Five years post-pandemic: A look at how COVID-19 affected New Mexicans

Dr. Vesta Sandoval had never seen anything like COVID-19 in her 30 years of experience as a pulmonary doctor.

“It was very scary in the beginning, because we had no idea what to expect, other than that we knew it was going to be an overwhelming number of patients,” she said. “There’s really never been a disaster like this in the history of the United States.”

Sandoval had just become chief medical officer of Lovelace when the pandemic began, and it was her responsibility to find enough ventilators and ICU beds for a large number of the 45,000 New Mexicans who would be hospitalized due to COVID, according to the New Mexico Department of Health.

By March 11, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had made its way to New Mexico, affecting the first four people in the state. Two weeks later, the respiratory disease would claim the life of an Eddy County man in his 70s. He would be the first, but not the last, New Mexican to die in the global pandemic. As of March 2025, over 10,000 COVID deaths in New Mexico have been reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While that’s a tiny portion of the more than 7 million COVID deaths worldwide, for New Mexico the impact has been enormous. Five years after the pandemic first ripped through the state, providers and families spent time reflecting to the Journal on the effects the disease had on their lives, their futures and how they see the world.

“We lost huge portions of communities,” Sandoval said. “It was difficult for providers because they’re not used to seeing patients die and not have something to try to help. At that time with COVID, you could try and put somebody on a ventilator, but it wasn’t necessarily going to be enough.”

Sandoval added that during the pandemic, hospital workers put their lives on hold to provide care for residents. Many worked to the point of exhaustion, and some even spent nights at the Lovelace hospitals.

Others, Sandoval said, left the profession, choosing to retire early or change careers.

“People put so much of themselves into taking care of those patients, and sacrificed a lot,” she said. “We lost some nurses and doctors who got sick and passed away.”

Of course, providers were far from the only ones to suffer from the disease. Olivia Ortiz remembers the day she lost her daughter, 48-year-old Lynette Fajardo, to COVID.

Fajardo had a passion for life and always joked around with anyone who would listen, Ortiz said. It is one of many things she misses about Fajardo and one of many things the pandemic took from her, she said.

Ortiz, 68, is a native New Mexican who is retired. She and her family took strict precautions after they learned about COVID, going as far as having their groceries delivered and wiping them down with disinfectant before loading them into their fridge. Fajardo, who had health issues prior to contracting COVID, was especially susceptible to the disease.

Despite the strict precautions, the entire family contracted the virus. While most of the family recovered, Fajardo realized she was having a medical emergency and went to seek treatment.

Fajardo was admitted to the hospital on Jan. 8, 2022, and did not receive an ICU bed until the following night.

“We’re very limited in our ICU beds, so we knew we had to be very efficient, and we started immediately working on plans for how we would be able to expand services and what we needed to be able to do to get patients through the door,” Sandoval said.

Fajardo’s condition worsened three days later. Doctors warned Ortiz she would have to consider what her next steps would be. On Jan. 10, 2022, Ortiz made a decision she and her family would remember for the rest of their lives.

“The doctor called and told me all her organs have shut down, and we needed to make a decision on what to do,” Ortiz said. “I didn’t want her to suffer, so I told them to go ahead and disconnect her.”

Ortiz begged doctors to let her in the hospital room just once to see her only child. She was heartbroken when doctors said no visits would be allowed in the room.

“I can’t even explain to you how horrible that felt,” Ortiz said. “I carried her for nine months, she was always with me.”

Since Fajardo’s passing, Ortiz has become the primary caretaker to Fajardo’s two daughters, Larissa and Marissa LaJeunesse.

“Half my heart is missing and the other half belongs to my grandchildren,” Ortiz said.

Through all the losses from COVID, some painful lessons have been learned.

Sandoval has seen some changes in the way providers practice medicine. Some things — like telemedicine — have come from COVID and have allowed providers to reach people in more rural areas.

But, she has also noticed an increase in hesitancy regarding vaccinations.

Ortiz has been a proponent to raise funds for a permanent COVID memorial to be built outside of Albuquerque. She has also become an advocate, helping others grieving their loved ones lost to COVID to find peace — and help herself mourn in the process.

“I’ve gone to Rio Rancho, to the city. I’ve been a lot of places where I’ve been able to talk about COVID and what it’s done to our family,” she said. “I think at least that would give us some kind of comfort, to be able to be there and be around other people that went through the same thing you went through.”

You can reach staff writer Nakayla McClelland via email at nmcclelland@abqjournal.com.