Emergency room registered nurse Jodi Doering said some even try to convince her they have lung cancer instead.
Even as some coronavirus patients struggle to get oxygen in their lungs, they don’t always believe they have COVID-19, or that COVID-19 is even real. That’s the shocking trend one South Dakota emergency room nurse is reporting as positive cases surge in her state.
“Their last dying words are ‘This can’t be happening, it’s not real,’” registered nurse Jodi Doering told CNN. “When they should be spending time FaceTimeing their families, they’re filled with anger and hatred and it just made me really sad the other night. I just can’t believe those are going to be their last thoughts and words.”
Doering added that there have been times she has offered to help them call family members in what she believed to be their lasts moments before they passed away. “They say ‘No because I’m going to be fine,’ and you see their oxygen levels maxed out on what we call Vapotherm at 100% and their oxygen level might be 75%. That’s not really compatible with life and we know where that’s going to head,” she said.
Some patients try to convince her and other nurses it may be something else like lung cancer in an effort to ignore the diagnosis, which Doering called “far-fetched.”
“People are still looking for something else,” Doering said. “It just makes you sad, and mad, and frustrated.”
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