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OAKLAND — Nurses held a vigil Tuesday at Sutter Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland to remember their longtime colleague Janine Paiste-Ponder, who died last week from the coronavirus, and to call on the hospital to provide them with more gear to protect them from the highly infectious disease.
“Nurses are gathering to pay tribute to an incredible colleague,” California Nurses Association Executive Director Bonnie Castillo said in a statement. “And we are also here to say that when Janine signed up to care for her patients at Summit, she did not sign up to sacrifice her life. Nurses need optimal personal protective equipment and testing, and they need it now.”
Doctors and family members joined nurses at the vigil to celebrate the life of Paiste-Ponder, 59, who worked in the medical/surgical unit at the hospital. Holding their cell phones aloft along with photos of the veteran nurse, those attending paused for a moment of silence during the vigil.
“Janine was an exceptional nurse. She was funny, she always helped. She was our friend, she was our sister, she was our coworker. And I can’t believe she is gone,” said Toya Randle, a fellow nurse who said she also recently tested positive for COVID-19.
The CNA and nurses across the state have blasted hospitals, including Alta Bates, for what they say is a lack of masks, glove and other protective gear and for limiting testing to symptomatic workers.
But hospitals say they are following the rules.
“Sutter is well-prepared to take care of both non-COVID and COVID-19 positive patients,” the health care system said in a statement. “Employees are provided appropriate PPE for the level of patient care they are providing. When caring for suspected or known COVID-19-positive patients, staff are supplied with new N-95 masks along with other appropriate PPE. Our supply is adequate to meet demand at this time.”
Sutter, which declined to comment on Paiste-Ponder’s death, citing privacy laws, also pointed to global supply problems that have hampered efforts to expand testing, saying, “We continue to follow state and federal guidance and consult with local county health officers regarding testing prioritization of patients and employees. This includes prioritizing testing of symptomatic health care workers.”
The vigil occurred as California topped 400,000 COVID-19 cases. As of Wednesday, more than 410,000 cases of the disease had been reported across the state and more than 7,900 people had died.
Paiste-Ponder is one of dozens of health care workers who have lost their lives to the deadly disease. Health departments across California have reported more than 19,900 cases among health care workers and more than 100 deaths.
“I just want Summit to know that they lost an amazing nurse. She was a loving wife, a loving mother,” Randle said. “All the nurses have been pleading and expressing their fears of what could happen.”