Nurse, 33, becomes the latest frontline healthcare worker to die from coronavirus as her husband says hospital DIDN'T give her a mask to treat patients
A Florida nurse has died after her husband said she treated coronavirus patients without being given a face mask.
Danielle DiCenso, 33, a travelling nurse stationed in the ICU unit at Palemetto General Hospital, started showing COVID-19 symptoms two weeks after working long shifts with infected patients without the protective gear.
Her husband David found her dead in her living room on Thursday after she placed herself in quarantine and her condition rapidly deteriorated.
He claims staff at the hospital didn't give her the right equipment, and now their four-year-old son is without a mother.
DiCenso is the latest frontline healthcare worker to die amid concerns of a shortage of vital equipment.
According to data revealed Tuesday, between 10 percent and 20 percent of U.S. coronavirus cases are health care workers, though they tended to be hospitalized at lower rates than other patients.
Danielle DiCenso, 33, is believed to have died from coronavirus after being exposed due to a lack of proper personal protective equipment in the Florida hospital where she worked
Danielle DiCenso (pictured right with her husband and son) died on Thursday after her coronavirus test returned inconclusive and she placed herself into quarantine in her home
'She always puts people first before her,' her husband told WTCJ.
'She showed up for work one day and they didn't have a mask for her.'
'It really broke her heart that she couldn't perform her job at a place she felt safe at,″ he added.
'She had lots and lots of text messages between her and coworkers saying they were not properly equipped and (Palmetto officials were not) representing what was really going on at the hospitals.'
The nurse took a COVID-19 test on March 23 but it came back inconclusive and so she began self-isolating in her living room and didn't return to the hospital.
She began showing symptoms on March 25 as the hospital continued to call her and see if she could come to work.
Her condition continued to worsen with a bad fever and a cough until David found his wife dead on Thursday morning.
She had no pre-existing conditions.
'It was a rough four- or five-day struggle between that,' he said.
'Her fever spiked, it came on in waves.'
'Just by looking at her, I knew that she wasn't her lively self,' David told WPLG.
'She looked so peaceful. She looked like she just went in her sleep.'
He said he is 'very mad' at the lack of personal protective equipment made available to her, claiming that she may still be here if she hadn't been forced to work without a face mask.
DiCenso (pictured center with her family) began showing symptoms on March 25
The young mother would not have died if she'd had a face mask, her husband has claimed
'I know for a fact that my wife would still be here right now if she was given the proper protective equipment,' he said.
'I'm very upset.
'My 4-year-old son's not gonna have a mother.'
He adds that he is concerned other healthcare workers are not being provided adequate protection and continue to put their lives at risk.
'The people on the front lines, these are our modern-day infantry,' he said.
'The nurses and doctors, they are the ones on the front lines and we're not giving them ammunition ... People who are supposed to be taking care of the people getting sick are the people that are dying now.'
Her husband David DiCenso has voiced his concern thta other healthcare workers are not being provided adequate protection and continue to put their lives at risk at work
DiCenso (pictured with her son) has an intense fever and a cough
DailyMail.com reached out to Palemetto General Hospital for comment about DiCenso's death and her husband's claims and were directed toward their PPE policy.
“Nurses are provided appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) in compliance with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines. We are very focused on minimizing staff exposures in our hospital,' Palmetto General Hospital spokeswoman Shelly Weiss wrote in an email.
'All employees at our hospital are temperature checked upon arrival, wear a mask during patient care and are required to notify employee health if they become symptomatic. They are not permitted to work in the hospital caring for patients if exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.'
According to Local 10 News, the medical examiner is going to test her remains for COVID-19.
'Her passing was sudden and very tragic due what we believed to be COVID-19,' her sister Ashley Kuchciak wrote on a GoFundMe page established for funeral expenses.
'Danielle was working as an ICU nurse on the front lines risking her life for the lives of others.'
If confirmed, she will become the first health care worker identified publicly and the youngest person to have died in Palm Beach County.
The news of her death comes after another nurse sometimes assigned to Palmetto General died on April 5.
The Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah where Danielle DiCenso had worked in ICU
Earl Bailey, 56, was also said to have been healthy and active but tested positive for coronavirus.
'His breathing went bad,' his daughter Sashia Bailey told the Sun Sentinel.
'He died right after, before the ambulance could even be called.
'My father was very strong and felt he could beat it,' she added of the father of five.
'He was very healthy, he worked out every day, even at Florida Medical Center, he would round up the nurses and go exercise.
'He felt he was healthy and he wanted to save the space for somebody else.'
His fiancé has also contracted the virus and 'is having a hard time breathing and catching her breath'.
Nurse Ali Guillermo died on April 7 after falling ill with a high fever and a cough
Healcare heroes: Retired doctor Francis Molinari, 70, (pictured left) died after returning to work during the crisis. Florida nurse Earl Bailey, 56, (pictured right) died of coronavirus and also worked in the Palemetto General Hospital where Danielle DiCenso worked
In New York, a nurse from Long Island died on April 7 after falling ill with a high fever and a cough.
Ali Guillermo, 44, of Patchogue, came to the United States from the Philippines in 2004 and worked a nurse at Long Island Community Hospital in East Patchogue.
The father of three was admitted to the same ICU unit where he worked to treat patients and placed on a ventilator.
'His expertise as an ICU, stepdown, medical-surgical and emergency room RN was exceptional for he'd always be willing to help and assist the team whenever and wherever,' his co-worker Carmelo Espiritu said, according to ABC7NY.
'He'd make the busiest work nights lighter with his jokes and songs.'
A retired doctor who returned to work at the field hospital at the Meadowlands in New Jersey also lost his battle with coronavirus on April 9, after suffering a shortness of breath while treating patients.
Francis Molinari, 70, told his sister 'I think I’ve got this thing', reports NJ.com ,after he jumped back into the field to help with the crisis.
He was still working up to a week before he was hospitalized and seemed to improve slightly before his symptoms dramatically worsened and he passed away.
'He just loved the field of medicine,' sister Lisa Molinari said.
'One area took him to the next. He just loved to work and I’m sure that’s why he went to the Meadowlands.
'He heard our voices one last time,' she added, revealing that a volunteer had managed to call the family just before he died.
'He couldn’t speak to us because he was intubated. We never in a million years would have believed this is how we have to say goodbye.'
Between 10 percent and 20 percent of U.S. coronavirus cases are health care workers, though they tended to be hospitalized at lower rates than other patients, officials reported Tuesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first national data on how the pandemic is hitting doctors, nurses and other health care professionals.
The data is important new information but not necessarily surprising, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, who is running the federal agency's response to the outbreak.
Medical staff have also been hit hard in other countries: Media reports said about 10 percent of cases in Italy and Spain were health care workers.
As of the middle of last week, the CDC had reports of more than 315,000 cases in the U.S.
The new report focused on about 49,000 for which researchers had data on whether or not they worked in health care.
About 9,300, or 19 percent, of them were medical professionals.
That included 27 who died.
But the data varied in how complete it was, researchers said.
In 12 states that did a better job reporting on whether patients worked in medicine, around 11 percent of cases were health care workers.
Compared with U.S. cases overall, larger proportions of diagnosed health care workers were women, were white, and were young or middle-aged adults. That's consistent with the demographics of who works in health care, researchers said.
