Transcendients: Memorial to Healthcare Workers
Died 19 April 2020
DAVID JOEL PEREA
RACE/ETHNICITY Hispanic
OCCUPATION Traveling registered nurse
LOCATION Reno, Nev.
AGE 35
CONCERNS ABOUT ADEQUATE PPE? Yes
Traveling nurse ‘wanted to be somebody’
David Joel Perea would call in from Maine, Vermont, Minnesota and, ultimately, Nevada, with the same request: “Mom, can you send tamales?” Dominga Perea would ship them overnight. This is how she always knew where her son was.
A traveling nurse who routinely pulled 80-hour weeks, David “had a tremendous work ethic”, said his brother, Daniel Perea. A young David, returning from his father’s mechanic shop, said, “I don’t want to spend life sweating under a car,” Dominga recalled. “I want to be somebody.”
Dominga was proud of him, “for doing God’s work.”
When “mijito” didn’t respond to her text on 6 April, Dominga knew something was wrong. “I could always tell how David was. If he said ‘Hi, Mama,’ he was happy. If he said ‘I’m fine, Mom,’ he was tired,” she said.
This time he said neither. “Don’t panic, Mama,” David wrote. “Just pray for me. I have the Covid.”
David FaceTimed with his mother on Easter Sunday from a hospital bed in Reno. “He was starving, but he struggled even eating mashed potatoes,” Dominga said, “because he couldn’t breathe.” The next morning, he was placed on a ventilator and never woke up.
His workplace did not respond to requests for comment.
– Eli Cahan