'She was not alone': Nurse uses video chat to let daughter say farewell to mother dying of coronavirus
Nurse held her hand and patted head as she passed
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Your support makes all the difference.A woman was able to say a final farewell to her mother – dying from coronavirus – after a nurse used the video chat on her phone to connect the pair one last time.
Carolann Gann, 75, herself a nurse for more than three decades, fell ill last week at a nursing home in Issaquah, outside of Seattle.
Ms Gann, who suffered from congestive, called her daughter, Michelle Bennett, to say they were testing her for Covid-19.
Shortly afterwards, she was taken to the town’s Swedish hospital where she was soon fighting for her life.
She died on Thursday, but not before her daughter – not permitted to enter the facility – was able to speak to her by video chat, courtesy of a nurse.
“It’s hard to believe a week ago she was in her nursing home and now, seven days later, she’s dead. How does that even happen?” Ms Bennett, a senior police officer, told the Kiro 7 television network.
“She called and said it’s positive. And at that moment, it was like the world was a little crashing down.”
Ms Bennett, and her wife, Brandi Gordon Bennet, told the channel that staff at the facility did everything they could to ensure Ms Gann was comfortable.
“All of us on speaker phone are saying goodbye, which is a horrible thing. Kids are crying and saying goodbye on the landline on speakerphone,” said Ms Bennett.
Her wife, added: “But her mom was pretty present. She could hear us and respond and tell the kids how proud she was of them.”
As Ms Gann’s condition got worse, a nurse was used her phone again to allow her daughter to see her.
“So she suited up, put the phone to my mom’s face and I could tell by her breathing,” she said.
“I was able to say goodbye and tell her I love her and I look at the nurse and she has all her stuff on and she’s crying.”
Neither the hospital or the nursing home immediately responded to enquiries on Saturday. Ms Bennett also did not respond to a message.
They said when after Ms Gann died, a nurse called again to tell them the news and and say she had held hand and patted her head as she had passed.
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