November 17, 2020, 7:07 am
In some hospitals across the United States, ICUs are starting to fill up again after it seemed like those cities or states had gotten COVID-19 somewhat under control. In others, the constant wave of patients never stopped.
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Either way, as a country, we’re not handling the virus well. And it isn’t just average citizens who may or may not contract the virus that are suffering, it’s the healthcare workers and hospital staff who take care of them that are constantly dealing with the fallout from this pandemic.
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June Diane Raphael, most recently known for her role as Jane Fonda’s daughter in Grace and Frankie, shared a text from her best friend, Kate, who works as a pulmonary and critical care doctor to Twitter over the weekend.
Raphael said she asked her friend how she was doing, all things considered, and the wall of text she received in response is a harrowing look into just a fraction of what hospital workers have been dealing with all year.
“Tomorrow will be my 10th day working straight,” Kate wrote. “We are completely surging. I am carrying more and sicker patients than ever in my career. They are almost all covid. I expect at least half of them to die but probably not for an average of 1-3 weeks (which they will spend alone in the hospital).”
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She talked about the toll it takes, having to call the families of COVID patients who are dying — families who can’t visit, and in some cases can’t even speak to their loved ones over the phone because they may be intubated or on a ventilator.
“We are overflowing our united. We are short staffed. We are physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted,” she said.
Kate also stressed that people in her town still aren’t taking the pandemic seriously, but are instead going about their lives as if everything is normal. And that’s why things aren’t getting better.
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“I drive home stunned through a college town with lines out the doors for the local bars,” she wrote. “People complain about their personal freedoms being limited and the mental effects of social distancing and wearing [a] mask…but give no respect to others’ right to live and give no thought to the mental effects of accidentally infecting and killing grandma or the trauma they are imposing on their healthcare workers. This is devastating.”
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Kate’s account of being on the front lines matches up with accounts from doctors across the country, who have been pleading with the American people all year to just wear a mask and stay home when we can. It’s a simple way to save lives, but large portions of the country collectively just can’t seem to do it.
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With a vaccine on the way, we can feel hopeful that the end of this pandemic might be in sight, but the longterm effects on people who had the virus and survived, the loved ones of those who didn’t, and the healthcare workers getting us through it all will still be devastating. And the worst part is that it really didn’t have to be this way.
*First Published: November 17, 2020, 7:07 am
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