The ICU nurse and her sons are reeling from the losses they faced one after the other. They are now trying to make others aware.
There is nothing worse than knowing that we are powerless when it comes to protecting our loved ones. No matter how much we love them, we may not be able to save them from a difficult experience. In the case of one ICU nurse in Oklahoma, she felt helpless and unable to help her family while they struggled with COVID19. Even though she was a nurse, she knew that she couldn't help her mom (Linda) or husband (Dennis Davis).
All Lizanne Jennings was able to do was be there for her husband in his last moments. "Are you ready to be at peace?" she asked him on November 23. The nurse described how her last conversation with Dennis went. "He said, 'Uh-huh.' And I said, 'OK. Mom's fine. She's back at the house. She's going to stay with me.' Because I knew he would keep fighting if I told him my mom had already died. And so they started giving him morphine and Ativan. I turned him over and I rubbed his back. I said, 'I love you.' He said, 'I love you.' And I said, "You're going to go now, OK? You can finally be at peace.'"
My husband died Monday night & my mom died last Friday am. The lack of leadership, ability to listen to the experts, care about anyone but himself, contributed to this. We won’t have a celebration as two of my five family members are gone. #HealOurNation #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/bX24TAw2p5
— DemTruthTellerResister (@JenningsLizanne) November 25, 2020
Before getting the infection, Dennis was described as "full of life" and he had been healthy enough to beat his son at a pushup contest, as per Oklahoman. In the end, Lizanne wanted the former bodybuilder to stop suffering and not fight the infection any more as he was in pain. Had he known that Lizanne's mom Linda passed away three days before him, he would have continued to suffer. Dennis died 30 minutes after their conversation, Lizanne told CNN.
After he passed away, she cut his hair and bathed him. She had warned him months ago about the ravages of the virus but never imagined that he would be a victim.
@realDonaldTrump said "covid is a hoax. That it would disappear by April, by Summer. That it's just like the flu, it affects virtually nobody. Covid covid covid. You watch by November 3 they'll stop talking about it." #Trump lies.https://t.co/IYm0AGDnAB pic.twitter.com/VXDqQmQzVN
— Lee Saunders (@LeeSaunders72) December 2, 2020
"It's just so raw," Jennings said while battling her emotions. Her son Brayden was beside her during the interview but couldn't be there during Dennis and Linda's deaths as he too had tested positive for COVID19. "Sometimes I'm grieving for my husband and then I realize my mom's gone. And I'm grieving for my mom. I just think ... oh, I'm going to go tell Dennis but then Dennis is gone. So the two people that would have been so supportive ... you know, they're both gone," she added.
As a nurse, her job is to help save lives, and being unable to save her own family would have been heartbreaking. Her two sons, including Brayden, an attorney, and she felt like they were drowning in their grief. "As we go down, we're trying to push the other one back up to take a breath," she said. "It didn't have to be this way... Our family didn't have to be gutted," she said.
I’m not going to unite with the very individuals who contributed to the deaths of my mother & husband within 72 hours. She was gone Friday am & he passed last night. The lack of leadership, guidance & compassion sickens me. They lived long enough to vote for Biden/Kamala 💔 pic.twitter.com/WV1qaAdhGP
— DemTruthTellerResister (@JenningsLizanne) November 24, 2020
Brayden tested positive only because he was trying to help his mom care for the ones they lost. He still feels guilty for not being able to be there for his mom during that difficult period.
"It's kind of like we're broken, but we're continuing to break," he said. "And at that time when I got that positive result that, that took away her support system. They were both in the hospital, and I couldn't come hug my mom because I couldn't get her sick."
I hope their deaths even save one person. As an ICU nurse, with caring for COVID-19 patients, I couldn’t even save them. Dennis Davis and Linda Jennings. It didn’t have to be this way! https://t.co/sExFwynyqp pic.twitter.com/puvpbT1G2w
— DemTruthTellerResister (@JenningsLizanne) December 8, 2020
Since they passed away, Lizanne has been using her voice to spread awareness on social media about the virus. She has been telling people to wear a mask and take into consideration that there are peoples' lives at stake.
"There's nothing else. I couldn't save either one of them. If people don't wear masks, they don't want to wear a mask... This got brought into our home. My mom never left the house. My husband was so careful. Stop being selfish. Stop being selfish. That's all," she added.
If a burial happens in a cemetery, but there is no ceremony & just 3 grieving family members, does it still make a sound? An impact? My mother & husband died 3 days apart & we can’t even celebrate their lives or grieve properly. My family is gutted. U contributed to their deaths. https://t.co/CNZYcHTJqS pic.twitter.com/ZKdrzk0hL8
— DemTruthTellerResister (@JenningsLizanne) December 5, 2020
She said that her husband wore a mask and sanitized his hands while her mom stayed home for more than eight months. And yet, even with them doing the right thing, "We still lost them."
"It doesn't matter how strong you are. People are like, 'Oh man, Dennis is so strong. He's going to make it.' It happens no matter what. The virus keeps winning," she added.
References:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/01/us/oklahoma-nurse-lizanne-jennings-covid/index.html
