An employee at the Veterans Administration hospital in Detroit has died of the coronavirus, the VA confirmed Thursday in a statement to the Free Press. The woman, who a source said was a nurse about to retire, is the first known death of a medical professional in metro Detroit.

The VA did not identify the employee who worked at the John D. Dingell Medical Center, but a source told the Free Press she was a nurse who had intended to retire in May. She died earlier this week, and worked closely with patients with lung and kidney diseases.

"She really was on the front lines, and a very dedicated woman," said the source, who requested anonymity for fear of employment repercussions.

Update:Nurse who died from coronavirus was a hero, risked her life for veterans, son says

"A Detroit VA Medical Center employee in their 70s has died due to complications from Coronavirus (COVID-19). Those who may have been in contact with the employee have been informed to report any symptoms and have either gone into self-quarantine or been placed into quarantine by their provider," the VA said in a statement.

"We offer our deepest condolences to the employee’s family and loved ones at this difficult time,” said Dr. Pamela Reeves, Detroit VA Medical Center director.

Hospital employees in metro Detroit told the Free Press they are extremely concerned about getting sick from the coronavirus, and some said they don't have the protective gear they need, such as gowns, masks, face shields, hand sanitizer and wipes.

"If health care professionals are protected, patients are protected," said one doctor at a hospital in Detroit who asked not to be identified to protect her job.

Some medical professionals are living apart from their families, in second homes, or nearby hotels. They're disrobing in their garages, and then going straight to the shower to protect their families, they told the Free Press.

Josephine Walker, a registered nurse at the Ascension Providence Rochester Hospital and a vice president of Local 40 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union, said "everybody's kind of fearful."

The union represents registered nurses and other health care professionals at McLaren Macomb Hospital in Mount Clemens and the Ascension Providence Rochester Hospital.

Walker worked the Saturday night shift and said the nurses are going about their jobs without breaking down or getting angry. But it's at the end of their shifts, on their way to work, or as they're trying to sleep, when it hits.

Walker says she gets calls and texts from the nurses, saying "I can't do it." Or, "I don't know if i can do this anymore."

That second text, Walker said, came from a nurse whom she described as "one of them most stable nurses I know."

Walker said nurses are staying in hotels — including one that is charging just $35 a day — or rooming with other nurses to protect their families. Walker said she worked the Saturday night shift and it appeared nurses had adequate personal protective equipment.

But that's not the case for two couriers for the Detroit Medical Center, who asked that they not be identified for fear of losing their jobs. They told the Free Press they have inadequate personal protective equipment, as they ferry lab samples, including COVID-19 tests, across metro Detroit.

They said they need gloves, masks, wipes for their vehicles and hand sanitizer. One said policies vary from lab to lab where they pick up samples.

"Everybody is doing their own thing at every different location," one courier said. "It's horrible."

The other courier described the hospital and lab staffers that she encounters as "shaking and shook and scared. A lot of people are shook to the core. The communication is low, there's no uniformity in what happens."

The other courier noted that he and his coworkers are traveling around the region, from Downriver to northern Oakland County to a lab in Detroit, and "we can carry this disease anywhere. ... We can carry this disease to a lot of places if we're not careful."

An employee at Children's Hospital in Detroit who registers patients said it's "scary, scary" at work. She also asked that she not be identified for fear of losing her job.

She said management is not communicating with workers about who on the staff is sick or who is in quarantine.

More:Michigan nurses say they don't have masks, gear to keep them safe at work

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"We don't need to know their names. We need to be aware of what’s going around," she said.

She said she needs hand sanitizer, gloves and masks. She said she comes in close contact with patients — there's no social distancing when she registers them.

"We can get this virus and die, too. Yes, that’s why it's so scary," she said.

The Free Press emailed questions to nine hospital systems in Michigan on Monday about staffing levels, illness among employees and their preparedness for the expected surge in coronavirus cases. Some did not respond. Others provided varying levels of detail.

Aaron Gillingham, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Beaumont Health, said the system of eight hospitals is assessing staffing every day.

"We must keep our staff safe and healthy to provide the care our patients need," he said. The system is exploring such options as asking retired employees to return to work, and "using more medical residents and moving clinicians who are now in non-direct patient care roles back into direct patient care.

"As it stands today, we are staffed to handle the volume of patients we are currently caring for, but our staffing resources are getting challenged. We have been monitoring what has been happening in New York and other parts of the country and we’re doing our best to be proactive," he said.

He said "only a few dozen of our employees have tested positive for COVID-19."

"When our employees develop COVID-19 symptoms, we treat them just as we would any patient. We assess their health and determine whether they should be tested for the virus."

"Our team of highly trained nurses and doctors understand how to protect themselves. We have been educating them about safety every day."

Ilene Cantor, vice president of marketing and communications at Sparrow Health System, which runs six hospitals, declined to address questions about staffing levels or illnesses among workers.

Melissa Thrasher at Ascension, which operates hospitals in Michigan and 19 other states, declined to address illness rates among employees, saying, "We cannot provide specific health information about our employees."

Spokeswoman Mary Masson said Michigan Medicine, which includes the University of Michigan Health System, has enough staffing.

"We’ve been working hard to get volunteers for redeploying staff in the future who are not needed in their current roles. I am not able to share how many employees have tested positive for COVID-19,” Masson said.

Laura Blodgett a spokeswoman for Trinity Health, said the health system, which operates hospitals in Michigan and 21 other states, is "keeping a close eye on staffing volumes at all of our hospitals."

More:Trinity Health to furlough, reduce health care workers to part time

She said Trinity Health was soliciting staff from sister hospitals in other states that are not as affected as Michigan right now, "who may be interested in being deployed here. Additionally, we are working with our in-house staffing solution FirstChoice to recruit nursing teams that are willing to travel. We are reaching out to staff who left or retired in good standing and are willing and able to return to the workforce."

“As part of a large national health system, Trinity Health, we are first working within our health system to deploy staff if needed. We have not had a need to reach out to the Michigan Volunteer Registry for medical staff at this time.”

Trinity Health's President and CEO Mike Slubowski sent a letter to employees Wednesday saying that the financial losses from the coronavirus pandemic were forcing the Catholic health system to begin worker furloughs, a reduction in hours for some employees and pay cuts for its top officers.

Blodgett declined to say how many Trinity Health staff members have contracted COVID-19.

“We respect the privacy of our colleagues, and do not share that information publicly,” she said in an email to the Free Press.

Contact Jennifer Dixon: 313-223-4410 or jbdixon@freepress.com. Health reporter Kristen Jordan Shamus can be reached at 313-222-5997 or kshamus@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.