A traveling nurse, a bubbly phlebotomist: US health workers who died from Covid-19

Lost on the frontline is a collaboration between the Guardian and Kaiser Health News that aims to document the lives of healthcare workers in the US who die from Covid-19, and to understand why so many are falling victim to the pandemic.

Each week, we’re documenting new cases of healthcare workers who have died on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. Here are their stories:

 Jessica Fajardo (left). Photograph: Maria Hernandez

Jessica ‘Jess’ Fajardo, 30

Phlebotomist who often made patients laugh

Occupation: Phlebotomist

Place of work: Center for Hypertension and Internal Medicine in Odessa, Texas

Date of death: 12 April 2020

Jessica “Jess” Fajardo had the same best friend for 28 of her 30 years: Maria Hernandez. They hung out in school and after school. They got jobs at a restaurant and, later, a video arcade. They rented an apartment.

Even when Hernandez married, moved away and had children, they texted daily. “She would take care of anybody she could,” Hernandez said.

In phlebotomy, Fajardo found a career she loved. Patients loved her, too – even though her job was sticking them with needles. More than one commented on her sense of humor, her skill, her bubbly cheer.

In late March, Fajardo started coughing, but with no identified coronavirus cases in the county, she was diagnosed with asthmatic bronchitis. It got worse. When a colleague was hospitalized with Covid-19, Fajardo went for a test. Days later, she sought emergency care.

Madhu Pamganamamula, a physician who runs the clinic where Fajardo worked, said precautions had been in place since mid-March. Ultimately, six employees tested positive for the virus; four others tested positive for the antibodies.

Hospitalized and intubated, Fajardo’s condition appeared to be improving. But she died after doctors removed her ventilator. Said Hernandez: “She was an amazing friend.”

Pitching in after retirement, traveling nurse was an adventurer

Occupation: Traveling registered nurse

Place of work: Various hospitals in Los Angeles county

Date of death: 29 March 2020

Rosary Celaya Castro-Olega wasn’t shy. At her daughter’s basketball games, she was the loudest voice in the bleachers. She dressed head to toe in purple: purse, glasses, phone, scrubs. She was Kobe Bryant’s No 1 fan. And she loved sharing stories with patients.

Her oldest daughter, Tiffany Olega, recalled meeting her mother’s patients.

“They’d say, ‘Your mom has told me all about you!’” she recalled. “She didn’t just do her rounds and disappear.”

Even after retiring in 2017 from Cedars Mount Sinai, she couldn’t stay away. She filled in at hospitals that were shorthanded. In between, she traveled the globe. In 2019, she visited Germany, Japan and China.

She had a cruise planned in March. When it was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, she took shifts at various hospitals in Los Angeles county, hoping to help out. Olega doesn’t know if her mother cared for patients with Covid-19. But Castro-Olega and her twin daughters – Olega’s younger sisters – developed symptoms in mid-March. All three wound up hospitalized. Castro-Olega never came home.

Los Angeles’ mayor, Eric Garcetti, named her as the first healthcare worker to die of Covid-19 in LA county.

– Maureen O’Hagan

James Simpson, 28

From a traumatic childhood to a life ‘bigger than himself’

James Simpson’s difficult childhood in the foster care system led him to a career at a youth mental health center, where he worked with kids who reminded him of himself. “He had been through so much trauma and abandonment as a child,” said Chezere Braley, his cousin. “And he did not become a product of his environment.”

James’s sister, Kamaria Simpson, described him as the life of the party. “He was always smiling, even if he was having a bad day,” she said.

James’s family believes he contracted Covid-19 during an outbreak at work, where eight of the center’s 15 residents were infected. She said the center also delayed in providing employees with adequate protective gear and that when her brother became sick, he was told to come in anyway. On 6 April, he was sent home with a fever; he died in his apartment four days later.

In a written statement, Sunstone’s parent company Multicare said the organization “took early and aggressive steps to prevent the spread of the virus” at work, including “early access to PPE, sanitizer, training for staff and testing”. They added the company’s policy was always to direct staff to stay home when sick.

Braley and Kamaria said they’re grieving, but they’re also angry. “He risked his life,” said Braley. “He deserved so much better.”

Brian Garrett, 45

A ‘protective’ presence, he drove seniors to medical appointments

Brian Garrett had classic Covid-19 symptoms: cough, fatigue, fever, nausea, vomiting, breathing difficulty and loss of taste. But he fell ill early in the pandemic’s US spread, his wife, Rebecca, said, and the health clinic he visited dismissed his symptoms as the flu.

By 23 March, the otherwise vigorous, nearly 6ft 5in father of four (ages three to 20) told Rebecca: “Something’s just not right inside.” He was admitted to the hospital that day. County health officials registered his as a Covid-19 death.

Garrett, who transported senior residents to medical appointments, became ill before the use of protective gear became widespread. “We had that conversation that all these people would be so vulnerable,” Rebecca said. “He became ill so early on that no one was [wearing] masks.”

A spokesperson for his employer did not respond to requests for comment about whether Garrett was exposed to Covid-19 at work.

On Facebook, Garrett’s nephew, Brandon Guthrie, posted that growing up, Brian was a protective figure. “He was our tall older brother,” Guthrie wrote. Despite his imposing stature, it was his kindness that stood out. In an interview, Guthrie said, “He genuinely cared about everybody.”