LA CROSSE, Wis. (WXOW) – After restrictions were reduced, long-term care residents can now hug their visitors.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new guidelines last Thursday that allow visitors inside long-term care facilities.
Karen Bell is now allowed to bring her children with her to visit their dad LeRoy at St. Bethany Joseph Care Center in La Crosse.
“We couldn’t visit through the window like a lot could because my husband is nonverbal,” Bell said. “So that made it a little bit more difficult. Couldn’t do the facetiming.”
LeRoy has been battling Alzheimer’s Disease for 13 years.
“I’m 77 years old,” Karen said. “I’ve never experienced being so isolated.”
Thanksgiving was the first holiday they would spend apart from one another in 58 years.
“We sat there and decided this can either be a stumbling block or it can be a stepping stone,” Karen said. “That’s the way we choose to live life. When things come our way we’re going to use it as a stepping stone.”
LeRoy is a retired pastor and Karen said her faith got her through the hard times during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So many people in this community have made really difficult sacrifices for the duration of this pandemic and now we are beginning to tiptoe out of it,” Gundersen Health System geriatrician Dr. Elizabeth Cogbill said. “And the reason that my residents and their loved ones can start to open up is because we do have that low county positivity rate and people are really doing a great job at adhering to those guidelines even though it’s really hard to do it for this long of a period of time.”
Decreasing coronavirus rates and increasing vaccinations in La Crosse County made it safe for people to hug and hold their loved ones again.
Dr. Cogbill said it also boosts staff morale.
“I stopped in my tracks and I teared up because it does to me symbolize the beginning of the end of this,” She said. “This has just been horrific and for our residents, their families and our staff, and me and my team, and everyone and so it is thrilling to think that we are nearing the end of this journey.”
Visitors are still required to wear masks.
“We’re stronger in a lot of ways than we have been,” Karen said. “Trials always make you stronger. You know? They’re not meant to defeat us. They’re meant to draw us closer.”
