At East Jefferson Hospital, a floor is now dedicated to hospice care.
During the weekends Lafayette chaplain Bryan Johnson comes in to help bring comfort to families and to people who are suffering with COVID-19.
“To be able encourage them and help them as they’re facing this impending loss of their loved ones. They go from tears to maybe a smile or maybe a funny story,” says Chaplain Bryan Johnson.
The chaplain spends the night with patients, so they are not alone, even though they are non-responsive. For people like Willie Smith, that small act of kindness means that world.
“I don’t want my dad to be up in there alone. That’s why I’m there. I’m gonna be up there every day, all day, if possible,” says Smith, whose 65 year-old-father has COVID-19.
One thing both men have realized is that even though some of the patients are unresponsive, playing music or reciting prayers can get a small reaction from the hospice patients.
“I know he can hear me, I play music for him. I even talk to him. I pray over him and everything,” says Smith.
“Others respond as you’re praying with me or maybe I’m quoting scripture or the Lord’s Prayer, and you see their lips start moving and you’re connecting to them in a very deep level,” says Johnson. “When we leave this unit, we’ve been exposed. There’s no doubt. All of the safety and the precautions that we take still in the back of your mind you wonder, ‘Did I mess up anywhere?'”
“I give my heart out to Mr. Bryan. Reason being is what kind of man is going to sit up there and watch over another man? That’s only God’s angels doing that,” says Smith.