the acuity and volume that we're seeing
right now feels like we are in a war
zone
and it feels like honestly a third-world
country I'm an assistant professor of
emergency medicine at Columbia
University within the department of
emergency medicine obviously so I work
on the frontlines obviously and this is
pandemic right now
there's patients stacked up in the
hallways there's patients who obviously
have critically low oxygen levels who
need to be intubated who need a critical
care and we just don't have obviously
with the bodies and resources that's
needed amidst this this current time the
lack of personal protective equipment
has been a huge issue here in the United
States so we are essentially rationing
our personal protective equipment so not
saying we don't have any but obviously
it isn't at the level of standard that
we should be I wish I had a hazmat suit
or a bunny suit so essentially docking
and you know deal with these patients
but I essentially come in and I have my
full n95 mask and I wear kind of
surgical masks over that to prevent it
from getting dirty or soiled
to be honest with you I've actually had
to give up a shift here and there
because obviously the added demand of
what we're dealing with right now is
definitely what weighing itself and
putting a toll on myself and others and
initially I was trying to pick up extra
shifts obviously just to help others out
but we're realizing more and more that
it's a marathon not a sprint
I can tell you it's nothing like I've
experienced before any of my colleagues
it's essentially there's gonna be a
before and there's going to be an after
after this and honestly unfortunately
not to give a a dire balloon picture
it's going to get worse before it gets
better honestly if you look at the stats
and you look from epidemiological
standpoint it takes about 10 to 16 days
from the time someone is infected till
the time their test comes back positive
what that means essentially is that the
cases that we're seeing now are from two
weeks ago when they were initially
affected so honestly I don't anticipate
and we don't anticipate that we hit peak
yet here in New York City and probably a
many play
across across the world I think there's
a lot of ways to cope I'm honestly
trying to get outside when I can I live
very close to Central Park so I just try
to get outside go for a run exercise and
really try to stay you know close to the
things that obviously keep me sane and
healthy just obviously keep my immunity
up so that I don't get sick during the
critical time but people have been
creative honestly we're having virtual
happy hours some of my colleagues
including psychotherapist and
psychologist and psychiatrist have
obviously off of their ears and offered
to give us
Kelly visits free of charge just to
obviously you know prevent this
emotional burden or essentially kind of
cope with what we're dealing with at
this point of time I think there's a lot
of things we can probably do to help our
healthcare workers and to help the
society at large I believe we can
probably institute a manufacturing act
actually get companies involved and
massively produced PPE and other
critical materials and medicines and
things that we need on the front lines
to obviously deal with this illness
because this is not going away in
defensive this is something that we're
probably going to see for months it's
not longer if we don't continue bobby's
and take this seriously
enact social distancing and do the
critical things that we've been
preaching for myself and my colleagues
include of course what was feared the
level of desire of fear amongst all of
us considering that coronavirus doesn't
just affect the goals or those with
comorbidities this is a serious serious
illness so if there is virus and it
affects people of all ages races gender
socioeconomic status it really doesn't
matter the color the kind of who you are
people are falling to this illness so I
think people need to take it seriously
and we're obviously aware of that being
on the front lines and seeing how it's
affected so many it's kind of an extreme
version of the Hippocratic oath right
now no one expected to sign up to take
care of patients obviously with the lack
of personal protective equipment and to
honestly fear for your life every day I
didn't expect that but
like I said and I think I've told some
of my colleagues and others there was
any time to feel validated about going
into medicine let alone emergency
medicine that time is now
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