A story of the plague year

When Sara Whitehouse tested positive for the coronavirus she feared the worst.

A 73 year-old-resident of the Libby Care Center, Whitehouse suffers from acute chronic respiratory failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asbestosis and sleep apnea. To breathe, she relies on a nebulizer and uses oxygen 24 hours a day.

Whitehouse knew her condition made her particularly susceptible to the virus. And she had seen first hand how severe COVID-19 could be.

In late October, about a week before she tested positive, her roommate became infected with the virus and moved the facility’s COVID-19 unit, a separate wing of the care center where patients are isolated from other residents and treated by a different set of nurses.

“[My roommate] then died a couple days later,” said Whitehouse. “I never saw her again.”

Data gathered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that four Libby Care Center residents have died of the coronavirus since November.

Erik Aver, Whitehouse’s son, recalled being shaken by the news of the roommate’s positive test result. For months, he had worried about what might happen if his mother were to be infected. With the coronavirus dominating the news and case counts on the rise, Aver said his mother’s wellbeing was constantly on his mind.

“She’s in the high risk category,” he said. “I was really scared for her.”

Over the next few days, Aver called Whitehouse multiple times. For the most part, he said he tried to calm her down during these conversations. There was reason to be optimistic as Whitehouse continued to test negative for the virus.

Then on Nov. 1, a test came back positive.

Just a week after watching her roommate gather her belongings and move out, Whitehouse had to do the same. By that evening, she was settled into her new room within the coronavirus unit.

“I was scared to death and exhausted by the time I got set up,” she said. “I was so afraid I would end up like [my roommate].”

Whitehouse recalled being alone in the unit that night with one nurse and having to yell when she needed assistance. At times, Whitehouse said the unit could feel like prison.

Nevertheless, both Whitehouse and Aver commended the efforts of care center staff.

“All the nurses and certified nursing assistants at the Libby Care Center, they are all very talented and kind,” said Whitehouse. “I think they are great and make a good team for me and the residents.”

While CMS inspections have detailed 20 deficiencies at the care center over the past four years, with one report triggering a $13,527 federal fine in 2018, infection control inspections in June and October of 2020 found no health deficiencies.

Officials with Cascadia Healthcare, the care center’s parent company, could not be reached for comment on the facility’s coronavirus unit.

In September, Rachel Toland, facility administrator, said care center employees were following protocol designed to mitigate the spread of the virus. When reporting for work, employees had their temperatures taken and filled out a questionnaire designed to assess their risk of having recently contracted the virus. When in the facility, workers donned scrubs and masks. They also underwent weekly tested using an in-house system that returns results in 15 minutes.

Carli Auge, a charge nurse at the care center, said she started caring for Whitehouse in August 2020. While Auge said she had known Whitehouse before she began working with her, the two grew closer over the next couple months; Auge said Whitehouse was particularly social and enjoyed chatting about news from around the care center.

While Whitehouse was in quarantine, Auge was working the night shift at the unit. Caring for sick and dying residents, many of whom Auge had befriended, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. while layered up with personal protective equipment took its toll on the nurse.

“It was really hard working in the unit,” Auge said. “You watch people that should be healthy deteriorate.”

While on her shift, Auge said she would talk with Whitehouse from the hallway. Auge could tell the isolation was wearing down her social friend.

The morning after she moved into the coronavirus unit, Whitehouse noticed that everything she ate, including the cottage cheese and fruit she was regularly served, tasted hot and spicy.

Afraid of developing more symptoms of COVID-19, Whitehouse avoided doing anything strenuous. She spent her days lying in bed, watching TV, napping and taking occasional trips to the bathroom.

“I was scared every day, every minute,” she recalled. “[I] prayed a lot and counted the days.”

For support, Whitehouse regularly spoke with friends and family over the phone. Jo Sheridan, a Libby resident and longtime friend, said she was terrified when she got the news that Whitehouse had tested positive for the virus.

“My first thought was ‘this is it,’” she said.

Before Whitehouse moved into the unit, Sheridan said she would run errands for Whitehouse and bring her McDonald’s. When the care center still permitted visitors, Sheridan tried to come by once a week to play cribbage. During warmer months, she would pull up a chair outside of Whitehouse’s window and socialize.

Recalling the quarantine, Whitehouse said she felt isolated, afraid and depressed. But it was comforting to know her loved ones were thinking of her.

“I could feel the love and prayers that surrounded me,” she said.

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of Whitehouse’s quarantine, nursing home staff brought her out of the coronavirus unit and back to her room.

“A large group of staff and residents [were] yelling and clapping for me,” she said. “It was very nice and I was so happy to be back in my room.”

But Whitehouse’s travails were not over. Aver recalled how his mother began having trouble breathing after she left the unit. For the next couple days, nursing home staff and doctors worried that Whitehouse was overtaxing herself and prescribed medication to ease her breathing.

Whitehouse said she could not remember the days immediately following her release from the unit. Aver said it was not possible to tell if his mother’s breathing trouble was due to the coronavirus since she wasn’t tested after returning to her room.

By Nov. 16, however, Aver said his mother’s condition began to improve.

Over the past few months, Whitehouse settled back into the normal routine of care center life. In late January, she received her first vaccine dose. A few days after Feb. 1, the three month anniversary of her positive test result, she received her second shot.

With the other residents of the care center receiving their vaccines, Whitehouse was looking forward to the facility reopening again. But, looking back on her experience in the quarantine unit, she urged residents to keep following public health guidelines.

“Do what they say: wash your hands and wear your masks,” she said. “They do know what they are talking about.”