A hospital nurse was found lifeless at her house after treating COVID-19 patients without being provided with a face mask, according to her husband.
Florida local Danielle DiCenso started showing coronavirus symptoms a couple of weeks after working extensive shifts with infected patients without protective gear.
The 33-year-old mother was a traveling nurse based in the ICU unit at the Palametto General Hospital.
Her partner, David, entered their home and found her dead in the living room last Thursday as she’d been self-isolating and her condition swiftly worsened.
According to him, workers at his wife’s hospital did not provide her with proper equipment.
Information released last Tuesday shows that between 10 and 20 percent of COVID-19 cases in the United States are of healthcare employees, but they are less likely to be hospitalized than others.
“She always puts people first before her.
“She showed up for work one day and they didn’t have a mask for her.
“It really broke her heart that she couldn’t perform her job at a place she felt safe at.
“She had lots and lots of text messages between her and co-workers saying they were not properly equipped and (Palmetto officials were not) representing what was really going on at the hospitals,” David told WTCJ.
Danielle took a coronavirus test on March 23 but it gave inconclusive results and thus she started to self-isolate in her living room not choosing to go back to the hospital.
Posted by Danielle Hedrick Dicenso on Sunday, August 8, 2010
The nurse started showing COVID-19 symptoms two days later, but her hospital kept on asking her whether she could get back to work.
Her situation worsened with high fever and coughing until her husband found her lifeless body on the floor last Thursday.
Danielle had no underlying health issues.
“It was a rough four or five-day struggle between that.
Her fever spiked, it came on in waves.
Just by looking at her, I knew that she wasn’t her lively self.
She looked so peaceful. She looked like she just went in her sleep,” David told WPLG.
David has been greatly angered by the lack of protective gear available for his wife, saying that she would still be among the living if she had not been made to work without proper protection.
“I know for a fact that my wife would still be here right now if she was given the proper protective equipment,” he said.
“I’m very upset.
“My 4-year-old son’s not gonna have a mother.”
He continued saying that he is worried about other medical employees who are not being given protective equipment while putting their lives in danger.
“The people on the front lines, these are our modern-day infantry,” David said.
Posted by Danielle Hedrick Dicenso on Wednesday, August 16, 2017
The hospital has not yet commented on Danielle’s death and has been pointing the media to refer to their PPE policy.
“Nurses are provided appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) in compliance with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines. We are very focused on minimizing staff exposures in our hospital,” Palmetto General Hospital spokeswoman Shelly Weiss wrote in an email to DailyMail.
“All employees at our hospital are temperature checked upon arrival, wear a mask during patient care and are required to notify employee health if they become symptomatic.
“They are not permitted to work in the hospital caring for patients if exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19.”
Posted by Danielle Hedrick Dicenso on Sunday, September 16, 2018
As per Local 10 News, a medical examiner will test her body for COVID-19.
“Her passing was sudden and very tragic due what we believed to be COVID-19,” her sister Ashley Kuchciak wrote on a GoFundMe page set up to help with funeral expenses.
“Danielle was working as an ICU nurse on the front lines risking her life for the lives of others.”
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