Kind: captions
Language: en
I think at this point large-scale
reliable data is really important but
also important are the human stories and
something that caught my eye was the day
in life of an emergency room doctor
Craig Spencer that he revealed in a
series of tweets thank you everyone for
the incredible messages of support and
encouragement many of you asked what it
was like in the emergency room right now
I want to share a bit with you a day in
the life of an emergency room doc a
brief dispatch from the cove 819
frontline wake up at 6:30 a.m. priority
is making a big pot of coffee for the
whole day because the place by the
hospital is closed the Starbucks - it's
all closed on the walk it feels like
Sunday nobody's out might be the
freezing rain or it's early regardless
that's good walk in for the 9:00 a.m.
shift immediately struck by how the calm
of the early morning city streets is
immediately transformed the bright
fluorescent lights of the emergency room
reflect off everybody's protective
goggles there's a cacophony of coughing
you stop masks up walk in you
sign out from the previous team but
nearly every patient is the same young
and old cough shortness of breath fever
they're really worried about one patient
very short of breath on the maximum
amount of oxygen we can give but still
breathing fast you immediately assess
this patient it's clear what this is
what needs to happen you have a long and
honest discussion with the patient and
family over the phone it's best to put
her on life support now before things
get much worse you're getting set up for
that but you're notified of another
really sick patient coming in you rush
over they're also extremely sick
vomiting they need to be put on life
support as well you bring them back to
patients and rooms right next to each
other both getting a breathing tube it's
not even 10:00 a.m. yet for the rest of
your shift
nearly every hour you get paged stat
notification very sick patient short of
breath fever oxygen 88% stat
notification low blood pressure
short of breath low oxygen stat
notification low oxygen can't breathe
fever all day
sometime in the afternoon you recognize
you haven't drank any water you're
afraid to take off the mask
it's the only thing that protects you
surely you can last a little longer in
West Africa during Ebola you spent hours
in a hot suit without water one more
patient but late afternoon you need to
eat restaurant across the street is
closed right everything is closed but
thankfully the hospital cafeteria is
open you grab something
wash your hands twice cautiously take
off your mask and eat as fast as you can
go back mask up walk in nearly everyone
you see today is the same we assume
everyone is covered 19 we wear gowns
goggles and masks at every encounter all
day it's the only way to be safe where
did all the heart attacks and
appendicitis patients go it's all kovat
your shift ends you sign out to the
uncoming team it's all kovat 19 or the
past week we've all learned the signs he
goes on to list the signs one of which
is little oxygen you share concerns and
friends throughout the city without
personal protective equipment hospitals
running out of ventilators before you
leave you wipe everything down your
phone your badge your wallet your coffee
mug all of it
drown it in Bleach everything in the bag
take no chances sure you got it all wipe
it down again can't be too careful you
walk
and take off your mask if you'll make it
and exposed it's still raining but you
want to walk home feel safer than the
subway or bus bus you need to decompress
the streets are empty this feels nothing
like what is happening inside maybe
people don't know
you get home you strip in the hallway
it's okay your neighbors know what you
do everything in a bag
your wife tries to keep your toddler
away but she hasn't seen you in days so
it's really hard run to the shower
rinse it all away never happier time for
family you reflect on the fact that it's
really hard to understand how bad this
is and how bad is going to be if all you
see are empty streets hospitals and
nearing capacity we're running out of
ventilators ambulance sirens don't stop
everyone we see today was infected a
week ago or more the numbers will
undoubtedly skyrocket overnight as they
have every night the past few days more
will come to the emergency room more
will be stat notifications more will be
put on a ventilator
we were too late to stop the virus full
stop but we can slow its spread the
virus can't infect those it never meets
stay inside social distancing is the
only thing that will save us now you
might hear people say it isn't real it
is you might hear people say it isn't
bad it is you might hear people say it
can't take you down it can I survived
Ebola
I fear Kovan 19 do your part stay home
stay safe and every day I'll come to
work for you
this is a moving accounting through a
series of tweets by an emergency room
doctor on the very front lines of
fighting Cove 819 without question the
best thing we could do now is stay home
while people like Craig Spencer doctors
nurses health care workers service
workers support us and treat the people
who are sick and really importantly as
we get more and more reliable data this
isn't the time to panic this is the time
to take optimal action given that we're
operating under a huge amount of
uncertainty the two things we need to do
is the most important is to save lives
and the second is collect good reliable
data before we can reopen the economy we
have to get good data to understand the
spread of the virus in order to be able
to control it and all the while treating
people who are sick without overwhelming
the resources of our medical system stay
safe out there stay informed stay strong
we'll be this thing I love you all
you