The story of my father’s death from Covid19, and the assisted living home he got it from

My 91-year-old father was living in an assisted living facility — a really nice one. He had his own bed/sitting room, which we filled with his books and furniture and photos. He got three meals and snacks, all his drugs administered by a nurse, social activities and outings. The facility he lived in was connected to a nursing facility.

The website says they provide “post hospital rehab”, among other things. By mid-March, they had closed the facility to visitors, and I had to drop off his medicine without seeing him. At some point about two weeks later, we were notified that a patient on the nursing side had been identified as having Covid 19.

Looking at my texts with my brother, I see that Dad had a small fever on April 15, about four days after we were notified of the first patient, but he was still in his room, feeling lonely and bored. April 19 saw him seizing due to high fever, and the home sent him to the hospital. My brother attempted to speak with him via a tele-video conference, but was unable to understand what dad was saying.

They had him on a bi-pap machine, and he seemed to be improving, eating a little breakfast on the 21st. Then by the 25th, he was needing more oxygen, moaning and lost his appetite. By the 27th, they could not wake him up, and of course he was not eating or drinking anything at that time. My brother talked with the nurses at Dad’s facility, who said that they did have other cases and that other people had died.

By the 30th,we knew there was no hope. We both spoke to him via something called Jabber, whereby a nurse (bless her staunch heart) held up a video phone so that we could say our goodbyes and get one last look at Dad, as he lay unresponsive and on the bi-pap machine. He died the next day, May first, at about one in the afternoon.

We buried him on May 14, and by the 28th of May, when we went to remove his belongings from the home, the administrator stated that the home was “covid free”.  I live in Ohio, and this took place in Middlefield.