Sign-language interpreter ‘proud’ of her work at Hawaii COVID briefings dies of virus
When the coronavirus pandemic hit Hawaii, Patty Sakal “put herself on the front lines” to help the hearing-impaired community keep up with the latest news, officials say.
“We were honored, so honored, to see her on the Hawaii news interpreting for the mayor and for the governor when COVID started,” Lorna Mouton Riff, her sister, told CNN. “And she was proud that she was able to, you know, to offer her services for that.”
Then the 62-year-old American Sign Language interpreter came down with COVID-19 on a trip to visit to her family in California, according to the network. She died Friday.
“We made that difficult decision to take her off of the ventilator and let her go in peace,” Mouton Riff told Hawaii News Now. “The nurses were in there. We were all on Zoom. They were playing her favorite jazz music and we had a chance to at least say goodbye in the only way we could at that time.”
Sakal, whose parents were deaf, had worked in the hearing-impaired community in Hawaii as an advocate and interpreter for 40 years, CNN reported.
“Sometimes in life, your career finds you, you don’t necessarily choose it, and that was so much so for Patty,” Mouton Riff told Hawaii News Now.
“She befriended all, humbly served the needs of others tirelessly, and always made sure to share love, laughter, and happiness with everyone she met,” wrote Isle Interpret in a Facebook post about Sakal’s death.
When the pandemic began, Sakal served as an interpreter at state and local press briefings.
“Here it was, a pandemic and it was not safe to go, yet, she went out and she helped do a job that was critical to people who needed this information,” former Honolulu mayor Kirk Caldwell told Hawaii News Now.
“She was truly putting herself on the frontline and I was always amazed by that and by her positive attitude,” Caldwell said, according to the stations.
On a visit to her family in California, Sakal began having breathing problems and was placed on a ventilator at a hospital, CNN reported.
“The virus just took hold in her body and ravaged it,” Mouton Riff told Hawaii News Now.
Sakal leaves three daughters, Isle Interpret reported. “Aloha ‘oe Patty. We love you and hold dear our hope of being united with you again,” the Facebook post reads.
More than 96 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide with more than 2 million deaths as of Jan. 20, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 24 million confirmed cases with more than 402,000 deaths.
This story was originally published January 20, 2021 at 12:19 PM with the headline "Sign-language interpreter ‘proud’ of her work at Hawaii COVID briefings dies of virus."