Healthcare Heroes Hurting from Coronavirus

The coronavirus is an incredibly serious virus that has turned everyone’s lives upside down in one way or another. No one has ever experienced something like this before. Schools all over the world are shutting down, stores are closing and people are being told to socially distance, prohibiting them from seeing their family and friends that they do not live with. Many are transitioning to working from home, or even simply getting laid off and filing for unemployment; in the meantime, students are taking virtual classes. The government is trying to figure out what they could possibly do to alleviate this crisis. People are being warned to stay home if they are not essential workers, but when they leave their homes, they are encouraged to stay safe by wearing gloves and masks. Washing hands is not something people will take for granted anymore. Nonetheless, so far, over 100,000 people in New York alone are sick with coronavirus. Over 6,000 deaths have been reported in the state. And in the United States, there have already been over 15,000 deaths.

The medical field is being hit hard by coronavirus, but in a different way than most other fields. While other businesses are slowing down, and people employed for those businesses are being laid off, doctors, nurses and first responders are busier than ever. These people are responsible for taking care of those who have fallen ill with coronavirus, and, more than anyone else, have to worry about not getting coronavirus from their own patients. Already, over 100 doctors and nurses have died from being exposed to the virus from their patients. Hospitals are overflowing from the amount of patients. State governments have even been forced to build temporary hospitals to fit more patients, seen in places like Central Park and the Javits Center in New York City. Many hospitals are also converting any empty space they have into functional spaces for coronavirus patients. And to tend to all these patients, doctors are beginning incredibly long shifts, much longer than even the typical “long” shift.

Many doctors, nurses and first responders fear bringing home the virus to their family. Some are even living away from their families or in their garages to ensure that if they contract the virus at work, they do not pass it on to their loved ones.

“Most physicians have never seen this level of angst and anxiety in their careers,” Dr. Stephen Anderson, a 35-year-old veteran of emergency rooms from a suburb south of Seattle, said. “I am sort of a pariah in my family. I am dipping myself into the swamp every day.”

As coronavirus continues to spread throughout the country, doctors and nurses working in emergency rooms are becoming increasingly wary of everyone walking through the door with a cough and/or fever and are constantly being forced to make the decision to potentially put their own lives to the side so they could help their patients.

Supplies that doctors need to heal and stabilize coronavirus patients are extremely scarce. Ventilators are absolutely necessary for people with the virus. However, hospitals are running out of these necessities quickly - so quickly that doctors are being forced to make the choice of deciding who to give the limited ventilators to. In retrospect, doctors are having to choose who lives and who dies. If an elderly man and a 20-year-old woman show up at a hospital with limited supplies, doctors often need to make the decision of either giving the supplies to the younger patient, who is more likely to live, or the elderly patient, with a lower likelihood of survival. Choices like these are giving many doctors immense stress and anxiety.

While everyone’s lives have been impacted by coronavirus, doctors, nurses and first responders presently have the most difficult jobs. We owe so much to the first responders, doctors and nurses who risk their lives everyday to protect us from the worsts of the virus.