Courtesy of Mercy
When Joy Kaplan reflects on what it means to dying COVID-19 patients, and their families, that she can be there to hold their hands in their final moments, she thinks of Job, the biblical figure who had his family, wealth, and health taken from him.
“In the beginning, his friends came and sat there in the suffering with him,” says the manager of pastoral services at Mercy Hospital Jefferson. “That actually meant more to Job than anything they said later on, and that’s what I feel like my ministry is.”
It’s her presence that’s meaningful to families. Because Mercy’s full-time staff chaplains all have clinical training, including infectious diseases and PPE protocol, they can still be there for critically ill COVID-19 patients—which is not the case in other parts of the country.
They’ve also used technology to ensure that families can be with their loved ones through video calls. “One of the most meaningful [cases] that I got to participate in was one in which we called a family member who was in Italy. They could be there during that time,” Kaplan says. “If this had been even pre-pandemic, the person in Italy couldn’t have been there in the room with someone to say their goodbyes... We’ve seen more people involved in that end-of-life care now.”
