Spotlight: David Barnes, Home Health Aide

David Barnes has been a home health aide with Partners in Care since January of 2003. He’s cared for the same client since November of that year.

“We have a really good relationship,” says David. “We connected when I first met him. I’m with him six days a week for twelve hours a day, from eight o’clock in the morning to eight o’clock at night.”

Before he moved to the United States, David owned a restaurant—experience he draws on in cooking all of his client’s meals—and worked as a mechanic and an electrician.

“My client was a college professor and taught engineering, so we have many common interests and discuss many things. He’s not afraid to share with me what he knows, and if I have a problem, I will ask him for his advice. We don’t hide anything from each other, and he can’t hide anything from me! I can tell by looking at him when he isn’t feeling well.”

“One morning the night aide said he’d had a pain in his chest. He admitted he had a pain but said it wasn’t bad. I could tell by looking at his face that it was more than a small pain and he was downplaying it. So I called 911 and it turned out, he had two blood clots on his lungs. I was very glad that I can recognize when he is not 100 percent as he should be.”