‘When I try to sleep at night, I hear him gasping for air’ Not long ago, registered nurse Stephanie Rich heard a sound she’d never heard before. A few months ago, her cardiac unit at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn was transformed to treat COVID-19 patients. Then just last week, Rich was helping out a relatively young, healthy COVID-19 patient who was struggling despite being given maximum oxygen. Before she heard the sound, she saw his eyes, fearful and full of tears. “He was looking directly at me,” Rich said. Then, she heard it. “It’s not the sound of a cough, but rather him gasping for air,” she said. “And that is a sound, that I’m telling you, that no nurse will ever forget. That’s a sound I’ve never heard in my life. When I try to sleep at night, I hear him gasping for air.”