'She Is Truly A Hero': Vigil Held Outside Riverside Community Hospital After Second Worker Dies From COVID-19
RIVERSIDE (CBSLA) — Coworkers gathered outside Riverside Community Hospital Thursday night to honor the life of a phlebotomist who died June 8 after contracting COVID-19 — the second hospital employee to die from the illness.
"Just pray to God every day and hope that nobody's next, you know," Alma Lopez, a lab assistant at the hospital, said.
Sally Lara — described as a vibrant 62-year-old wife, mother to three and grandmother to eight — came out of retirement to work as a phlebotomist at the hospital and was compelled to keep helping others during the pandemic.
Lara's friends said she sounded the alarm about the lack of personal protective equipment at the hospital for people like herself working in the laboratory and other caregivers, but continued doing her job.
"She was the biggest advocate," Jeannette Kostial, a phlebotomist at the hospital, said. "And, yet, she paid the ultimate price.
"Sally, she made it very known to everybody at the laboratory that this is not right," Kostial continued. "We shouldn't be having to reuse our PPE. This is unsafe."
Lara's daughter said she started showing symptoms on Mother's Day. She said doctors eventually placed her mother on a ventilator and made aggressive attempts to save her life, but she developed blood clots and other complications that her body could not withstand.
She said she believes additional safety measures could have prevented her mother's death.
"My mother lost her life in the pursuit of helping others, and I strongly believe if proper prevention was in place this tragedy could have been avoided," Vanessa Campos, Lara's daughter, said in a statement released by SEIU-UHW. "She is not another number in the death toll. She is truly a hero who stood up and spoke out against injustice for all people."
Riverside Community Hospital said in a statement that it was devastated by the loss and that it provides appropriate PPE in line with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"The SEIU fails to recognize the reality all hospitals nationwide are facing, that this pandemic has strained the worldwide supply of personal protective equipment," the statement said.
Union representative Alejandra Aguilera said the union was aware of the nationwide shortage, but that the hospital was still responsible for keeping its workers safe.
