The moving photo of a doctor hugging an elderly patient who is in tears: "I want to go home to my wife"
The Coronavirus epidemic, which is the tragic marker of 2020, has left a long trail of death and destruction, both on a human level and from the point of view of the economy of the various states. Hospital staff are exhausted, the population divided between those who try to deny the evidence of a lethal virus and those who take the necessary precautions to avoid getting sick. In the United States the situation is as tragic as it is in other countries; here, on Thanksgiving Day (the fourth or last Thursday of November, when Americans "thank God" for the harvest and for what they have received during the year), doctors and nurses didn't have a minute to celebrate. There isn't much to celebrate, actually. In Houston, Texas, Dr. Joseph Varon, head of his department, didn't stop working for a minute during Thanksgiving. To prove it, here's a photo that has gone viral, in which he hugs an elderly patient who had just burst into tears.
via Fox10 Phoenix
They say Dr. Joseph Varon, head of the intensive care unit at United Memorial, worked 251 days straight, never taking a break, and Thanksgiving was no exception. In a symbolic photo that has traveled around the world, we see him in anti-Covid gear as he tries to comfort an elderly patient in tears.
The doctor said: "I am in the Covid unit and I see this elderly patient getting out of bed, he was trying to leave, crying. I approached him and asked him: why are you crying? He replied: I want to be with my wife. So. I hugged him". The doctor didn't even realize that he was being photographed in that dramatic moment.
The doctor said he was very frustrated with his fellow citizens who don't respect anti-Covid regulations enough and, in the end, end up in his intensive care unit. Doctor Varon would like to not to have to hug anyone anymore, because it would mean that the infections are decreasing and so are the deaths. There are many patients who try to leave, especially the elderly, who suffer most from isolation. The patient in the photo is much better now and will probably go home to his wife soon. But how many others are forced into a hospital bed to receive treatment and only see their loved ones via a phone screen?
We hope that all of this will be over as soon as possible.
