Suzanne Watnick, MD, got the call at 9 pm Friday, February 28. A man in his 50s who received dialysis treatments at a Northwest Kidney Centers facility in Seattle was the first person with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to die in the United States.
Watnick, the nonprofit dialysis organization’s chief medical officer, immediately called Elizabeth McNamara, RN, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer. The patient had last undergone dialysis at one of Northwest Kidney Centers’ 19 sites a week earlier.