‘These numbers are people’: How Covid-19 death data honors lives lost
On April 16, Angelina Proia was one of thousands of people tuned in to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s daily Covid-19 briefing. That day early in the pandemic, the news was encouraging; graphs flashed across the screen showing hospitalizations were down, along with ICU admissions, there were fewer deaths than the days before, and the message was “we can control the beast.”
But for Proia, it couldn’t get worse. That morning, she lost her dad, Richard Proia, a fun-loving, kind-hearted and otherwise healthy 66-year-old, to Covid-19.
She wanted to see those numbers cross her screen, though, because she knew her dad was part of them. She wanted his loss to be acknowledged and her experience to be validated.
jking@theintelligencer.net
File Photo â Wheeling Hospital will become part of the West Virginia University Health System in 2021 after a September announcement that the hospital would join the network.
WHEELING A new partnership in 2021 will see Wheeling Hospital providing care through the West Virginia University Health System.
WVUHS announced in September that Wheeling Hospital would be joining its network of health care facilities in West Virginia, Southwestern Pennsylvania, Western Maryland and Ohio.
Wheeling Hospital will become WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital and be branded as part of the WVU Medicine family of hospitals and clinics.
WVU Medicine has overseen financial management at the struggling hospital since June 2019, when Douglass E. Harrison was named as Wheeling Hospital’s chief executive officer.
Smith named president of Wetzel County Hospital
Dr. David Hess will lead Uniontown Hospital
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Sean Smith, chief operating officer at WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center in Parkersburg, will become president of Wetzel County Hospital in New Martinsville effective Jan. 1. He will assume the role from David Hess, M.D., who, in addition to serving as president and CEO of Reynolds Memorial Hospital, will fill the same position at Uniontown Hospital.
“Sean is an experienced leader who has been very successful at Camden Clark and is more than ready to step into this new role. I know he will do a great job working with the Wetzel team and medical staff to help lead the continued development of services and access,” Albert L. Wright, Jr., president and CEO of the West Virginia University Health System, said. “As we work to establish our presence more firmly in the Uniontown area, we needed someone who understood the WVU Medicine family and who has worked thro