Nurse creates warm rubber glove ‘hands’ for Covid patient to hold in isolation ward

Nurses really are the best of us.

Their tireless commitment to helping and comforting others make them an example to us all.

No clearer is this illustrated than by a small, but profoundly moving gesture, made by a worker at a Covid ward in Brazil.

In a photo shared on social media, a coronavirus patient being held in isolation can be seen with two surgical gloves encasing her hands.

Because her condition means she’s unable to have physical contact with others, these gloves have been filled with hot water to mimic the warmth of human touch.

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Twitter user Nissim Mannathukkaren (@nmannathukkaren) shared the image alongside the caption: “‘The hand of God’—nurses trying to comfort isolated patients in a Brazilian Covid isolation ward.

“Salute to the front liners and a stark reminder of the grim situation our world is in.”

His post, which was shared on Thursday, has garnered more than 99,000 likes and more than 25,000 retweets, with users sharing their admiration for the nurse’s empathy and creativity.

Even Dr Tredros Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the World Health Organisation, was inspired:

Nurse technician Semei Araújo Cunha, who was originally responsible for the so-called “hand of God” photo, originally shared it on her social media accounts on March 20.

"We decided to do it as a form of affection, cuddling, humanisation, as if someone was taking her hand, Cunha told news site G1 São Carlos and Araraquara.

Not only does the technique grant the patient comfort, she explained, it also warms the extremities of intubated patients.

According to the news outlet, Cunha put together the gloves after she and some of her co-workers saw a similar action recommended via a nursing app.

Nurse Lidiane Melo, who works in a hospital on Ilha do Governador, North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, allegedly invented the idea last year when was unable to measure a patient’s saturation.

“His hand was very cold. I wrapped it in orthopedic cotton and bandage, but it did not work. Circulation did not improve. I thought about wetting his hand with warm water, but because of the risk of contamination, the idea was not a good one. I thought a little more and put the warm water inside the surgical gloves and wrapped it in his hand,” Melo reportedly told a local news site at the time.

Well, the creation has certainly warmed our hearts.