Kious Jordan Kelly was a New York nurse working on the front lines as the coronavirus spread across the state. Now his sister is sharing some of his final text messages before he died of complications related to the illness when he tested positive for it.
"He just had this infectious energy," Marya Sherron, Kelly's sister, told NBC New York Friday. "You felt good when he was around and you noticed when he left."
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Kelly was an assistant nursing manager at Mount Sinai West in New York. He was hospitalized on March 17 and connected to a ventilator.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of a beloved member of our nursing staff,” Mount Sinai West said in a statement. “The safety of our staff and patients has never been of greater importance and we are taking every precaution possible to protect everyone.”
“Can’t talk because I choke and can’t breathe,” he wrote in a text to his sister while in the intensive care unit at Mount Sinai West on March 18. “I love you. Going back to sleep.”
“You've pulled through so much,” Sherron replied. “Love you and we are praying.”
The same day those texts were sent, Kelly died at 48 years old, according to Today.com.
In addition to sharing those final texts with local news media, Sherron called out what she said is a poor supply of personal protective equipment, such as masks, gowns and gloves for healthcare workers.
“I absolutely believe that he contracted this because of the lack of PPE at in his unit and at his hospital -- but that's across our nation,” she said. “He's not a victim. He is a hero.”
Hospitals and health facilities across the country have reported shortages and low supply of PPE. The New York Times reported that some staff at Mount Sinai were seen on social media using trash bags as protective gear, but a spokesperson for the system said nurses had other gear underneath the bags.
"When it comes to staff wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), the facts are very clear: We always provide all our staff with the critically important PPE they need to safely do their job," Lucia Lee, the senior director of media for the Mount Sinai Health System, said in a statement to the "Today" show.
“If an individual does not have their proper PPE, they do not go on the floor, period. Any suggestion otherwise is simply not accurate.”
There have been coronavirus-related 728 deaths in New York as of March 28.
