Joyce Pacubas-Le Blanc was considered the mother hen of the neuroscience intensive care unit at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center.
Her locker at work, stocked with medicine and extra scrubs, was open to all her fellow nurses. The bulging bag she carried was always filled with other essentials like water and reading glasses, which she doled out just as freely. And when a nursing student’s iPad broke down, Pacubas-Le Blanc was quick to replace it with one of her own.
“That’s how big her heart is,” said Eileen Fajardo-Furlin, another nurse who works in the unit.
Pacubas-Le Blanc died Thursday afternoon at age 53 after testing positive for the coronavirus earlier this month.
Her death came a day after Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike announced that over 2,500 health care workers in Illinois had tested positive and eight of them had “potentially” died of the disease.
But Fajardo-Furlin said she doesn’t want Pacubas-Le Blanc to simply be remembered as another figure in the rising death toll.
“She’s not just a statistic,” Fajardo-Furlin said before breaking down in tears.
Pacubas-Le Blanc’s life was typified by the care and kindness she showed to others, according to her co-workers, who said she was especially protective of newer nurses getting acclimated to the demands of the high-pressure job.
“The way she fits into our unit is that she truly is the one who gives these new nurses a hug — a motivation to keep going, because in our line of work you need to be the best that you can,” Fajardo-Furlin said. “So a lot of us push our newer nurses this way. Joyce gives them that human touch.”
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Though the neuroscience ICU is considered a “clean” section of the hospital — meaning COVID-19 patients aren’t being treated there — Pacubas-Le Blanc’s co-worker Terence Yee said two of the four patients he has swabbed in the past three weeks tested positive for the deadly disease.
“The patients that I’ve had that were positive were asymptomatic. You don’t know who’s infected or not,” said Yee, who also serves as president of the Illinois Nurses Association.
In the wake of Pacubas-Le Blanc’s death, Yee said the group has called on the hospital to either provide easy access to testing or universally test everyone who arrives at the hospital. The group also wants staff members to be supplied with N95 respirators instead of surgical masks.
Yee said those demands haven’t yet been met. Michael Zenn, CEO of the University of Illinois Hospitals and Clinics, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The only way they could really make the situation safer for the health care workers is if either we presume that everybody is positive or we test everyone that comes in through our doors,” Fajardo-Furlin said. “That’s the only way to be able to provide the safest environment.
“Our expectation of our institution is to prepare us for such a situation, like a pandemic … But in this situation, we’re so grossly unprepared that it adds to our frustration.”
Fajardo-Furlin recently underwent surgery and is now preparing to return to work as she reels from the loss of her friend, who she said “gave the ultimate sacrifice.”
A south suburban native who lived in Darien, Pacubas-Le Blanc was a consummate planner who mapped out her entire life and was looking forward to buying a boat with her husband, Lawrence.
Given their shared interest in making greeting cards and scrapbooks, Pacubas-Le Blanc and Fajardo-Furlin were planning to open a craft store between their homes to spend more time together.
“When her plans are cut short, it’s just so tragic,” Fajardo-Furlin said.
Pacubas-Le Blanc is survived by her husband and their sons, Derrick and Lawrence Jr. A GoFundMe page offering support to the family was launched on Sunday. In just six hours, over $5,700 of the $10,000 goal had been raised.
