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WASHINGTON: Joseph Varon, a doctor treating coronavirus patients at a Texas hospital, was working his 252nd day in a row when he saw an elderly man in distress in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU).
Varon’s comforting hug to the white-haired man on Thanksgiving was captured by a Getty Images photographer and has gone viral around the world.
Varon, chief of staff at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, told CNN that he was entering the COVID-19 ICU when he saw the elderly man “get out of bed and try to get out of the room.”
“And she’s crying,” Varon said. “So I go up to him and (ask him), ‘Why are you crying?'”
“And the man says, ‘I want to be with my wife.’ So I grab him and hold him, “Varon said.” I felt so sorry for him. I was feeling very sad, just like him. “
Dr. Joseph Varon comforts a COVID-19 ICU patient during Thanksgiving at the United Memorial Medical Center on November 26, 2020 in Houston, Texas. (Photo: AFP / Getty Images / Go Nakamura)
“Eventually he felt better and stopped crying,” Varon told CNN on Monday (Nov. 30), which he said was his 256th consecutive day of work.
“I don’t know why I haven’t gotten sick,” said the doctor. “My nurses cry in the middle of the day.”
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Varon said that the isolation of the COVID-19 unit was difficult for many patients, particularly the elderly.
“You can imagine,” he said. “You are inside a room where people come in space suits.
Dr. Joseph Varon dons his face shield before entering the COVID-19 ICU at the United Memorial Medical Center on November 16, 2020 in Houston, Texas. (Photo: AFP / Getty Images / Go Nakamura)
“When you are an older person, it is more difficult because you are alone,” he said.
“Some cry. Some try to escape,” he said. “We actually had someone try to escape through a window the other day.”
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Varon said that the old man in the picture “is much better.”
“We hope that before the weekend he can leave the hospital,” he said.
Dr. Joseph Varon prepares to enter the intensive care unit (ICU) at United Memorial Medical Center on November 22, 2020 in Houston, Texas. (Photo: AFP / Getty Images / Go Nakamura)
Varón also had a message for people who are not taking precautions amid the pandemic.
“There are people in bars, restaurants, shopping centers,” said the doctor. “It’s crazy. People don’t listen and then they end up in my ICU.
“What people need to know is that I don’t want to have to hug them.
“They need to do the basic things: maintain their social distance, wear their masks, wash their hands and avoid going to places where there are many people,” he said. “If people did that, healthcare workers like me could hopefully rest.”
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