Heartbreaking
💔 In a heartbreaking photo, a doctor in full personal protective equipment hugs an elderly patient suffering from the novel coronavirus, serving as a reminder of the human toll and impact of the virus during the holiday season. The photo, taken on Thanksgiving, marked Dr. Joseph Varon’s 252nd straight day of working in the hospital. 🙏 Dr. Varon, chief of staff at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, was photographed by Go Nakamura of Getty Images on American Thanksgiving hugging a patient inside his COVID-19 unit, who said he just wanted “to be with my wife.” Nakamura had been following Varon around the ward that day when he took the arresting photograph, according to media interviews with the doctor and the photographer. The image shows Varon dressed in full protective gear and standing, embracing an elderly man who has his head buried in the crook of Varon’s right arm. Varon saw the elderly patient out of his bed and trying to leave his room. “He’s crying,” he said. “So I get close to him and I tell him, ‘Why are you crying?’ And the man says, ‘I want to be with my wife.’ So I just grab him and I hold him. I did not know that I was being photographed at the time.”
