Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
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-19
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.His family's prayers turned to the community as they hoped for an end to the pandemic.
"It's frightening to tell you the truth because it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone, it can to you. You don't know what's going to happen," said a family member. "We pray and wish that a solution could be found quickly because people die everyday from it. It's devastating."
Plans are to repatriate Rufino back to Guatemala so that he can be laid to rest next to his father who also recently died from COVID-19.
