&rdquo; he said.</p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://khn.org/news/author/melissa-bailey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Melissa Bailey</a></em> | <em>Published April 15, 2020</em></p>
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<hr><h3>Dr. J. Ronald Verrier Was Busy Saving Lives Before The Pandemic</h3>
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<p><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Verrier1_400sq.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="400"> (Courtesy of Christina Pardo)</p>
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<h3>J. Ronald Verrier</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 59<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Surgeon<br><strong>Place of Work:</strong> St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, New York<br><strong>Date of Death:</strong> April 8, 2020</p>
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<p>Dr. J. Ronald Verrier, a surgeon at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, spent the final weeks of his audacious, unfinished life tending to a torrent of patients inflicted with COVID-19. He died April 8 at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital in Oceanside, New York, at age 59, after falling ill from the novel coronavirus.</p>
<p>Verrier led the charge even as the financially strapped St. Barnabas Hospital struggled to find masks and gowns to protect its workers &mdash; many nurses continue to make cloth masks &mdash; and makeshift morgues in the parking lot held patients who had died.</p>
<p>&ldquo;He did a good work,&rdquo; said Jeannine Sherwood, a nurse manager at St. Barnabas Hospital who worked closely with Verrier.</p>
<p>&ldquo;He can rest.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Verrier graduated from the Facult&eacute; de M&eacute;decine et de Pharmacie in 1986 and trained at Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx. He worked at St. Barnabas for two decades, performing thousands of surgeries on critically ill patients and trauma victims, while overseeing the general surgery residency program.</p>
<p>A towering presence with a wide, dimpled smile, Verrier watched his large flock closely &mdash; popping into patients&rsquo; rooms for impromptu birthday parties, pressing his medical school residents to sharpen their surgical skills and extinguishing doubt in bright, young minds.</p>
<p>&ldquo;He kept pushing me forward,&rdquo; said Dr. Christina Pardo, a cousin who became an obstetrician and gynecologist. &ldquo;I would call him and say, &lsquo;I swear I failed that test,&rsquo; and he would laugh. He was my confidence when I didn&rsquo;t have it.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;He was someone you&rsquo;d love to see if you were having a bad day,&rdquo; said Dr. Ridwan Shabsigh, chairman of the Department of Surgery at SBH Health System. &ldquo;He would comfort your heart.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The Verrier family stretches across continents &mdash; a boisterous crew of cousins who grew up as brothers and sisters, a pot of <em>joumou</em>, a spicy Haitian soup, always boiling somewhere.</p>
<p>Verrier, who spoke English, French and Creole, zipped around to a niece&rsquo;s wedding in Belgium, a baptism in Florida, another wedding in Montreal. In February, he ferried medical supplies to Haiti, returning to St. Barnabas to fortify the hospital for the surge of coronavirus patients.</p>
<p>Verrier helped steer the hospital&rsquo;s efforts to increase &mdash; by 500% &mdash; the number of critically ill patients it could care for, an effort he worked on until he became ill.</p>
<p>&ldquo;He was at the hospital every day,&rdquo; Shabsigh said. &ldquo;This was a nonstop effort, day and night.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Verrier discovered he was infected in early April. After developing symptoms, he worked from his Woodmere, New York, home.</p>
<p>Undaunted, he did not want to talk about being sick. &ldquo;He has this personality that, &lsquo;Everything is going to be OK,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Pardo.</p>
<p>Shabsigh spoke with him the day before his death.</p>
<p>&ldquo;He understood the coronavirus, he understood the pandemic,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He still maintained a high morale and hope that he would recover.&rdquo;</p>
<p>When his condition worsened suddenly, according to Pardo, Verrier was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital where he died.</p>
<p>After a powerful earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, Verrier tended to victims, treating dozens of patients who required amputations at a Port-au-Prince hospital.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Sometimes you use a little anesthesia and you cut the limb,&rdquo; Verrier said soberly in a video recorded at the time. &ldquo;Because you have to save a life.&rdquo;</p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://khn.org/news/author/sarah-varney/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sarah Varney, Kaiser Health News</a></em> | <em>Published April 15, 2020</em></p>
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<hr><h3>America&rsquo;s First ER Doctor To Die In The Heat Of COVID-19 Battle</h3>
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<p><img src="https://khn.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/04/Garbin1_400sq.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="400"> (Courtesy of Debra Vasalech Lyons)</p>
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<h3>Frank Gabrin</h3>
<p><strong>Age:</strong> 60<br><strong>Occupation:</strong> Doctor<br><strong>Places of Work:</strong> St. John&rsquo;s Episcopal in Queens, New York, and East Orange General in New Jersey<br><strong>Date of Death:</strong> March 26, 2020</p>
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<p>At about 5 a.m. on March 19, a New York City ER physician named Frank Gabrin texted a friend about his concerns over the lack of medical supplies at hospitals.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s busy &#8213; everyone wants a COVID test that I do not have to give them,&rdquo; he wrote in the message to Eddy Soffer. &ldquo;So they are angry and disappointed.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Worse, though, was the limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) &mdash; the masks and gloves that help keep health care workers from getting sick and spreading the virus to others. Gabrin said he had no choice but to don the same mask for several shifts, against Food and Drug Administration guidelines.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t have any PPE that has not been used,&rdquo; he wrote. &ldquo;No N95 masks &#8213; my own goggles &mdash; my own face shield,&rdquo; he added, referring to the N95 respirators considered among the best lines of defense.</p>
<p>Less than two weeks later, Gabrin became the first ER doctor in the U.S. known to have died as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.</p>
<p><a href="https://khn.org/news/baby-i-cant-breathe-americas-first-er-doctor-to-die-in-heat-of-covid-19-battle/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read more here.</a></p>
<p><em>&mdash; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/alastair-gee" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Alastair Gee, The Guardian</a></em> | <em>Published April 10, 2020</em></p>
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<hr><p><em>This story is part of &ldquo;<a href="https://khn.org/news/tag/lost-on-the-frontline/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lost on the Frontline</a>,&rdquo; a project from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Guardian</a> and Kaiser Health News that aims to document the life of every health care worker in America who dies from COVID-19 during the pandemic. If you have a colleague or loved one we should include, please <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/13/lost-on-the-frontline-us-healthcare-coronavirus-deaths" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">share their story</a>.</em></p>