Ninety-three cases of COVID-19 and 10 deaths had been reported at Meadowbrook Manor nursing home in Bolingbrook as of the first of the month.
They’ll need to add Krist Angielen Castro Guzman to the list.
Guzman was a 35-year-old nurse at the facility and the mother of three young children who cared passionately for her patients and feared greatly for her safety during this pandemic.
Guzman died Saturday at AMITA Health Adventist Medical Center in Bolingbrook, where, less than five months earlier, she had given birth to her youngest child.
Guzman died of cardiac arrest an hour after being intubated for respiratory problems caused by the coronavirus, just one day after being admitted to the hospital and barely a week after falling ill, according to her family.
I wonder how many of the people who are so righteously concerned about their right NOT to stay home or NOT wear a face mask in public ever pause to consider the ramifications for health care professionals like Guzman who are duty-bound to attend to the sick.
It’s shameful enough that they pretend it’s OK for the people in nursing homes to die because, well, they’re really old. But to cavalierly sacrifice the nurses and doctors and support personnel as well is beyond all reason.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reports that at least 25 people who work in health care settings have died from COVID. But the state has information on the occupations of only about one-sixth of those who have tested positive. So the real death tally is surely much higher.
Among the 10,607 COVID-positive cases in Illinois where the occupation is known, nearly half work in health care.
Though the people who won’t wear their face masks might not ever consider the plight of Guzman and other health workers, she definitely was thinking about them.
“She wouldn’t be happy about people coming out of this early,” said Jeschelyn Pilar, her cousin. “She wanted people to stay home.”
Guzman’s Facebook posts indicate the dangers of COVID-19 were very much on her mind in the weeks before her death.
On April 15, she reposted the popular meme: “‘Essential workers’ sounds so lame. So from this day forward, we shall be known as the ‘Suicide Squad.’ ”
Guzman also posted this admonition: “Keep washing your hands, people,” as well as instructions on how to make your own mask at home.
Her last posting, from April 23, just nine days before she died:
“These are the Days of Our Lives #CovidSucks #AvengersAssemble #PPEs #ProudNurse #PrayingForMyPatients#SaveLivesStayHome #DontBeALame #FlattenTheCurve”
A masked smiley face tucked between “Our Lives” and #CovidSucks suggested her sense of irony.
Guzman was a military brat, her father a retired U.S. Navy senior chief petty officer from the Philippines, where she was born.
The family moved around the world while she was growing up: Japan, California, Iceland and Virginia.
“I think Krist really loved that part about herself,” Pilar said. “She was really great about connecting with people and keeping in touch with people. She liked that part about being a DOD brat. It made her a better person.”
She got her nursing degree from Brown Mackie College in Indiana and settled in Bolingbrook with husband Omar Guzman, who’s a certified nursing assistant at Meadowbrook.
They had three children: Livvy Rogue, 6, Xavi Lionel, 5, and Leandro Christiano, 5 months old on Friday — the day the family plans to have Guzman’s funeral.
Guzman became concerned about her health in late March after an uncle who was a surgeon in the Philippines died from COVID-19. She tested negative but learned she had strep throat and missed three weeks of work.
She returned to her job on April 20 and had been back just four days when she developed a cough and diarrhea. She was tested again and checked herself in to a hotel to protect her children.
This time, the results came back positive, but she was advised not to come to the hospital unless her symptoms worsened. When they did, it was too late.
AMITA Bolingbrook is just steps from Meadowbrook, a longterm-care facility that opened a dedicated wing for COVID-19 patients being released from hospitals.
Guzman didn’t work on that wing. But she told her family she regularly came in contact with COVID patients, said her sister, Kayla Aleksei Clayton, who also is studying to become a nurse.
Clayton said her sister didn’t believe the facility was providing adequate personal protective equipment.
Neither the hospital nor the nursing home responded to me Tuesday.
A GoFundMe page for the family has raised more than $35,000.
Not long before her death, Guzman turned down an offer to work extra shifts for bonus pay.
Her family said she loved her job and was proud to be doing her part in the crisis, but nobody should have to be part of a Suicide Squad.
