Dr. Joseph Varon hugs and comforts a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit during Thanksgiving at the United Memorial Medical Center on November 26, 2020 in Houston, Texas. (AFP)
WASHINGTON鈥揓oseph Varon, a doctor treating coronavirus patients at a Texas hospital, was working his 252nd day in a row when he spotted a distraught elderly man in the Covid-19 intensive care unit (ICU).
Varon鈥檚 comforting embrace of the white-haired man on Thanksgiving Day was captured by a photographer for Getty Images and has gone viral around the world.
Varon, chief of staff at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, told CNN he was entering the Covid ICU when he saw the elderly patient 鈥渙ut of his bed and trying to get out of the room.鈥�
鈥淎nd he鈥檚 crying,鈥� Varon said. 鈥淪o I get close to him and I (ask) him, 鈥榃hy are you crying?'鈥�
鈥淎nd the man says, 鈥業 want to be with my wife.鈥� So I just grab him and I hold him,鈥� Varon said. 鈥淚 was feeling very sorry for him. I was feeling very sad, just like him.鈥�
鈥淓ventually he felt better and he stopped crying,鈥� Varon told CNN on Monday, which he said was his 256th consecutive day of work.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know why I haven鈥檛 broken down,鈥� the doctor said. 鈥淢y nurses cry in the middle of the day.鈥�
Dr. Joseph Varon comforts a COVID-19 patient. (AFP)
Varon said the isolation of the Covid unit was difficult for many patients, particularly the elderly.
鈥淵ou can imagine,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou are inside a room where people are coming in spacesuits.
鈥淲hen you are an elderly individual, it鈥檚 more difficult because you are alone,鈥� he said.
鈥淪ome of them cry. Some of them try to escape,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e actually had somebody who tried to escape through a window the other day.鈥�
Varon said the elderly man in the picture is 鈥渄oing much better.鈥�
鈥淲e are hoping that before the end of the week he鈥檒l be able to get out of the hospital,鈥� he said.
Varon also had a message for people who are not taking precautions amid the pandemic.
鈥淧eople are out there in bars, restaurants, malls,鈥� the doctor said. 鈥淚t is crazy. People don鈥檛 listen and then they end up in my ICU.
鈥淲hat people need to know is I don鈥檛 want to have to be hugging them.
鈥淭hey need to do the basic things 鈥� keep your social distance, wear your masks, wash their hands, and avoid going to places where there are a lot of people,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f people would do that, healthcare workers like me could hopefully rest.鈥�
Dr. Joseph Varon talks to a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit. (AFP)