NxStage Medical, Inc.

Passing Notes and Pressing On: The Life-Changing Choices of Easter and Elbert

In 2020, COVID-19 dramatically changed how people lived, and the dialysis floor at DaVita Palmdale Regional was among millions of places where staff adopted new rules for everyone’s safety. While helping stop the spreading virus, social distancing was also changing how patients interacted. Normal chit-chat between dialyzing “neighbors” was difficult – and trying to make new friends was even harder. It was certainly not a likely environment for love to blossom. Or was it?

Elbert, a new patient at the center, was walking to his chair one day when he noticed someone he’d never seen before undergoing therapy. “She caught my eye,” he says. “And I liked how she looked. But with the rules we had to stay so far apart.”

Find out what happened next! Read the full story here.