Here’s a guest blog from a friend and colleague who practices Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine and is also a Critical Care physician. I believe that she should remain anonymous for now. However, I was inspired by the emails and texts she has sent me and thought you would be, too. She’s sending me messages off the cuff – they are “raw” and not edited by her. However, I think that is best. She uses a lot of abbreviations and when I thought it was useful, I explained them in brackets. One day at the right time, I will tell you who she is and we can all thank her properly for her courage and commitment. Here are her COVID-19 Diaries – uncensored.
–Caroline
COVID-19 diaries – Day 1
I was on call in the ICU this weekend. We kept hearing about more and more COVID-19 cases in the surrounding area, so I knew going into the weekend that it was going to be tough. Our first COVID-19 case was admitted to the ICU on Thursday. The next day, on Friday, we had three. On Saturday, three more. Our sleepy little hospital’s 10-bed ICU expanded to 15 beds. Five patients rapidly became critically ill, requiring maximal vent support as they were in hypoxemic respiratory failure and ARDS [Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome, CF].
I reassured the staff that we are a lot more safe with regard to personal exposure if the patient is on a ventilator than one breathing spontaneously who is coughing everywhere. One patient who is only 33 years old was whimpering like a child and looked like a child. It broke my heart. He’s better now that he’s intubated and I think he’ll pull through as he has no underlying medical problems. We are getting drugs for them but supplies are already dwindling.
I know people are saying it isn’t “politically correct” to call this a “Chinese virus.” We had the Spanish flu 1919, but in 2020, I am caring for several ethnically Hispanic patients who are desperately sick with a virus that originated in China, which they contracted in a small town on the east coast of the USA. I think it is good to remind ourselves that the world is very small when it comes to epidemics.
I will admit that I’ve negotiated backroom deals with the top ID doctors if I get really sick – Dr S will be my ID doctor, Dr E will do my right IJ, and Dr G will be my intensivist.
Dr. Fife is a world renowned wound care physician dedicated to improving patient outcomes through quality driven care. Please visit my blog at CarolineFifeMD.com and my Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/carolinefifemd/videos
The opinions, comments, and content expressed or implied in my statements are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the position or views of Intellicure or any of the boards on which I serve.
Sobering. Please stay well and keep up your wonderful (God’s) work.
This is a very serious problem and I don’t think we can thank our front-line medical providers enough for all they are trying to do for us. The population need to help control this virus by following all of the rules to try to keep people out of the hospitals.