‘That’s my job.’ KY nursing home employee dies after volunteering to work in COVID-19 ward.
The second nursing-home employee in Kentucky to die after coming down with COVID-19 had volunteered to work in a wing set aside to care for residents exposed to the disease.
Michelle Rose Thompson, 58, of Columbia died April 30 at a hospital in Glasgow, her younger sister, Denise Carver, said Monday.
Thompson had worked for about seven years as a med tech at Summit Manor, a nursing home in Columbia that has been hit especially hard by the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
As of Sunday, the state said 65 residents of Summit Manor had tested positive since early March and nine had died, while there had been 17 cases and two deaths among employees.
Signature HealthCARE, which runs the facility, reported that six residents had recovered and others were being cared for at hospitals or the nursing home.
The two employees who died were Thompson and Pamela L. Hughes, who died April 13.
They are the only two workers at nursing homes in Kentucky known to have died after developing COVID-19.
“The loss of any of our residents or staff, for any reason, is devastating and we ask the community to keep the family of our staff member in your thoughts and prayers,” the Louisville-based company said in a statement.
Carver said Thompson was a loving, caring woman who was close to her family and helped care for her elderly mother. She enjoyed singing and had a karaoke machine, Carver said.
Thompson dressed up to go to work at Halloween and sang as she made her way through the nursing home to deliver medication, Carver said.
“She loved her patients and her patients loved her,” Carver said.
Summit Manor tested all residents and employees after the first positive case in a resident, and Thompson initially tested negative, her sister said.
The nursing home set up a wing to keep COVID-19 patients apart from other residents on April 9 and 10, according to the Lake Cumberland District Health Department.
Thompson volunteered to work in that wing even though family members raised concerns, Carver said.
“Her exact words were ‘That’s my job. I love these people. Somebody’s got to take care of them,’ “ Carver said.
Thompson, who had diabetes, began feeling ill not long after and got tested on April 17. The tests showed she had flu and COVID-19, Carver said.
She started having trouble breathing and went into the hospital at her family’s urging on April 21 — Carver’s birthday.
Thompson first thought she would recover, but her condition worsened. She was put on a ventilator and the disease attacker her kidneys.
Her family was able to say good-bye to her by video and watch a Catholic priest administer last rites.
Thompson was divorced and had no children, but is survived by her mother, two sisters, an aunt, four nieces and nephews and her dog, a Shih Tzu mix named Bella.
