MICHIGAN (WAND) - A nursing home patient asked Alexa on a Amazon Echo device for help before she died from coronavirus, according to her sister.
LouAnn Dagen died on Saturday after she was taken to a hospital in Grand Rapids. She was 66.
(Provided Photo/WOOD-TV)
She is one of 31 residents and five staff members who tested positive for the virus at Metron Cedar Springs, now known as Mission Point.
Paul Pruitt, director of operations at Metron, said Dagen was a resident at the nursing home for 10 years and "had never been transferred to the hospital prior to the complications that rapidly developed as a result of COVID-19."
Pruitt said she was getting "excellent care," and nursing home staff were following both her advance directives and clinical practice guidelines to manage her pain and symptoms.
"Once those symptoms progressed rapidly, and at the advice of her medical team, she was immediately sent to the hospital," Pruitt said.
Residents with the coronavirus are quarantined away from the rest of the facility's population, Pruitt said.
Once the nursing home went on lockdown LouAnn’s primary communications with her sister were through her Alexa.
"She could call her sister through the device, and they communicated often," Pruitt said. "It was a very positive part of her life which we supported fully."
On Monday her sister Penny discovered the recording from the Amazon device. There are about 40 recordings on the device.
In one of the exchanges, LouAnn said: "Alexa, help me."
In another she said: "I am in pain. I have to find a way to relieve it."
She also asked Alexa: "Can you help me cope with pain?" and said: "Oh, Alexa, I'm going to hurt."
"I just felt bad because I couldn't help her," Penny said Wednesday through tears.
