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Johns Hopkins Program Aims To Help Dying Patients Stay Connected With Loved Ones During COVID-19 Hospital Restrictions

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, family members are unable to visit their loved one's in the hospital, but a new program at Johns Hopkins aims to keep everyone more connected.

Barbra Johnson was unable to say goodbye to her sister in-person due to hospital restrictions.

"I love you, I will miss you," Johnson told her sister. "People are doing everything we can to find ways to love you because we can't be with you."

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"They can't come to the hospital, there's a no visitors policy," Elizabeth Tracey, Chaplain at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said.

But Tracey is helping everyone stay in touch by using audio recordings of family members for their loved ones to hear.

"It was really important to me that she could hear my voice," Johnson said.

She created one for Beverly, and another for her doctors and nurses.

"Beverly worked at the Smithsonian, she played softball, but she was very short and could hit the softball out of the park," Johnson said to doctors in nurses in the recording.

"It just makes you feel like they're seeing your loved one as the person you love instead of as a body," Johnson told WJZ.

Beverly died moments after she heard the recording from her sister, but the program lives on, helping doctors, patients and families stay connected.

"I hoped that it helped Beverly and I know that it helped me," Johnson said.

"We're just two little girls laying in bed, laughing, and telling stories," Johnson added. "That's who we are, and that's who we'll always be."

Tracey said that the program gives people the chance to be the last voice they hear loved ones hear.

For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.

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