Staff from departments all over the hospital cheered as Charles Moore was wheeled to the hospital entrance.
Cheers, tears as YNHHS discharges 1,500th COVID-19 patient
EP 9-5 staff members wrote well wishes on a poster for Charles Moore, who became the 1,500th COVID-19 patient discharged from Yale New Haven Health System.
Outside, news crews met Moore and his family members to record the momentous event.
On the afternoon of April 29, Charles Moore was in a wheelchair in a York Street Campus East Pavilion patient elevator with his family and some members of his EP 9-5 care team.
Moore knew that after 10 days in the hospital, he was Yale New Haven Health System’s 1,500th COVID-19 patient to be discharged. He carried a sign saying “#1,500” and a poster his care team members had signed, wishing him well. He had no idea what awaited him on the other side of the elevator doors.
As they opened, Moore was greeted by a throng of cheering, clapping employees from departments all over the hospital – some with tears in their eyes above their masks. They lined his route from the elevator to the hospital entrance, then followed him outside. He got up from the wheelchair, prompting a fresh round of cheers, and spoke to TV and newspaper crews who had met him in front of the hospital.
“I didn’t expect to see this,” Moore told them.
Staff continued clapping as Moore got into his sister’s car, and waved as the car left the hospital driveway.
“Simply unforgettable,” said Erin Wilson, RN, EP 9-5 patient services manager. “They say it takes a village. I like to say that it takes Yale New Haven Hospital.”
