Covid-19 impact: Son shares how bedridden dad died alone in New York nursing home

This fitness coach got candid about his father’s lonely death in a New York care home.

Due to the facility’s ban on visitors, Jin Zhen and his mother, who both live in New York, couldn’t say their final goodbyes to his father, whom they haven’t seen for a month. Zhen’s father had been living in a nursing home for nearly four years due to age-related illness, including a stroke.

“My father was in a stable stage until the ongoing 2020 Covid-19 pandemic began to hit New York City hard,” Jin Zhen wrote in a post on GoFundMe.

Zhen, a certified personal trainer at top New York celebrity gym Dogpound, said in the post that his father died of a heart attack on Easter Sunday, People reports.

Because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in New York, nursing homes and care facilities have isolated their patients from outsiders.

An earlier stroke had left Zhen father an “an incomplete quadriplegic”, which meant that he couldn’t raise his arms or walk. He could still, however, feel pain. Before the lockdown, Zhen and his mother visited him almost daily.

Zhen speaks of how his mother would stay overnight to keep her husband company until the nursing home banned visitors from staying overnight with residents.

To date. New York City has more than 136 000 coronavirus cases.

The last time Zhen – or anyone – was able to visit his father, was 11 March.

One month later, Jin received the devastating phone call.

“We got a call from the nursing home. The nurse told me dad fell unconscious. They performed CPR on him as we spoke, telling us to be prepared for the worst and get ready to come in,” he said.

A few moments later, the worst was confirmed

“This hit me hard. I just hope dad had left in his sleep without any pain or suffering,” he wrote on GoFundMe

In the post, he included a touching video of him caring for his father over the last few years of his life.

The video, which was also shared on YouTube, begins in April 2016, showing Zhen helping his father with physical therapy.

Sources: People, News break, Flipboard