ATLANTA — Usually when a loved one is in the hospital you can visit them. That’s not an option now as hospitals restrict visitors because of the coronavirus.
So hospitals are finding ways for families to connect.
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Teresa Skepple says when her 96-year-old dad, Starling Hopkins, was admitted to Emory University Hospital Midtown April 1, it just happened to be his 96th birthday.
Skepple says some of the first words the doctor told her was that her dad was gravely ill. They confirmed through testing that Starling had the coronavirus.
Skepple says her dad was immediately put on a ventilator and that it was very touch and go. Skepple and her five siblings wanted to be there to touch and pray for their dad.
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The director of Emory’s Palliative Care Center, Dr. Tammie Quest, says they are needing to be as creative as possible in making sure that as they have social distancing at the hospitals they don’t have social isolation for the patients.
So Emory set up a teleconference meeting with all the siblings where they could see and talk to their dad and his doctors.
It was a chance to ask the doctors things they had concerns about and tell their dad what he so needed to hear.
Skepple says it was a blessing because they could all tell him how much they loved him and what a great father he has been to them. He couldn’t talk because he was on a ventilator but could hear them.
Skepple says the next day he started improving.
She is convinced the teleconference, along with prayers, helped her dad. He’s now off the ventilator and out of the intensive care unit as he continues to recover.
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