ATLANTIS, Fla. — An ICU team in Palm Beach County performed an extraordinary act of kindness for the family of a young man who lost his fight with COVID-19.
Hospital workers at JFK Medical Center came together to raise enough money so the victim's father can take his son back to Central America for burial.
The 18-year-old man spent about two weeks at JFK Medical Center before dying from the coronavirus last week.
Nurses in the ICU said the boy's father was in South Florida while the victim's mother was back in Guatemala, unable to get a visa to visit him. The young man's father said he brought his son to the U.S. for a better life.
When his son died, they said the father was devastated and unable to bring his son back to Central America.
"[We said,] 'let's collect some money so we can give Edgar a decent resting place.' We can give his father something to relieve the pain," said Mark Hunter, a registered nurse in the ICU.
The doctors and nurses in the intensive care unit presented his father Thursday with the money to take his son home to Guatemala.
"His father is of very minimal means, but he was a dedicated father, a loving father," Hunter said. "After losing his son, he seemed as if he had no hope and no drive left in life."
The 18-year-old man was among the youngest COVID19 patients at JFK who died from the virus.
"We just asked all the nurses in all of the units," said Stephanie Perry, a registered nurse in the ICU.
In the photos, the father can be seen crying when he was given the $2,000 raised from hospital workers' donations.
The doctors and nurses at the hospitals said these sad endings related to the coronavirus are too common these days, and it is hard not to feel the anguish felt by families.
In this case, they did have a reason to ease one father's pain.