Ruth González Esparza fights back tears when she talks about how thankful she is for her care at Denver Health. She came to the hospital for the most joyous occasion in many people's lives – to give birth to her baby. But just hours after her little boy Jose Luis Sanchez González was born on March 31, 2020, she found herself near death and fighting a virus she didn't even know she had.
"She was one of our first COVID moms," recalled Denver Health clinical nurse educator Kenisha Karlsson, RN. "The nurses, they just felt a real connection to Ruth."