The photo of an American doctor hugging an elderly, lonely patient on Thanksgiving Day has been around the web. The coronavirus crisis is still raging and caregivers are raising emotional awareness of its consequences.
by Mathilde Wattecamps
Thursday, November 26, 2020, Americans celebrated Thanksgiving, an opportunity to get together as a family. However, for patients with Covid-19 and the caregivers who accompany them, it is impossible to find their loved ones. A heartbreak, especially for the elderly. This is what the photo of Dr. Joseph Varon of the United Memorial Hospital in Houston, Texas tells us. "I am in the Covid unit and I see this elderly patient out of his bed, he is trying to leave, he was crying", he explained on the networks. The patient then tells the doctor that he wants to find his wife, who he misses. Touched by his grief, the doctor ignores the strict sanitary instructions of the hospitals and embraces him. A scene photographed and shared since by Joseph Varon.
The doctor, who has been working without rest for 8 months according to the American media ABC13, takes advantage of the virality of the photo to issue a reminder of the health rules: "I work everyday and people do everything that is wrong, they go to bars, restaurants, malls, that's rubbish", he laments. Still in the United States, another photo has recently made the buzz: that of this nurse who took the same photo at the time of her diploma and after 8 months in intensive care in the middle of the coronavirus crisis. Her exhausted face reflects the urgency and sleepless nights.
Raise awareness through image
In France, the coronavirus crisis led, during the first confinement, to the ban on visits. This created great distress among residents of EHPADs. Faced with it, the caregivers informed and continue to do so, in particular with shock photos on social networks. The objective being to raise awareness among the general public: the virus is real, it is still there and, if it does not affect you personally, it has a sometimes tragic impact on a whole part of the population, especially the most vulnerable as well as the most mobilized It is also an opportunity for them to remember that respecting barrier gestures also means respecting those who care for us.
According to the Inter-hospital Collective, the coronavirus crisis has caused a wave of departures of exhausted and tired of their working conditions.