'Beau' is one of 1,281 people who have died of COVID-19 in Michigan. Texts, diaries and photos detailed his last days in remarkable detail.
"Beau" is one of 1,281 people who have died of COVID-19 in Michigan. Texts, diaries and photos detailed his last days in remarkable detail.He was 67, but he took no medicines and didn’t have any chronic health problems, except for a little arthritis in his fingers that he noticed when he played classical guitar, one of his many passions. He was healthy and active.“He was just kind of annoyed to get sick,’’ said Linda, his wife of 35 years.
“The hospital gave him a sheet listing nine symptoms, and it said if any return, to come back to the ER,” Linda said. “The only symptom of the nine that he had was a fever.” This time, Linda drove. It was chilly and windy, with a hint of snow flurries. At the ER, they took his temperature, put a mask on him and brought him through the lone entrance, typically used for ambulances. Linda couldn’t even hug him goodbye.Early on, Beau texted his wife, likely with help from the hospital’s nursing staff. “I have just been moved to the ICU ostensibly as a precaution as they try to get my O2 and fever under control. Room 823. Actually, I feel pretty good.
Her phone pinged at 7 a.m. Wednesday with a text from her husband, likely sent by a nurse. “Had the absolute worst night of my life,” it read. “4 nurses came in and helped regulate my breathing … and got my oxygen elevated. Sweetie ― I was really afraid I wasn’t going to make it.” Then she got a note from Chadd Mowry, a cardiac nurse at Ascension Rochester and a friend and hockey teammate of her youngest son. He spent so much time at the Beaupre home growing up he was almost like a son, Linda said, but they hadn’t seen him since the boys graduated from high school in 2007.
He was unconscious by then, with his hands tucked under a sheet. She sat next to his bed and talked to him for nearly an hour. When she got home, she wrote down more things she wanted to say to her husband ― about their life together, their four sons, hockey, and his love of sailing, woodworking and cabinetry.
But almost three days went by, and Linda heard nothing about the transfer. In the meantime, the hospital tried adjusting his medicines. By then, Beaupre had developed heart issues and his kidneys were beginning to fail; his doctors had tried giving him thewhich has helped some COVID patients, but caused heart problems in others.
She went home, and when she awoke the next morning around 5:30 a.m., she had missed a call from the hospital. Her husband had died at 4:35 a.m. on March 30.Now Linda mourns at home, alone, except for their St. Bernard. She remains under quarantine and hopes she and her two youngest sons, who live in the area and had seen their father before he was hospitalized, can get a COVID-19 test. Until then, she talks at a distance from her driveway to those who stop by.
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