Covid-19: Heartbreaking Photo Shows American Doctor Hugging A Distressed Elderly Coronavirus Patient

A photo of an American doctor hugging an elderly man with Covid-19 on Thanksgiving Day in the United States has touched hearts around the world.

The photograph of Dr. Joseph Varon embracing a distressed patient was taken on Varon’s 252nd consecutive day of work at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston.

Varon, who is the center’s chief of staff, found the man out of his hospital bed, upset and seeking help, US media reported.

“I want to be with my wife,” the frail patient had told her. “So I grab it and hold it,” Varon told CNN. “I felt very sorry for him. I felt very sad, like him ”.

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The image was taken by Getty Images photographer Go Nakamura, who was in the center’s intensive care unit documenting the pandemic on Thanksgiving.

Varon was wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE), including a face shield and gloves, when he comforted the patient who is currently battling a Covid-19 infection.

Speaking to CNN, Varon said he often walks into his patients’ rooms, sits on their beds and talks to them because they feel lonely and “because they really need someone.”

The heartwarming photo has been shared by the media around the world and has put Varon’s moment of kindness in the spotlight.

The patient in the photograph is believed to be on the mend and is expected to be discharged this week.

Talking to Good morning america On Monday (US time), the doctor said that the coronavirus pandemic has hit medical personnel hard, and that doctors like him work around the clock to care for patients.

“My days can be 16 hours … and then when I get home, I get a million phone calls in the middle of the night,” he told the television show.

“When I leave my house, I say to my wife: ‘[I’ll] see you ‘, but I don’t know when or at what time. Sometimes I don’t come home the same day. “

While speaking to the US media on Monday (US time), Varon was Varon’s 256th consecutive day of work, multiple US outlets reported.

“I don’t know why I haven’t gotten sick,” the doctor told CNN. “My nurses cry in the middle of the day.”

Nakamura, the photographer who took the picture, said The Washington Post that he had visited the medical center more than 20 times and had witnessed many acts of generosity on the part of Varon and other staff members.

He said he was glad the photo got so much attention because now people were talking about what is really going on inside American hospitals.

Currently, the United States is battling new waves of Covid-19 infections, and Texas is one of many states battling rising numbers and hospitalizations. Nearly 9,000 infected people are currently in hospitals across the state, the Dallas News reported.

On Monday, the state reported more than 10,700 new cases and 22 deaths.

During the course of the pandemic, the US has reported 13.53 million cases and 268,000 deaths, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.

Of those, the state of Texas has reported nearly 21,900 deaths, with 962,600 people recovering from the virus.

Varon said ABC13 that you are concerned that they will see an influx of patients at the same time in the coming weeks.

“The next six weeks are going to be pretty dark,” he said. “It will probably be the darkest weeks in modern American medical history.”