To protect the privacy of others, I will refer to the nursing home as the nursing home beehive. The stories shared of the nursing home are all true, but some content may have been changed or omitted to protect the innocent. These stories may have occurred at different nursing homes. I am a Director of Nursing. These stories are from my perspective.

In the beginning, when the world stopped turning due to COVID, an 80 year old female named, Lucy could not understand why her family, especially her husband of 60 years, had not came for their daily visits. Lucy decided that she would hurt herself, so her family would come see her. The best way she could think of to hurt herself was to throw herself on the floor from her bed, after she used the controls to raise it to the highest position. So to the floor she went. Upon entering her room, it was obvious that she had an extra elbow on her upper arm between her shoulder and her elbow. As she laid on the floor, Lucy asked everyone she saw, “Will my husband come now?” An ambulance was called. 45 minutes after Lucy had left on a stretcher, and to headed to the hospital, the ER called me. They let me know that Lucy had definitely suffered a traumatic fracture to her arm, and that they had given her pain medicine, and they were ready for us to come pick her up. I replied, “Wait! That’s it? No surgery, no anything else?” The nurse on the other end of line replied, “No. I am sorry. We can’t spare the resources, plus we are under mandates that surgeries can only be performed on truly life saving situations.” I went silent. I did not have the words, I could not comprehend what I just heard. I finally asked, “Did she get to see her family?” I already knew the answer before it was spoken from the other end, “No. We are locked down, just like you are. She has been crying for her husband.” I remember thinking this may be the longest 2 weeks of our lives.

When Lucy arrived back to the beehive, without any type of sling, brace, or wrap, one of the most precious nurse practitioners I know, decided that this was ridiculous, and headed out to a local CVS. She returned with a sling. We all knew, it wouldn’t provide much support, but we all felt like we had to try something.

A week later, Lucy passed quietly, separated from her family, with facility staff at her bedside. She went peacefully, and it wasn’t from her fractured arm nor lack of care.

I will write many different stories and lessons learned, and wish for different endings at times.