Medical News Today talked to New York City anesthetist Dr. Sai-Kit Wong about his experiences as the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold in the United States.
Image credit: Dr. Sai-Kit Wong, 2020.
Please note: This interview contains some material that our readers may discover stressful.
As the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. continues to rise, the pressure on medical facilities to treat significantly ill clients is growing.
New York State, and New York City in specific, has seen a high increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Dr. Sai-Kit Wong, an attending anesthetist in New York City, informed Medical News Today about the jump in COVID-19 cases he has seen in the past 10 days, about making heartbreaking choices about which client gets a ventilator, and what each of us can do to help him do his task.
MNT: Can you inform me what has taken place in the past couple of weeks as your city and the entire nation has seen a boost in COVID-19 cases?
Dr. Sai-Kit Wong: About 9 or 10 days ago, we had roughly 5 COVID-19- favorable patients, and then 4 days later on, we had about 113 or114 Then, since 2 days earlier, we had214 Today, we have an overall of 3 or 4 surgical medical flooring systems that are filled with absolutely nothing but COVID-19- positive patients. Medical extensive care systems (ICUs), surgical ICUs, and the emergency clinic (ER) are all packed, shoulder-to-shoulder, with COVID-19- positive patients. I have never seen anything like this.
MNT: Are these cases all serious sufficient that these clients have to be in medical facility?
Dr. Sai-Kit Wong: The ones on the floors, yes, they are. The patients with the mild symptoms– they’re not even admitting them. They send them house. Essentially, if they’re not displaying shortness of breath, they do not receive testing. The ER physician will send them home and tell them to come back when the symptoms get worse.
MNT: When was your last shift? What was the state of mind like amongst the team?
Dr. Sai-Kit Wong: So the other day was my last shift, and I handled what we call the “air passage function.”
We had two groups, and each consists of one anesthesiologist and one licensed signed up nurse anesthetist, and we react to every emergency situation intubation in the whole medical facility.
Over a 10- hour span, we had a total of eight intubations amongst our group in the anesthesia department. While we are on shift, we simply do what we got ta do.
I indicate, we do what we are trained to do, it’s like a knee jerk reflex.
Early in the morning, I type of lost it a bit. I overheard a conversation. There was a client in labor and shipment, 27 weeks gestation, who was going into breathing failure.
And from what I heard, we didn’t have a ventilator for her. We were speaking about how there were two cardiac arrests in progress. Both of those patients were on ventilators and if among them passed, we might utilize among those ventilators for this client.
So after I heard that, my heart was just so damaged. I entered into an empty room, and I just broke down. I just sobbed uncontrollably. Then I called my spouse, and I told her what took place. All 4 of our children were with her.
We just got together, we hoped, we raised a prayer for the client and for the infant. Then I called my pastor from church, but I couldn’t even talk. I was simply weeping and sobbing.
So, that was hard. Which was just the beginning of the day. After that, I pulled myself together, and for the rest of the day, I just went on and did what I need to do.
MNT: I think of that you most likely have difficult days at work, but this seems like it’s in a various league. How do you pull yourselves together so that you can go and do the rest of your shift?
Dr. Sai-Kit Wong: I believe you just attempt not to think of it while you’re there, taking care of the clients. You deal with it after you get back.
The worst part is that after a day like that, when I get home, I need to isolate myself from the rest of the household.
I need to keep away from them. I can’t truly touch them or hug them. I have to use a mask and use a separate bathroom. I can talk to them, but it’s kind of tough.
There’s no particular way in how we handle it. I will probably have headaches in the future. Just considering yesterday, strolling down the halls of the systems.
Client doors that are usually open were all near prevent aerosolized spread. The sounds of the ventilators, cardiac arrests, and the fast response team over