FALLEN HERO

Kentucky Nursing Home Worker Volunteered for the COVID Ward—and Died of It

“She loved her patients and her patients loved her,” her sister said.

When the coronavirus came to the Summit Mason nursing home in Columbia, Kentucky, the managers set up a wing for those infected—and Michelle Rose Thompson immediately volunteered to staff it. “Her exact words were ‘That’s my job. I love these people. Somebody’s got to take care of them,’” her sister, Denise Carver, told the Lexington Herald-Leader. A week later, Thompson, 58, fell ill and tested positive for COVID-19 and the flu. Four days after that, she was hospitalized and ended up on a ventilator, dying on April 30. Thompson, who had diabetes, was the second Summit worker to die; nine residents have also died. “She loved her patients and her patients loved her,” Carver said.