-This is our ER this morning.
It's a big change from last week.
So this is a nice little reprieve,
but I'm going to guess that this is temporary.
No patients in this hall at all.
It is a beautiful sight to see.
-Our volume has not been high over the past few days.
Somewhat concerning because we're just wondering
are our normal patients at home getting worse
'cause they're scared to come in or is everyone really okay?
-So, it's like a switch was flipped.
And now all of a sudden, all of the ER
presenting COVID patients have sort of dried up.
-Volume is down, but they're coming in sicker.
So when they come in,
they can be to the extreme where they have no pulse.
-The ICU is still -- those are full.
More than 70 people still intubated,
but it's signs of progress, and it's really great to see.
[cheers and applause]
-So, we just had a discharge of a patient from the floor.
A great feeling that all our hard work made something.
Overhead played the Beatles song,
"Here Comes the Sun."
Everyone felt great afterwards.
You could tell everyone was a lot happier.
Everyone was cheering.
-Something cool that happened this week was my hospital
plays the song "Fight Song" over the intercom every time
a COVID-positive patient is extubated in the ICU.
♪ - And I don't really care if nobody else believes ♪
♪ 'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me ♪
-I posted the video just of the speakers, you know,
and the song playing, and Rachel Platten
and her husband got in contact with me
and they want to set up a little Zoom meeting
and they could play us a few songs next week.
So we're looking forward to that.
-Even if things open and things start to go back
to some semblance of normal,
how anyone who works in the emergency department
can go back to normal?
When will I ever be able to work and not wear an N95 mask?
When am I gonna feel comfortable doing that?
And I don't know the answer to that because the next one
is just right around the corner.
-So, the next term we're gonna hear about
is something called a second wave.
So what can we do?
We don't change.
We stay home if we can.
We will continue to wear masks and take precautions like that.
Otherwise, if we go back to normal life immediately,
we will get hit by a second wave.
There still is no cure.
-I wish people would heed the warnings and understand
that this is far from over, far from over.
-The sobering thing is
that these patients sometimes aren't --
or the younger patients, the ones that you don't expect
to come in affected this severely by COVID-19.
And those cases are especially emotionally taxing
because they were previously healthy and had a family,
maybe even beginning a new career,
and all of a sudden, this happens
and everything changes in the blink of an eye.
-So, I just finished my shift.
It was not typical of a Saturday morning to afternoon shift.
Definitely I think I had at most probably 10 patients.
Last week, it was all 100%, all COVID,
so it's definitely change.
And maybe also with the fact that it's like 30%
to 40% COVID-related,
that this is a sign that this pandemic has truly plateaued
and is now on the decline in New York City.
-This felt more like a regular ER shift with some COVID
mixed in rather than COVID
with some regular patients mixed in.
Just stay home.
Stay home. Stay home.
Don't, don't, don't break this.
Let this trend continue, please.