Nurse comforts COVID-19 patients with 'Hand of God' glove

A nurse treating COVID-19 patients, some very ill and dying, devised a way to provide comfort in isolation wards where family members are barred because of fears of contagion.

The device is a medical glove, filled with warm water and held by the nurse to imitate the feeling of human touch, and when placed in the hands of the sick, provides patients with succor in a difficult time.

Watching so many patients suffer and die alone at her Rio de Janeiro hospital impelled nurse Lidiane de Souza Melo to take desperate measures.

In the early days of the pandemic, as sufferers were calling out for comfort that she was too busy to provide, the 37-year-old nurse filled two rubber gloves with warm water, knotted them shut, and sandwiched them around a patient's hand to simulate a loving touch.

Some have christened the practice the "Hand of God," and it is now the searing image of a nation roiled by a medical emergency with no end in sight.

"Patients can't receive visitors. Sadly, there's no way. So it's a way to provide psychological support, to be there together with the patient holding their hand," she said.

Melo added: "And this year it's worse, the seriousness of patients is 1,000 times greater."

Surging infection rates are challenging health care workers throughout the country, as they face shortages of basic medicines and oxygen while caseloads continue to grow.

Many hospitals are confronting a shortage of Intensive Care Unit beds as well, and medical workers face a daily strain to provide the care many patients need.

Melo's small addition to efforts to provide comfort and care to beleaguered patients is a welcome reminder of the dedication many emergency workers bring to the challenge of dealing with a pandemic in its second year.