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

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.