Jan Swallow, activities director of Life Care Center of Las Vegas, holds up one of several smart devices the care facility received from the nonprofit group COVID Tech Connect Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021.
Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Because of coronavirus restrictions, video chat is often the only way nursing home patients can see their families.
Sadly, with in-person visits curtailed, it is the only way some will ever see their loved ones' faces again.
“One of the most heartbreaking parts of the COVID crisis is that so many people are dying alone,” said Anjali Kumar, a founder of COVID Tech Connect, a nonprofit group that has donated about 8,000 tablet computers to hospitals and nursing homes nationwide.
The organization sent five devices to Life Care Center of Las Vegas, a 178-bed nursing home that only had a handful of tablets for patients to use.
"We have zero visitations inside of our building," said Jan Swallow, activities director for the home in the northwest valley.
The building has been off limits to visitors since mid-March to protect critically ill and other vulnerable residents, Swallow said.
Swallow said she learned about COVID Tech Connect from a colleague, who heard about the group on Ellen DeGeneres' YouTube channel.
DeGeneres announced a $25,000 donation to COVID Tech Connect through her philanthropic partner Shutterfly, a California-based photo company.
Swallow said she filled out an application for the tablets, though she was “very skeptical that something could be that easily accessible.”
The organization offers five to 15 Samsung Galaxy tablets per facility and prioritizes those located in coronavirus hot spots.
COVID Tech Connect was created by a group of entrepreneurs and tech executives from around the nation. The nonprofit ships devices from a warehouse in Texas owned by one of the founders.
When the group began raising money for the tablets in March, it set up a GoFundMe account and thought it would donate devices to a few hospitals.
"But then as word got out, we realized that this was a problem that we were going to see across the country and that we were in a position to help address it in a bigger way," Kumar said.
Eventually, COVID Tech Connect started getting donations from companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft. They were able to buy 10,000 devices after they received a large anonymous donation.
The nonprofit got more attention after DeGeneres promoted it to her large following.
"That brought a lot of awareness to the program in an organic way, which was super interesting. But a lot of it has just been word-of-mouth," Kumar said.
COVID Tech Connect is sponsored by The Giving Back Fund, a national nonprofit that facilitates donations from professional athletes, celebrities and corporations for individual foundations.
Financial donations have been disabled on the COVID Tech Connect's GoFundMe account because it exceeded its goal by raising over $4 million. Those who want to help can e-mail [email protected]">[email protected]">[email protected].
Hospitals and care facilities can request free devices here.
