'Very Dedicated' Firefighter Dies After Contracting Virus At Work

IXONIA, WI — A Wisconsin community is mourning the loss of a first responder who has died of the coronavirus. Those who worked with Ixonia Fire Department Capt. Kelly Raether have said it's believed she contracted the virus while caring for a patient, and her death is considered to have come in the line of duty.

Ixonia Fire Chief Dave Schilling was with Raether on an ambulance run a month ago. They later learned the patient they had been caring for tested positive for the virus, according to a WCVB report.

"Myself and my other partner, we were OK, and she was the one that ended up testing positive," Schilling told the news station.

Raether was soon after hospitalized with the virus, and her condition continued to get worse until her Nov. 26 death. She is one of the 3,628 people who have died from the coronavirus in Wisconsin as of Dec. 2, according to the New York Times database.

Described as a "very dedicated" person who had a passion for helping others, Raether was also a registered nurse at the Aurora Health Center in Hartford and an educator as a nursing/clinical education coordinator at Carroll University in Waukesha, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"Kelly will be missed dearly by her students and fellow faculty," Dr. Teri Kaul, chair of the department of nursing at Carroll, told the newspaper. "Her career as a nurse educator and leader in nursing had just begun. Nursing is a calling to serve others, which Kelly always did with honor and grace."

Her locker at the fire department will remain empty in her memory.

"I'm not gonna replace (her)," Schilling told WCVB. "No one is going to be going into that locker."

Read more via WCVB 5 and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel