COVID-19 reunion: Tearful patients, nurses share memories
COVID-19 reunion: Tearful patients, nurses share memories
MISSION VIEJO (AP) — Brian Patnoe never saw the faces of the masked health care workers who nursed him back to health from the coronavirus that nearly killed him. But he knew each by their eyes, which peered out through layers of protective gear as he lay in their hospital’s COVID-19 unit.
He was reunited Thursday with some of those who treated him for weeks after he arrived at Providence Mission Hospital in March 2020, just as the virus was descending on California. They still wore masks and he still recognized them.
“It’s amazing how I saw all the eyes and I was like, ‘I know you, I know you, I know you,’” the 62-year-old Patnoe said, his own eyes welling with tears while embracing each of a half-dozen nurses who lined up to greet him outside the hospital in Southern California’s Mission Viejo. “Oh, my God, thank you guys for keeping me alive.”
Patnoe and other coronavirus survivors held an emotional reunion with the nurses, respiratory therapists and doctors who saved their lives at a time when little was known about the virus. They shared hugs, memories and photos at an event marking the hospital’s 50th anniversary and added items to a time capsule created so future generations will remember the pandemic. It’s to be opened in 2071.
