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I'd like to tell you the story of Linda and Charlie Cape.
It's a sad story, but I think it's an important story. Covid cases are rising fast and nursing homes may have to make hard decisions in the coming months. Thread, below. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/us/nursing-homes-isolation-virus.html
It's a sad story, but I think it's an important story. Covid cases are rising fast and nursing homes may have to make hard decisions in the coming months. Thread, below. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/us/nursing-homes-isolation-virus.html
Charlie and Linda Cape have been married for almost 50 years. Linda is a nurse. Charlie started out in corporate America, but eventually made his way to teaching high school kids -- something he loved. He taught english literature, writing and journalism. He was an avid writer.
Charlie learned that he had Alzheimer's Disease about ten years ago when he was 61. He lives in a nursing home in Florida. Before the pandemic, his wife, Linda, visited him almost every day.
Linda would help feed him, shower him, shave him and sometimes she'd give him a pedicure. Before the pandemic, Charlie was about 180 pounds and he could string together some words. He certainly could recognize his wife and knew her name.
His care facility would hold gatherings with singing and dancing and he would participate.
The staff would play "My Girl" on a speaker, and Charlie and Linda would dance together.
The staff would play "My Girl" on a speaker, and Charlie and Linda would dance together.
Then, coronavirus swept through the country. In March, Charlie's care facility, like most others, stopped allowing visitors.
Linda tried to talk with her husband on Skype and the phone, but the technology was too confusing for Charlie. He would look away or walk away. For months, she watched helplessly as he lost weight and withdrew into himself. She could not understand anything he was saying anymore.
Linda does not blame the facility for banning visitors. She thinks the facility has done a good job protecting residents and communicating with families during the pandemic. She has only the nicest things to say about the staff and the way they have cared for her husband.
This story does not have a happy ending.
Charlie's facility opened up to visitors in August. Linda and her son go every Sunday with a cookie and a Diet Coke, unless Charlie is sleeping.
But he does not recognize them anymore. Sometimes, during these visits, Charlie just sits and cries.
But he does not recognize them anymore. Sometimes, during these visits, Charlie just sits and cries.
Some of Charlie's decline may be attributable to Alzheimer’s, Linda said, but she believes that the long period of isolation from family accelerated its progress. If nothing else, she feels she missed a crucial period of his life when he still knew who she was.
Charlie and Linda's story is, sadly, common. And as cases continue to rise quickly in the US, operators of long-term care facilities say they are facing an impossible choice between locking down -- and depriving residents of vital human contact -- or inviting the virus inside.
The threat of coronavirus to residents in nursing homes and long-term care facilities is very real. About 40% of the total deaths in the U.S. pandemic are tied to nursing homes. The @nytimes tracks these deaths here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-nursing-homes.html
But the threat of isolation is real, too, especially for residents with Alzheimer's disease or dementia. And the damage can be permanent.
Thank you for reading. And thank you to Linda and Charlie Cape and all of the other brave people who share these painful stories with me, @jackhealyNYT and @sergenyt.
Thank you to our incredible team of journalists, who track covid cases in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, day in and day out.
And thank you to our amazing editors, who make this all possible:
@monicadavey1 @marclacey @archietse @wilsonandrews
@monicadavey1 @marclacey @archietse @wilsonandrews
