Hingham family thanks nurses who saved father with ‘angel’ fund

BOSTON — We’re saying #HeyThanks to the Hingham family of a man fighting COVID-19.

They’re so thankful to the staff at Massachusetts General Hospital for keeping him alive, they’re now raising money to help those healthcare workers.

Jim Bello got a hero’s sendoff from a bunch of heroes on the ICU floor at MGH.

“Really from a medical standpoint, he’s an amazing victory for them. Amazing," said Bello’s wife, Kim.

Bello said her 49-year-old husband almost didn’t make it.

“It was a miracle honestly. A miracle because you know you hear the stories how sick some people are. Jim was beyond. They saved his life, completely saved his life,” she said via Skype from the family’s home in Hingham.

Bello said the father of three has always been healthy but tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after hiking up Loon Mountain last month. He became dangerously sick and was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital on March 13. Bello said her husband, who is a medical malpractice attorney, was among the first COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit. Shortly after being admitted, Bello took a turn for the worse.

“I kept saying, oh my god Jim was so sick. He was so sick that if he was not at MGH, he would not be alive,” she said.

Bello is so grateful to the doctors, nurses and healthcare workers at MGH that kept her husband alive, she started a GoFundMe account to give back to whom she calls Jim’s ‘angels.’ It has already raised close to 40-thousand dollars for warm meals and other things.

“We thought about doing iPads for the ICU rooms because people can’t be there. I can’t be there so it’s so difficult you know as a wife as a mother just be able to talk to him you know so facetime has been amazing,” Mrs. Bello said.

While at MGH Jim had been receiving lots of prayers, including a friend’s cousin, who is a nun at the Vatican.

“We’re Jewish and I’m like, oh my god we have the pope, we have the nuns, we have every single religious category praying, you know?" She said. “It’s been amazing.”

Jim is on the recovery floor at Mass General Hospital. Kim Bello said if all goes well she hopes her husband will be home in Hingham sometime next week.

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