With exclusive access, AP followed nurses both at work in a Los Angeles-area COVID ward and at home with their families, revealing the conflicts they face to care for sick and dying patients during the pandemic.
Los Angeles photographer Jae Hong wanted to tell the story of the nurses.
He knew that on the front lines of the battle against coronavirus, nurses spend long hours covered in layers protective equipment, caring for sick and dying patients who are separated from their families.
Then the nurses go home, taking with them the fear of spreading the virus to their own loved ones.
Nurse Susan Morales waves to David Feinour, a 71-year-old COVID-19 patient, at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 10, 2020. “We still have emotions,” said Morales who has been a nurse for 42 years. “The day you don't is the day you should get out of nursing. That's what I would tell my students.”
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Nurse Shamaine Santos holds a tablet in front of a sedated COVID-19 patient during a video chat with the patient’s family from St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 7, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Nurse Cindy Kelbert, left, checks on a critically ill COVID-19 patient through a glass door as other nurses look on at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 7, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Nurse Shamaine Santos disinfects her respirator using bleach wipes after tending to a COVID-19 patient at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 7, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Hospital staffers transport the body of a COVID-19 victim on a gurney at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 7, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Romelia Navarro weeps while hugging her husband, Antonio, 65, in his final moments in a COVID-19 unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 31, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
In his final moments, a phone is placed next to Antonio Navarro, a 65-year-old COVID-19 patient, as his son, Jose, says goodbye to him at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 31, 2020. Navarro’s wife, Romelia, left, weeps at his bedside.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Romelia Navarro, 64, sobs while sitting at the bedside of her dying husband, Antonio, as his heart rate drops to zero in a COVID-19 unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 31, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Nurse Michele Younkin, 28, takes off her personal protective equipment after joining the family members of COVID-19 patient Antonio Navarro as Navarro died at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 31, 2020. Navarro was the first COVID-19 patient to die in Younkin’s care.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Nurse Michele Younkin, left, feeds her 7-month-old son Jackson as her husband Cody gives him a kiss in a park on her day off in Garden Grove, Calif., Aug. 5, 2020. Five days earlier she had lost her first COVID-19 patient. She had taken off her PPE, murmured to herself, “this never gets easier,” and sobbed as she washed her hands.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Michele Younkin, a 28-year-old nurse who works in a COVID-19 unit at St. Jude Medical Center, kisses her 7-month-old son, Jackson, in a park on her day off in Garden Grove, Calif., Aug. 5, 2020. Younkin acknowledged the risks she is taking to treat and comfort her patients, emphatically telling her husband: “If I were to die, don’t come. Don’t risk yourselves.”
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Nurse Sarvnaz Michel, 28, works on a computer while assisting a COVID-19 patient in a room with poster boards filled with family photos and get-well messages at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 10, 2020. The 28-year-old’s career has forced her to blur and blend her two lives. She agonizes over her every move in the hospital – “Did I put my gear on the right way, did I take it off the right way, did I touch something wrong accidentally?” – and locks her shoes in the car after her shifts.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Sarvnaz Michel, a 28-year-old nurse who works in St. Jude Medical Center’s COVID-19 unit, video chats with her grandmother, Acar Sharifi, at her home in Garden Grove, Calif., July 14, 2020. Michel juggles decisions like breastfeeding during a pandemic and whether she should move out of her home to keep her son and husband safe. “The thought of infecting either of them or my family,” she said. Her voice breaks and her husband Cody rubs her back. “It’s crazy.”
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Sarvnaz Michel, a 28-year-old nurse who works in St. Jude Medical Center's COVID-19 unit, kisses her 6-month-old son Arshan while video chatting with her grandmother, July 14, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Sarvnaz Michel, a nurse who works in St. Jude Medical Center’s COVID-19 unit, puts shoes on her son Arshan in Garden Grove, Calif., July 14, 2020, next to a sign her husband made to cheer her up. Michel gave birth to Arshan prematurely and was supposed to return to work as a nurse on Valentine’s Day. Instead she took six weeks of unpaid maternity leave to buy time. She started a new job at St. Jude’s in March, returning to a field very different from the one she had left before his birth and that pandemic. “I cry almost every night,” she said. “If it was only about me, it would be a different story.”
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Spencer Cushing, 29, tends to David Feinour, a 71-year-old COVID-19 patient, at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 7, 2020. For the month of April, the Cushing family lived apart – Cushing spent his days and some of his nights at St. Jude’s, as a nurse caring for “step-down” patients recovering from the most serious COVID-19 symptoms.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
With the indentation of a mask visible on his face, nurse Spencer Cushing, 29, leans on a desk briefly after assisting a COVID-19 patient at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 7, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
James Cushing, 3, pops out of a door to greet his father, Spencer, a 29-year-old nurse who works in St. Jude Medical Center's COVID-19 unit, in Orange, Calif., July 13, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Spencer Cushing, a 29-year-old nurse who works in St. Jude Medical Center’s COVID-19 unit, helps his 3-year-old son, James, color animation characters in Orange, Calif., July 13, 2020, after working a 12-hour shift at the hospital.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Spencer Cushing, a 29-year-old nurse who works in St. Jude Medical Center’s COVID-19 unit, sits on a sofa in his home in Orange, Calif., Monday, July 13, 2020, after working a 12-hour shift.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Nurse Jackie Vargas pulls on her mask, stored in a plastic food container, while preparing to assist a COVID-19 patient at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 7, 2020. Vargas wears her glasses instead of contacts so she doesn't have to touch her eyes. She swaps her sneakers out for glittery black clogs so she doesn't have to handle shoelaces. She seals her N95 mask in the food container between patients so it’s stored away from airborne germs.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Nurse Jackie Vargas, far right, watches as Dr. Michael Katz, second from left, performs a procedure on a critically ill COVID-19 patient with Juan Herrera, left, and Kevin Neal at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 7, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Nurse Jackie Vargas looks at a COVID-19 patient in critical condition while working on a computer at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 7, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Wrapped in a resealable plastic bag, a smartphone belonging to nurse Jackie Vargas displays a family portrait, at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 7, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Nurse Jackie Vargas, left, is reflected in a glass door as she walks to her mother, Rose Matute, to pick up lunch for her children playing at their grandmother’s pool in Lakewood, Calif., July 11, 2020. The 39-year-old nurse, who works in St. Jude Medical Center's COVID-19 unit, maintains social distancing with her mother and mother-in-law.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Rose Matute, mother of ICU nurse Jackie Vargas, and Vargas's 6-year-old son, Kai, give each other an air hug at Matute’s home in Lakewood, Calif., July 11, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Nurse Jackie Vargas, right, stands with her children, Ava, left, and Kai, while chatting with her mother, Rose Matute, with a screen door between them at her mother’s home in Lakewood, Calif., July 11, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Hong also knew it would be tough to convince a facility to let him in – especially since he wanted to spend several days photographing behind the scenes. He called and emailed about a dozen hospitals before he found one willing to give him the kind of access he needed.
The first day at St. Jude Medical Center, he stayed 13 hours. Then, he and LA reporter Stefanie Dazio spent several hours in the unit getting to know the nurses and asking to meet them at their homes for interviews and photos.
The result was an intimate look at the nurses: their dedication, their fears and sacrifices, and the circumstances that have prevented many from caring for their own children.
‘One of the hardest stories of my career.’
— Reporter Stefanie Dazio
But just as Hong and Dazio thought they were done reporting the story, they learned that the hospital has a program called “Nobody Dies Alone”: Either a nurse or a volunteer stays with patients in their final moments on behalf of family members. With help from the hospital staff, Hong found a family willing to share that experience. As 65-year-old Antonio Navarro neared the end of his life, his wife and son were allowed in the room, along with nurse Michele Younkin and the photographer. Hong’s sensitive, moving images capture the final moments as the family said goodbye, in person and over the phone.
Romelia Navarro weeps while hugging her husband, Antonio, 65, in his final moments in a COVID-19 unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 31, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
In his final moments, a phone is placed next to Antonio Navarro, a 65-year-old COVID-19 patient, as his son, Jose, says goodbye to him at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 31, 2020. Navarro’s wife, Romelia, left, weeps at his bedside.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Romelia Navarro holds the hand of her dying husband, Antonio, 65, as nurse Michele Younkin injects the patient with a solution in his final moments at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 31, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Romelia Navarro, 64, sobs while sitting at the bedside of her dying husband, Antonio, as his heart rate drops to zero in a COVID-19 unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 31, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Nurse Michele Younkin, 28, takes off her personal protective equipment after joining the family members of COVID-19 patient Antonio Navarro as Navarro died at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 31, 2020. Navarro was the first COVID-19 patient to die in Younkin’s care.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Nurse Michele Younkin, left, feeds her 7-month-old son Jackson as her husband Cody gives him a kiss in a park on her day off in Garden Grove, Calif., Aug. 5, 2020. Five days earlier she had lost her first COVID-19 patient. She had taken off her PPE, murmured to herself, “this never gets easier,” and sobbed as she washed her hands.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Michele Younkin, a 28-year-old nurse who works in a COVID-19 unit at St. Jude Medical Center, kisses her 7-month-old son, Jackson, in a park on her day off in Garden Grove, Calif., Aug. 5, 2020. Younkin acknowledged the risks she is taking to treat and comfort her patients, emphatically telling her husband: “If I were to die, don’t come. Don’t risk yourselves.”
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Later, sitting in a park with her 7-month-old baby, Younkin, the nurse, acknowledged the risks she is taking to treat and comfort her patients, emphatically telling her husband: “If I were to die, don’t come. Don’t risk yourselves.”
The story, beautifully rendered in images and text, had more than 25,000 page views on AP News, and social engagement throughout the week. The Los Angeles Times featured the local story online and The Baltimore Sun was among the papers giving the package strong print display.
For a poignant and revealing look at nurses’ commitment to both their patients and their families during the pandemic, Hong and Dazio share this week’s Best of the States award.
