Hospital cleaner thanked by retired Air Force dad for helping him beat COVID-19

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A hospital cleaner in the United States showed that not every hero at the hospital has to wear a white gown, as a 52-year-old COVID survivor credited the hospital maintenance staff for his recovery.

Retired Air Force Colonel Jason Denney said he owned much of his speedy recovery to Rosaura Quinteros, a hospital housekeeper at Orlando Health’s Dr. P. Phillips Hospital, as per People yesterday, July 8.

Denney recounted the “darkest point” in his life after he found out that he had most likely infected his 16-year-old son, Sean, of the new coronavirus. He was one of the first COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital back in March. The father said that Quinteros showed up “at just the right time.”

“She was there after I found out my son was positive and I was scared, struggling to breathe,” he was quoted as saying. “Everything was negative with my physical pain, and now I was in such mental pain with the guilt. I was crying thinking about what I did to my son.”

Quinteros, who is also a parent of two children, resonated with the father’s struggle. They also found common ground because of their shared faith as Catholics.

While Denny was in isolation at the hospital, he and Quinteros would chat daily about mundane things as he tried to live “five minutes at a time.” According to the report, the father refused to go on a ventilator. He thought it would “take his mind away” and would not allow him to completely fight the disease.

What contributed to his healing was the fact that Quinteros was not afraid to get close to him while she cleaned, Denny said.

“I wanted to tell her what it meant to me to talk to her every day, about the weather, just something normal,” he stated in the report.

The man was released from the hospital on March 31. He has since returned to his job for a contractor of the Department of Defense.

Quinteros, who is an immigrant from Guatemala, explained how the father helped her as well.

“Jason also helped me and a group of people who are the invisible ones in health care, who no one thinks about,” Quinteros was quoted as saying. “[These] teams that go in and clean and order rooms, risking themselves. Jason shines a light not just on me, but also the team I represent.” Cha Lino/JB

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