‘Hospital staff was amazing in helping my dying sister’

I want to share what I witnessed from the medical staff at the Royal Jubilee Hospital’s intensive care unit. The protests we saw the other day targeting hospitals, with the clear intention of intimidating nurses and doctors, and with the reported physical assault of a nurse has encourage me to share the experience of having just a week ago witnessing the passing of Kelly Ronningen, my sister, just 44 years old, from COVID-19.

The staff at RJH were truly amazing. One of the first things my sister said to me when I discovered she’d been admitted to ICU was “I’m scared. But I’ll be OK, they’re super good here.” She was immediately put at ease and made to feel comfortable and cared for by the medical staff.

While intubated, the nurse overseeing her care answered questions about her condition in detail, several times a day, and never once seemed inconvenienced by it, and was always polite, caring and concerned for how the family were doing.

When the time came that nothing further could be done and we were called to come to the ICU to witness her last moments, we were consoled by the nurses, and the critical care specialist overseeing her care called in from the emergency department to give my mom his heartfelt condolences and express his remorse at not being able to save her daughter.

While we were unable to enter her room due to COVID restrictions, and had to watch from outside her room looking in through a window as they disconnected her IV lines and her respirator, the nurse in the hospital room comforted my sister by stroking her head and spoke to her, reassuring her that her family was there. The other nurses working in the unit all gathered behind us and silently bore witness with us to her death.

And now to see and hear these selfish, self-centred and heartless protesters not content with simply spreading a dangerous message, but needing to intimidate and even assault people that are not only risking their health and potentially lives by working 12-hour shifts in a hospital with COVID infected patients, but managing to do so daily with compassion and with the humanity and dignity of everyone involved at the forefront of what they do, is infuriating.

I’m completely done with that nonsense. I have no tolerance left in me for it at all.

Cory Ronningen Victoria

VIA CORY RONNINGEN Kelly Ronningen, 44, who died from COVID-19. She was a patient at Royal Jubilee Hospital, where she received exemplary care, her brother writes.