Coronavirus ‘nothing to play with.’ KY man posts somber video after decision to end father’s life support
A Southern Kentucky man is getting considerable attention for a somber video he posted minutes after the decision to end life support for his father, the first resident of Pulaski County known to have died as a result of the novel coronavirus.
Dustin Pitman went on Facebook live early on April 2 to describe how his father, David Pitman, quickly deteriorated because of the COVID-19 respiratory illness.
David Pitman, 62, had survived colon cancer, but the illness caused by the coronavirus overwhelmed him. Doctors gave him little chance of survival, Dustin Pitman said.
Pitman said he posted the video in hopes of helping people understand the seriousness of virus.
“I just wanted everyone to know how bad it is,” he said. “This is nothing to play around with.”
Pitman said his father, a former employee of the Somerset water plant, would not have wanted to be kept alive by artificial means.
The family made the decision to end life support, but only Pitman and his brother were allowed to see their father a final time — dressed in full protective gear — because others in the family were in quarantine.
Moments later Pitman stopped in the parking lot of Lake Cumberland Regional Center in Somerset and made the video, even as medical personnel inside were preparing to take his father off life support.
Pitman urged people to follow the kinds of social distancing measures Gov. Andy Beshear and other officials have pushed.
“I love everybody, and stay at home,” he said.
The Commonwealth-Journal newspaper in Somerset reported that David Pitman was a family man and a man of faith who loved fishing, the outdoors and a good joke.
“If he wasn’t kind of aggravating or picking on you, you knew something was wrong,” his son told the newspaper.
This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 1:52 PM.
