Rev. David Fleenor, a chaplain at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, visited a nearby morgue Wednesday morning and called the son of a recently deceased COVID-19 patient. 'We had the morgue attendant pull out the body of this beloved mother,' Fleenor told ABC News. For a variety of reasons
Rev. David Fleenor, a chaplain at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, visited a nearby morgue Wednesday morning and called the son of a recently deceased COVID-19 patient.
"He's saying the things to his mom that anybody would say," Fleenor said."'I'm so sorry that I can't be there. I love you.' All of these heartfelt, heartbreaking kinds of things. And we got the privilege -- that's how we think about this -- it is a privilege that we got to be his proxy." Rabbi Hillel Fox is the Director of Chaplaincy Care for North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York. He helped spearhead his hospital's efforts to set up"tele-chaplaincy" for patients in isolation rooms, as well as for their family members in quarantine. The type of hotline service allows anyone to call in and speak with a chaplain over the phone. There is also the ability for patients to video conference with a chaplain from their rooms.
"Over the course of a week, we've had at least 500, if not more, board-certified chaplains around the country who have said, 'I'm willing to help offer tele-chaplaincy support to your patients in New York City. Just let me know what to do,'" he said. The concept of providing comfort through technology has extended into the military as well. In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, Florida, said the base's chaplains are"prepared to visit via phone and use voice or Facetime by the patient's request."
Fox said that fear of dying alone is pervasive in patients, family members and hospital staff alike, even when it's"not articulated." Rabbi Kara Tav, a chaplain at NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, said her team is constantly praying for the sick.
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