KSL TV
PROVO The hospital community in Provo gathered to pay their respects for the respiratory therapist at Utah Valley Hospital who died of COVID-19 on Jan. 23.
Hospital workers lined the streets Saturday morning along with family and friends.
Provo firefighters, police, family and hospital co-workers showed up to honor 65-year-old Rufino Rodriguez, a 30+ year veteran of the NICU unit at Utah Valley Hospital.
During his career, he helped care for more than 30,000 babies and flew on the LifeFlight team.
Related:
Colleagues remember respiratory therapist at Utah Valley Hospital who died of COVID-19The Utah Valley Hospital community is mourning the loss of one of their own to COVID-19. Rufino Rodriguez, a 65-year-old respiratory therapist, is now the second member of the NICU unit at the hospital to die from the virus.
Celebration of life held for Utah NICU worker who died from COVID-19
Outside Utah Valley Hospital, a group of health care workers gathered with tissues in their hands and memories in their hearts to honor the loss of their colleague Rufino Rodriguez.
and last updated 2021-01-31 00:33:16-05
PROVO, Utah â Outside Utah Valley Hospital on Saturday, a group of family, friends and colleagues gathered with tissues in their hands and memories in their hearts to honor the loss of Rufino Rodriguez.
Rodriguez was a respiratory therapist for Utah Valley Hospital for 37 years in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
He passed away on Jan. 23 from COVID-19 complications.
This Utah respiratory therapist died of COVID-19 in the hospital where he helped save newborns for decades
The colleagues of Rufino Rodriguez, 65, showed him love in his last moments.
(Photo courtesy of the Rodriguez family) Mariano Rufino Rodriguez, who worked as a respiratory therapist at Utah Valley Hospital s newborn intensive care unit for decades, died at that hospital Saturday, Jan. 23, 2020, from complications of COVID-19. He was 65.
| Jan. 26, 2021, 1:26 a.m.
Rufino Rodriguez worked 37 years saving lives as a respiratory therapist at Provo’s Utah Valley Hospital, where he “was the one who would fight for all the babies” in the newborn intensive care unit, his son said.
KSL TV
PROVO The Utah Valley Hospital community is mourning the loss of one of their own to COVID-19. Rufino Rodriguez, a 65-year-old respiratory therapist, is now the second member of the NICU unit at the hospital to die from the virus.
Multiple doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists reached out to share Rufino s story as another example of the toll the pandemic has had on our medical community. Rufino was one of those special people, said Dr. Stephen D. Minton, director of neonatology at Utah Valley Hospital.
When Rodriguez left Guatemala more than 30 years ago, it was for a better life.