The coronavirus pandemic continues to claim more victims as the death toll on Monday surpassed 3,000 Americans, including a single mother ...
The coronavirus pandemic continues to claim more victims as the death toll on Monday surpassed 3,000 Americans, including a single mother of six children who bid her farewell using a walkie-talkie, and a New Jersey National Guardsman, the first military figure to die after contracting the virus.
Sundee Rutter, 42, a breast cancer survivor from Snohomish County, Washington State, died on March 16 after contracting the coronavirus.
She was first admitted to Providence Regional Medical Center, the hospital which treated the first known case of COVID-19, on March 3, according to BuzzFeed News.
That day, she and her son, Elijah Ross-Rutter, 20, spent eight hours in a sealed room while she was treated by hospital staff wearing full protective suits.
'They don’t even want to touch my mom,' Elijah, who was allowed to see his mother with a face mask on, recalled.
That same day, she was sent home.
'She thought she had the flu, probably,' Ross-Rutter said.
'But like, the coronavirus? It was kind of hard for us to understand how she could get it because not that many people had it around here.'
Rutter, a single mother of six children from Snohomish County, Washington State, bid her children farewell through a two-way radio as she lay dying in the hospital. She passed away on March 16
Rutter, who tested positive for coronavirus, was a breast cancer survivor. She was kept in the hospital on March 7 after initially being diagnosed with pneumonia
Rutter is seen above with her six children in this undated file photo. She would have turned 43 years old in August
'For a while, she was able to text,' her son, Elijah Ross-Rutter (above),20, said. On March 12, his mother texted him that she was feeling 'much better.' But her text messages would eventually be limited to just emojis
Four days later, Rutter and her son returned to the hospital. While Ross-Rutter waited in the visiting area, his mother was examined by doctors.
A few hours later, Ross-Rutter was told that his mother was suffering from pneumonia and that she would be kept at the hospital overnight.
The next day, Rutter tested positive for coronavirus.
'For a while, she was able to text,' Ross-Rutter said. On March 12, his mother texted him that she was feeling 'much better.'
But her text messages would eventually be limited to just emojis.
'She was sending me hearts on the messages but she wasn’t replying,' Ross-Rutter said.
On March 16, the family received a phone call from a doctor telling them they should come to the hospital.
Ross-Rutter, his five siblings, and his mother's sister watched from a small glass window as Rutter lay in her bed.
As Rutter was moment away from death, her 20-year-old son assured her that her children would be looked after.
The children said goodbye to their mother using a hand-held radio whose receiver was propped next to her pillow.
'I told her I love her ... she shouldn’t worry about the kids,' Ross-Rutter said.
The most difficult part was not being able to be in the same room with his mother during her final moments.
'Like, I’m about to lose my best friend and she can’t even hear me,' Ross-Rutter said.
Captain Douglas Linn Hickok (above) is the first American service member to have died after contracting the coronavirus
First US military service member dies from coronavirus
The first US military service member has died from the coronavirus, the Pentagon said on Monday, as it reported another spike in the number of infected troops.
The service member was a New Jersey Army National Guardsman who tested positive for COVID-19 - the disease caused by the coronavirus - and had been in the hospital since March 21.
He died on Saturday, the Pentagon said.
Hickok has been in the hospital since March 21
'Today is a sad day for the Department of Defense as we have lost our first American service member - active, reserve or Guard - to coronavirus,' Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a statement.
'This is a stinging loss for our military community, and our condolences go out to his family, friends, civilian co-workers and the entire National Guard community.'
The nationwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic climbed past 3,000 on Monday, the deadliest day yet.
The New Jersey National Guard identified him as Captain Douglas Linn Hickok, a drilling guardsman in Medical Command and a civilian physician assistant, originally from Jackson, New Jersey.
'Our thoughts are with his wife, children, and their family,' New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy wrote on Twitter.
General Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau, lamented the death and said 'all of us are likely to know people directly affected by this virus in the coming weeks.'
Earlier on Monday, the Pentagon said that 568 troops had tested positive for the coronavirus, up from 280 on Thursday.
More than 450 Defense Department civilians, contractors and dependents have also tested positive, it said.
Reuters reported last week that the US military has decided to stop providing more granular data about coronavirus infections within its ranks, citing concern that the information might be used by adversaries as the virus spreads.
The new policy, which the Pentagon detailed in a statement on Monday, appears to underscore U.S. military concerns about the potential trajectory of the virus over the coming months - both at home and abroad.
There has been a sharp increase in coronavirus cases among troops inside the United States, which officials tell Reuters have overtaken the number of cases among forces overseas in key branches of military.
More than 164,000 people in the US have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 3,100 have died since the nationwide outbreak began in late January.
Among the latest victims are a Michigan state congressman, a member of the Louisiana governor's disability office, a college senior weeks away from graduating, an FDNY ambulance mechanic and a 24-year-old from Utah who contracted the disease from her father.
Their stories shed light on how quickly COVID-19 can strike people of all ages, including those who don't have underlying health problems.
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