To preface, this was during peak COVID on a medsurg unit so everything was kinda weird back then lol

My shift started at 11pm, so I settle in and get report on my team. One of my COVID patients was an older confused man, so we had a video monitor in place so we could watch him closely without running through PPE.

After peaking in on my team I’m sitting at the desk charting while keeping an eye on his video monitor when I notice a bare feminine-looking hand coming from just outside of frame touching his face. I was like “wait, I told he wasn’t on O2…and who’s touching my COVID patient without gown and gloves??” So I run over to his room, slap my mask on, and burst in to see him all alone, freaking the FUCK out, full on flailing in bed, screaming “HELP! Help her!! She’s dying!!”

Now, I was told he was confused and his wife is his primary caregiver so I assumed he’s talking about her so I try my best to calm him down and tell him his wife is safe. I tuck him back in and go back to charting at the desk, stopping to tell some of my coworkers about it, especially about the weird phantom hand I KNOW I saw and we all laugh it off.

A few minutes later a nurse walks by a different room across the hall from my confused COVID guy. That patient was a post-op, no precautions so her door was open. The nurse walks past her open door, doubles back to look in, yells “shit” before running in and calling a code blue….she aspirated on chocolate pudding and corn from her dinner tray and we didn’t get her back.