By Abbie Purney

It’s been 19 days since I said goodbye to my father. Until March, he’d been in relatively good health and was a retired pharmacist. Then he began to experience neurological symptoms and was admitted to the hospital. There, he was diagnosed with COVID-19. 

His decline was swift. Within days, he was on a ventilator, a move I knew would be the end. Sadly, I was right.

The heartbreak of losing someone is always severe, but it is made worse by this pandemic. Our family could not be with my father in the hospital to hold his hand and fill his ear with our voices. 

After he passed, his body could not be properly prepared, and we could not hold a funeral. In accordance with local directives, just six of us gathered, widely spaced, around the grave to say a few words. We could not pat a shoulder or hug one another for comfort. 

Not in attendance for this simple remembrance was his wife of 32 years. She was in full quarantine recovering from her own bout with COVID-19. 

As a nurse and nursing program faculty specializing in critical care, I know better than most what to expect when a loved one goes into the ICU, and I’m educated about infectious disease. Nonetheless, this experience was immensely difficult and each twist a painful surprise. My sympathies are with every family in a similar situation.

My solidarity, too, is with my fellow health care professionals, the ones who did their best for my father and do so for every patient with COVID-19. I worry that lack of proper protective gear will mean some of them get sick because they choose to help others, and more families will endure the same distant goodbye mine did. 

Alleviating and ultimately eliminating the danger will require rapid development of effective COVID-19 treatments, along with a vaccine. Fortunately, our biopharmaceutical companies right here in the United States are already making progress at record pace. 

Their flashes of brilliance amaze me. For example, one doctor who fell ill with COVID-19 and experienced severe respiratory distress was saved when a drug used to treat immune system overreactions in cancer patients was repurposed and helped him recover. It’s now one of the hundreds of drugs in clinical trials.

We cannot know if this particular avenue of investigation will bring us a proven, life-saving therapy, just as we cannot determine in advance which of the dozens of vaccine candidates accelerating through the pipeline will be demonstrated safe and effective. But, thanks to decades of work and billions of invested dollars, American pharmaceutical researchers and manufacturers have built the world’s best and broadest library of active therapies, interesting compounds, and advanced techniques to draw on as we launch our counteroffensive against the coronavirus. 

Pharmacy was my father’s passion, and if he were here, he’d be eager to administer inoculations to protect members of his community and dispense therapies to help those with COVID-19. Before his death, I promised him that I would keep up his fight to help more patients gain access to health care they need, and I intend to keep this promise, during this crisis and beyond. 

I’m deeply aware that many patients’ fight for survival and quality of life depends on existing pharmaceutical treatments and emerging innovations. I will be communicating with lawmakers about the need to support and expand research and development of such therapies. Our elected officials have the power to ensure America continues to lead the world in ending all types of disease, starting with our most urgent target, COVID-19.

Abbie Purney has been a Registered Nurse for 25 years, 20 of which have been in Las Vegas. Her background in nursing has been mostly related to critical care — including staff nurse, charge nurse, clinical nurse specialist and manager. Last year, she received a doctorate in Nursing Practice in transnational evidence.