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 3
Saturday morning — there are now 7 patients in the ICU with COVID-19. The troops in the ICU needed rallying. The house staff and nurses were afraid. It felt like a General Patton moment. I reminded them that we signed up for healthcare because we wanted to make a difference; we wanted to save lives. I told them that they were created for this specific moment in time.
It’s striking how differently people react to a crisis. Some people run towards the battle, some run away, some are frozen in place with fear. It’s OK that we have these different temperaments as long as we work as a team. No matter what their natural inclinations were, everyone responded well to leadership and organization. The entire unit did a great job!
I go home feeling contaminated. I have a nice guest room in our basement and enter the house through the garage entrance, wiping everything down with Lysol wipes, remove my hospital scrubs outside and promptly shower off the contamination. Then I see my family – from a distance. It’s hard with young children. I have quarantined myself in the basement and will do so until this thing blows over. The kids are a little stir crazy, schooling from home and no friends to play with. I told them to go outside and plant a garden.
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
