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.

device is a medical glove, filled with warm water and held by nurse to imitate feeling of human touch, and when placed in hands of 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 early days of pandemic, as sufferers were calling out for comfort that she was too busy to provide, 37-year-old nurse filled two rubber gloves with warm water, knotted m shut, and sandwiched m around a patient's hand to simulate a loving touch.

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

"Patients can't receive visitors. Sly, re's no way. So it's a way to provide psychological support, to be re toger with patient holding ir hand," she said.

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

Surging infection rates are challenging health care workers throughout country, as y face shortages of basic medicines and oxygen while caselos 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 care many patients need.

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