NYC ER Doctor Fears Being Fired For Speaking Out, 'It's Like Walking Into Chernobyl'
'Its like walking into Chernobyl: NYC emergency room doctor fears being fired for speaking out', Raw Story, 4/10/20.
At one New York City hospital, a doctors used mask tore as she performed CPR on her infected patient.
In Seattle, a nurse compares walking into her intensive care unit to bathing in COVID-19.
And in St. Louis, a nurse slips her used N95 mask into a paper bag at the end of her shift and prays its disinfected properly.
These are scenes playing out in hospitals across the country, based on interviews with over a dozen residents, doctors and nurses who go into work every day feeling unprotected from the disease theyre supposed to treat.
Nearly a month into the declared pandemic, some health care workers say theyre exhausted and burning out from the stress of treating a stream of critically ill patients in an increasingly overstretched health care system. Many are questioning how long they can risk their own health. Some are falling sick themselves, and even dying. In many hospitals, the pandemic has transformed emergency rooms and upended protocols and precautions that workers previously took for granted.
Its like walking into Chernobyl without any gear, said Jacklyn, an ER doctor at a New York City hospital who asked to go by her middle name for fear of being fired over speaking out.
At her hospital, 90% of patients have COVID-19, but health care workers get only one N95 mask every five days.
Were constantly breathing in everything thats aerosolized because of all of the procedures that were doing, the New York City doctor said.
Coronavirus can spread easily through droplets during close interactions such as coughing and talking. It can also stay on some surfaces for days. During certain procedures, the virus becomes aerosolizedand can linger in a room for longer periods. In such cases, health care workers are directed to take airborne precautions and wear N95 masks or another kind of respirator.
She said shes baffled by how unprepared the government and hospitals are for this moment.
The day Jacklyn shows up to the hospital and there are no N95 masks, she said, shell refuse to work.
Im not on a suicide mission here. Im not going to do anything that puts my life at risk. What is my daughter going to do without me? What would my husband do without me? she said...
More, https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/its-like-walking-into-chernobyl-nyc-emergency-room-doctor-fears-being-fired-for-speaking-out/
- *Also: 'Rationing Protective Gear Means Checking On Coronavirus Patients Less Often & That Can Be Deadly'
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/rationing-protective-gear-means-checking-on-coronavirus-patients-less-often-and-that-can-be-deadly/
...In New York City, the epicenter of the virus, the surge in COVID-19 patients has overwhelmed many hospitals, forcing some health care workers to rethink and at times forgo certain essential safeguards. In interviews, doctors and nurses at nine hospitals told ProPublica that to ensure they have enough PPE, like sterile gowns and masks, and to keep themselves from contracting the virus, hospital staff are not consistently providing the level of attention needed, and that lapses in care are imperiling COVID-19 patients, whose health can deteriorate very quickly.
The hospitals themselves insisted this wasnt so, saying their staff members have enough PPE and asserting that efforts to conserve equipment and protect staff werent affecting patient care...
BeckyDem
(8,361 posts)When the event first took place, firefighters responded and of course it was fatal for them. They had no idea what they were running into when they responded. They were just trying to do the right thing.
appalachiablue
(41,047 posts)on were impacted with deadly consequences.
BeckyDem
(8,361 posts)Here we are the wealthiest country on earth faced with a pandemic and a response that is criminal.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)He, thru FEMA, hijacked shipments of supplies meant for New York, Washington state ( just recently), California, Canada, France, Germany, and Colorado. PAID FOR supplies.
Note the destinations....people in those states/countries who pissed him off.
He let his black hearted friends have the supplies, they are now price gouging the states for re-selling the same supplies.
And people died for lack of those needed supplies.
Duppers
(28,094 posts)Hell yes!! What he's been doing is unethical, cruel, & illegal; it's piracy! He & all his administration's enablers should be sued and imprisoned.
Someone posted the other day that because his actions & inactions have resulted in deaths, he should be charged with manslaughter. I agree!
OhioChick
(23,218 posts)Last edited Sat Apr 11, 2020, 11:59 PM - Edit history (1)
If they walk off the job, which they eventually will, shit is really going to hit the fan worse than it already is.
Who will take of everyone once they leave?
This is all shameful.