Respiratory therapist Walter Smith gives oxygen to a COVID-19 patient before intubating him shortly after he was transferred to the intensive care unit from the general hospital floor designated for COVID-19 patients at Uniontown Hospital in Uniontown, Pa., Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. The hospital was at capacity with about half of its 145 beds, including all 15 beds in the ICU, being taken up by patients with COVID-19.
ICU staff members prepare to flip a COVID-19 patient onto their stomach, a process called proning that can improve oxygen levels.
Marisa Wallace, a nurse on the general hospital floor designated for COVID-19 patients, removes her respirator mask to talk to the nursing supervisor about transferring a patient whose condition was declining to the ICU.
Prior to the room being sanitized and re-set for a new patient, medical equipment and discarded objects used during final life-saving measures are seen in the room of a COVID-19 patient who died in the ICU.
Critical care doctor Anas Wardeh, center, gets updates from medical staff members, including ICU nurses and respiratory therapists, about their patients in the ICU.
ICU nurse Michelle Weaver cries as she talks to the daughter of a COVID-19 patient in the ICU to explain the severity of the patient's condition and try to arrange a video call for the family to be able to better make a decision about measures to keep her alive and as an opportunity for them to say goodbye on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020.
Transporter Richard Halbrook takes the body of a COVID-19 patient who died in the intensive care unit to the morgue at Uniontown Hospital on Wednesday.
ICU nurse Sarah Empoules comforts Frances Pierce as she is sedated after being transferred to the ICU to receive critical care for COVID-19 at Uniontown Hospital on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. Ms. Pierce never regained consciousness and died on December 27.
Critical care doctor Anas Wardeh prepares to place an arterial line in Ms. Pierce’s arm shortly after she was transferred to the ICU. Ms. Pierce’s daughter Victoria George said her mother adorned her nails with a shamrock design accidentally, thinking it was a Christmas-themed design to prepare for upcoming family holiday parties.
On Wednesday, March 3, 2021, Ms. Pierce’s daughter Victoria George shows texts messages that she sent to her mother while she was in the hospital. A nurse responded to Ms. George’s message when Ms. Pierce was too weak to respond herself.
Victoria George touches the gravestone and speaks to her mother Frances Pierce, who died of COVID-19 in December, at the cemetery where she is buried alongside her late husband John Pierce, Wednesday, March 3, 2021, in Uniontown, Pa.
Gary Workman, pastoral care coordinator, leads a prayer with retired and current healthcare workers who volunteered to administer the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to hospital staff members, Friday, Dec. 18, 2020, at Uniontown Hospital in Uniontown, Pa. "Today is a good day," Mr. Workman said before the prayer. "If we could just take a moment to ask God for his blessing as we start what is hopefully the beginning of a healing for our community, our patients, our families, our friends, and for us today.” The hospital received 975 doses of the vaccine Thursday.
Both retired and current healthcare workers who volunteered to administer the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to hospital staff members discuss needle placement before beginning the inoculations on Friday.
Lily Peck, Uniontown Hospital's director of quality performance, receives the hospital's first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from Bill Johnson, pharmacy director.