Petition — allow each COVID-19 patient one family member in the room (Opinion)

We are all doing our part to stay safe during the coronavirus crisis. And for some people, it’s been more of a challenge than for others.

The controversy will always be there: Is the cure worse than the disease? And in one respect, I’m positive it is. And that is the inability of people to be with their loved ones during sickness or even death.

The idea of someone spending their last minutes on this planet alone is something that should be inconceivable to any human being on this planet. And that’s why there needs to be some way to have a person who is hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms have a loved one with them.

Of course, there should be precautions. That person should be symptom-free, younger, gloved up and masked to the nth degree. But allowing people to die completely alone in hospitals as we have been doing during this crisis is positively inhumane.

The same way we have made allowances and taking precautions in other measures, it’s time to rethink our hospital protocol. As dedicated and hard-working as hospital staff is, everyone who has ever been in a hospital knows how difficult it can be even during normal times to advocate for yourself when you’re a patient. And in the case of these patients, it’s even worse. There are only so many staffers to go around. New Yorkers are starting to question this and a petition has been circulating on change.org asking New York Governor Mario Cuomo to consider this change.

It makes a really good point. It says, “If there is no one with them, who will speak up for them? What if the patient is trying to get the nurse's attention but can't? What if they are too weak to say what they need, and the doctor does not notice them?”

And before you get all judgy and say this would put too many hospital workers and patients at risk, think about what you’d do if it were your loved one, lying alone and afraid. If patients are isolated and hospital workers are suited up, this could be a relatively safe scenario. If NY would make this change, then New Jersey could be next. Sign the petition here.

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