This obituary is part of a series on people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here.
Samantha Hickey, a nurse practitioner, once diagnosed a child’s illness in a single day after the boy’s family had unsuccessfully searched for answers for about a year.
“The providers really didn’t listen to what the family was saying,” said Crystal Belcourt, a former trainee of Ms. Hickey at St. Luke’s Children’s Pediatrics in Caldwell, Idaho, where Ms. Hickey worked. “The most important thing I learned from Sam is to listen.”
Ms. Belcourt said the case was an example of Ms. Hickey’s “Sherlock Holmes” approach: tearing apart a complicated medical situation by closely studying what she heard from patients and their families. Sympathy for her patients, he added, fueled Ms. Hickey’s enthusiasm for solving medical mysteries.
Ms. Hickey died on July 13 at St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center in Meridian, Idaho. She was 45 years old. Her husband Robb Hickey said the cause was Covid-19.
Only two people under the age of 50 have died of Covid-19 in Idaho, according to the state Department of Health and Welfare.
During her 20+ years as a nurse in Southwest Idaho, Ms. Hickey trained many other nurses and became a mentor to many, her husband said.
“She was,” he said, “a stubborn bear mom.”
Samantha Ray Simonis was born on October 5, 1974, in La Grande, Oregon. Her father Ray worked as an engineer on the Union Pacific Railroad, and her mother Linda Huddleston worked in food services at La Grande Country Club. .
Ms. Hickey graduated in 1998 with a Bachelor of Nursing from Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, and in 2009 earned a Master of Nursing from Graceland University in Independence, Missouri.
She married Dusty Berg in 1994; they divorced in 2009, and she married Mr. Hickey the following year. In addition to Mr. Hickey, she is survived by two children from her first marriage, Devan and Jackson Berg; a son, Reed, and a daughter, Blakelee, from her second marriage; and two sisters, Jamie Lester and Rachel Seaman.
After Ms. Hickey graduated from high school at age 17, the Portland Trail Blazers considered hiring her for their dance squad, but she was disqualified after those responsible discovered she was two years below the minimum age requirement. . Later it emerged that she got into tap-dance routines at home, and bought her children shoes so they could join her.
She encouraged Mr. Hickey, who had worked for many years as a paramedic, to attend medical school, which he had once dreamed of doing. She financially supported the family while he studied. (He is entering his third year).
The region around Caldwell, where Ms. Hickey lived and worked, has seen a steady increase in virus cases in recent weeks. According to Mr. Hickey, his wife saw a patient who had tested positive about a week before her death.
The family and the St. Luke’s Health Foundation plan to create a scholarship fund in the name of Mrs. Hickey to support nursing education. Friends and family said they also hope that Ms. Hickey’s good health and young age will draw attention to the severity of the virus and the need to follow public health protocols.
“She would want her death to be something that others could learn from,” Belcourt said.
