Those who loved her knew Maria Guia Cabillon (pictured above) as Mama Guia. The Filipino American nurse died of the coronavirus in May.
A report from National Nurses United has found 67 out of 213 American nurses who have died from COVID-19 are Filipino, reports The Street Journal. The report covers the period from January until September. The number of Filipinos killed by the pandemic has since increased to 74.
Filipinos make up just 4% of the nurses in the United States, reports KCRA.
“A lot of Filipino nurses hold bedside positions,” explained Elizabeth West, a Filipino nurse from Sacramento, CA who contracted COVID-19. “We are right next to the patient when they get intubated… when they go into cardiac arrest… we are the first ones there.”
National Nurses United has demanded that the Defense Production Act be enforced to ensure there’s enough personal protective equipment or PPE to protect nurses and the general public. So far President Trump has failed to do that.
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Nurses report they are often asked to reuse masks and gloves, saying there’s not enough to go around.
“”You have to ask, why is this happening to our community?” “ Jollene Levid told CNN. “There are so many factors, but I would assert that every death was preventable, which is what makes it so much harder.
“Three times as many Filipino health care workers have died here in the US than in the Philippines. So right away we know that there’s something wrong,” she says.
Levid has launched her own website honoring the Filipino nurses who have given their life to give care to others.
“This is to remember them as human beings, not simply as a labor percentage, a disease statistic, or an immigration number,” her website reads.
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