Houston team vividly documents the grim reality playing out inside a Texas hospital
By David J. Phillip, John Mone and Nomaan Merchant
With coronavirus cases spiking in Texas and other states, AP journalists David J. Phillip, John Mone and Nomaan Merchant went beyond the daily numbers to show the reality in a small Houston hospital. In a gut-punch story that landed in newspapers and nightly newscasts, the trio’s work included the last moments of a woman’s losing battle with the coronavirus.
But the package – Phillip’s photos,Mone’s video and Merchant’s text story – captured more than just a moment. It showed the grim realities facing frontline workers as cases rise nationally. Weaving details from their day spent inside the hospital with what was happening in Texas and beyond,a broader story emerged. While Texas said it had more than 100,000 available hospital beds, the team learned that they weren’t necessarily in urban centers where the virus was surging. The scenes the trio witnessed were almost certainly playing out in other hospitals around the country.
A widow sickened after her husband’s funeral. A doctor who did everything he could. Tragedy sweeps through a Houston ICU as coronavirus cases surge in Texas. https://t.co/ylK0UNdmtc
Reaction to the story was massive. It was featured on ABC,CBS and NBC’s nightly national newscasts,and both Rachel Maddow and “Face the Nation” started their shows with it. The Guardian led its website with the story and The Washington Post used Phillip’s photos. A Houston TV station used Mone’s footage to tell their own version of the story,notable because it was from their market. It got more than 115,000 pageviews on APNews.com and the mobile app. The video was the most used U.S. story of the day – to a degree rarely seen.
Dr. Joseph Varon walks through the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Dr. Joseph Varon, left, talks with LaTanya Robinson during rounds inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. Robinson says she was caring for her son when he came down with the virus, then she and her husband caught it. While the symptoms of her son and husband were relatively mild, Robinson went from feeling tired to hardly being able to breathe. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
LaTanya Robinson pauses while talking about her ongoing recovery from COVID-19, inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Medical equipment is rushed to a room as medical personnel try to save the life of a patient inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. Despite their efforts, the patient died. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Dr. Joseph Varon, center, reaches for an IV bag inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Air is pumped by hand as medical personnel try unsuccessfully to save the life of a patient inside the Coronavirus Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Dr. Joseph Varon talks about the declining condition of a 66-year-old patient inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Medical student Diego Montelongo squints as he joins a team of medical personnel trying to save the life of a 66-year-old patient inside the Coronavirus Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. Despite their efforts, the patient died. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Medical student Diego Montelongo closes his eyes briefly as he joins a team of medical personnel trying to save the life of a 66-year-old patient inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. Despite their efforts, the patient died. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
A blanket is pulled over the body of a 66-year-old woman after medical personnel tried without success to save her life inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Dr. Joseph Varon leans on a medical cart inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. Varon says he has worked more than 100 days with barely a break during the pandemic, and gets just a few hours of sleep a night. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Medical student Diego Montelongo pauses after a patient died inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in Texas had more than doubled in the last two weeks. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Dr. Joseph Varon notifies the family of a patient who died inside the Coronavirus Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. Varon called the woman’s daughter, expressing condolences first in Spanish, then English. He repeated that he had done everything he could, and to call if there was anything she needed. When he hung up the phone, his bluish gray eyes were filled with tears. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
A COVID-19 patient breathes with the aid of a ventilator in the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Dr. Joseph Varon, second from right, performs a procedure on a patient in the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Dr. Joseph Varon conducts a procedure on a patient inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Dr. Joseph Varon, center, performs a procedure inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Medical student Engerlina Olivares handles a patient’s COVID-19 on a tray with a handwritten slogan in the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Photographs of staff working in the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston hang on the wall, July 6, 2020. The photographs help patients know who is behind the mask. – AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Throughout the process,Phillip,Mone and Merchant worked to tell the story with empathy toward their subjects. They also took considerable precautions to get the story,following the same strict medical protocols as hospital staff: changing out of their clothes and into three layers of PPE,including double sets of gloves taped at the wrists,two masks and a face shield. They interviewed patients and cpersonnel throughout the 117-bed hospital,always changing the outer layer of protective gear as they exited and entered each wing of the unit.
They spent time with caregivers. They spoke to a woman and her daughter who were treated side-by-side. They talked to a 51-year-old woman who cared for her son and husband when they were sick with the virus, only to get sick herself with worse symptoms.
Then there was the 66-year-old widow who arrived at the hospital days after she hosted a 100-person funeral for her husband,who had died of cancer. Mourners were mostly maskless,and the woman conceded to her daughter before her death that they should have been more careful. Her death and its immediate aftermath were captured by Phillip,Mone and Merchant,including Dr. Joseph Varon’s call to the woman’s daughter to report her death. Paying attention to every detail during their visit, the team noted that the doctor’s bluish gray eyes were filled with tears by the time he hung up the phone.
From left, Houston staffers, reporter Nomaan Merchant, video journalist John Mone and photographer David Phillip, pose inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, July 6, 2020.
The AP got the story through groundwork laid by Phillip and Mone in the outbreak’s early days in March. The visual journalists met Varon while covering the opening of one of Houston’s first COVID-19 testing sites in the parking lot at the doctor’s hospital,United Memorial Medical Center. Phillip saw Varon again at a testing site in late June,when the virus’s surge in Texas was beginning,and he asked if the AP could chronicle a day in the life of the hospital. The physician gave an unequivocal yes.
For compelling,empathetic and revelatory storytelling from the frontline of the coronavirus fight,Phillip, Mone and Merchant win AP’s Best of the Week award.
