Las Vegas nurse remembered a year after COVID death
Health care workers and family shared stories and laughs Saturday as they remembered a local nurse who died last year of COVID-19.
Greg Peistrup died Sept. 17, 2020, his family told the Review-Journal at the time.
He was 53 and working as an emergency room nurse at North Vista Hospital.
His wife, Kristin Bell-Peistrup, organized a memorial at the Springs Preserve Botanical Garden that included framed photos of Peistrup doing his favorite hobbies.
“This is the celebration he deserved,” Kristin Bell-Peistrup said, holding back tears. “There’s great people here representing all aspects of his life.”
Between scuba vests, scrubs and bike gear, loved ones wrote messages to Peistrup which were tacked to trees in the garden.
“I still owe you that dinner I promised so I can celebrate and thank you for the gazillion amazing things you have taught me,” one nurse practitioner wrote.
A college friend from Marquette University described Peistrup as a hero. Peistrup’s brother Tim asked that he say hello to their grandmother, who preceded Peistrup in death.
Dr. Schon Roberts wrote that he had thought of Peistrup every day since his death.
“You left a legacy of living life to the fullest and seizing every moment,” Roberts wrote. “You have touched so many lives and we are all better for the relationship that we had with you.”
Peistrup previously worked at University Medical Center and Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center as an emergency room nurse.
Maria Fehlig, 55, worked with Peistrup at North Vista, but the pair figured out quickly they had been stationed at the same place in the Army before starting their careers in Las Vegas.
Fehlig remembered when her daughter, Makayla Fehlig, worked as a scribe at North Vista. Peistrup referred to Makayla, who was 19 at the time, as “our daughter.”
“He was bigger than life and just had an incredible wealth of knowledge,” Maria Fehlig said. “He mentored anybody. He always had something to teach us.”
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.
