
Freda Ocran was a 50-year-old Jacobi nurse of The Bronx who lost her life due to COVID-19. Ocran was a head nurse at Jacobi Medical Center’s psychiatric unit, and she was concerned about the lack of coronavirus precautions and testing while working there.

Her 25-year-old son Kwame Ocran said that his mom had concerns, especially when working with patients and other staff, and how long it was taking to be tested.

Jacobi nurses demanded more protective gear on Saturday when they held a rally outside the hospital. Kwame said of his mother that there was no way of knowing if she was working with someone who was positive of the virus or not without those tests being administered, and his mom was very concerned about the precautions being taken. Meanwhile, though, medical veteran Theresa Lococo, a city pediatric nurse and a Brooklyn “legend”, also lost her life from COVID-19, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio and her son.

According to Lococo’s son, he urged his 68-year-old mom to protect herself as the pandemic spread. He told her to call in sick, because she had never taken even two days off. By the end of the week, though, he was calling 911 to report that his mom was seizing, and the nurse passed away soon after that. When asked whether he believes widespread testing for coronavirus could have prevented her death, he said that he doesn’t even want to hear that, because it would make him feel like someone took his mom’s life.


According to Kwame, his mom became ill with just mild symptoms two weeks ago, but she still showed up for her nursing shift at Jacobi, where she used to oversee the nursing staff in the psych ward. The hospital sent her home soon after that, but, sadly, her symptoms got worse and she lost her life.

She was admitted to Lincoln Medical Center in The Bronx on March 24 and she was put on a ventilator at the end of the week, but she lost her life within a day or to.

New York City Mayor de Blasio announced on Sunday that Ocran lost her life, and he said that she was a “psych educator” at Jacobi and that it was a horrible loss for the family, for the hospital, and for the city.