The Pandemic’s Battleground

They’ve witnessed the worst of COVID-19 – day after day, week after week — while fighting to help grievously ill patients who otherwise wouldn’t survive. The pandemic has forced critical care nurse Holly Vilione and caregivers at North Memorial Health Hospital to confront a grueling emotional landscape that’s made all the worse when the virus hits home. Last August, Vilione and her extended family made a trip to a cabin, when she and several other members of her family began showing signs of the virus. The disease eventually killed her mother-in-law, leaving her and her family devastated and questioning how they contracted COVID-19.
By Aaron Lavinsky
February 6, 2021

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The Pandemic’s Battleground

They’ve witnessed the worst of COVID-19 – day after day, week after week — while fighting to help grievously ill patients who otherwise wouldn’t survive. The pandemic has forced critical care nurse Holly Vilione and caregivers at North Memorial Health Hospital to confront a grueling emotional landscape that’s made all the worse when the virus hits home. Last August, Vilione and her extended family made a trip to a cabin, when she and several other members of her family began showing signs of the virus. The disease eventually killed her mother-in-law, leaving her and her family devastated and questioning how they contracted COVID-19.

By Aaron Lavinsky
February 6, 2021

Critical care nurse Holly Vilione and Deb Ulrich, of Norwood Young America, comforted each other as Deb visited her husband Rick, 60, for the first time since his hospitalization with COVID-19. Vilione had been caring for Rick for weeks and was constantly updating Deb over the phone. He was being transferred out of the ICU for rehabilitation that morning and was still recovering.

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

Holly Vilione looked on as her daughters Nora, 2, Mya, 8, and husband, Chris Vilione, snacked in the kitchen a few hours after Holly returned from another difficult day working in the ICU.

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

A photo of the Vilione family, which included Carol and Don Vilione, Holly’s in-laws, at center. Carol caught COVID-19 during a family gathering at their cabin in Wisconsin and died after a month-long hospitalization.

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

Holly Vilione played backyard hockey with her children and nieces at her sister’s home in Plymouth.

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

Holly Vilion read a bedtime story to her son, Reed, 6, and daughter Nora, 2.

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

Holly and Chris Vilione shared a bowl of popcorn and watched TV after putting their kids to bed.

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

Holly Vilione, center, held the hand of COVID-19 patient Rick Ulrich as he worked with physical therapist Brian Ellingboe and aide Jamie Guse, left and right, during Ulrich’s stay in North Memorial’s South Seven ICU.

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

Holly Vilione, left, wiped away tears as she was comforted by friend and fellow ICU nurse Amy Berwald, as Holly recounted her personal battle with COVID-19 as an ICU nurse and as someone who lost a close family member. “I’m struggling. They know it,” Holly says of co-workers. All caregivers are shedding more tears these days, she says, before adding with a sad laugh, “Maybe me, just a little bit more.”

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

Holly Vilione, in a quiet moment, took a deep breath as she prepared to return to her COVID patients in the ICU after a short lunch break.

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

Holly Vilione, a critical care nurse with North Memorial, helped facilitate a Zoom call with the family of Hillary Lowell, a COVID-19 patient who was extubated Thanksgiving morning in the South Seven ICU.

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

Holly Vilione, center, took a photo with fellow critical care nurses in South Seven after they made signs celebrating the return home of a former patient, Rick Ulrich, who spent nearly a month in their care.

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

Holly Vilione held her phone while looking at photos of Rick Ulrich hugging his wife, Deb, after Rick was discharged from a different hospital. Ulrich was in North Memorial and in Vilione’s care for about a month.

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

Holly Vilione wiped away tears as she waited 15 minutes after receiving her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination in late December. She had just finished reading an emotional note from the daughter of one of her patients, who survived a weeks-long battle with the disease in the South Seven ICU.

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

Holly Vilione finished a shift in the ICU at North Memorial where she works with COVID-19 patients.

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune

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