A Plea From An ER Doctor
This was posted on Facebook for Dr. Joshua Lerner, a 10-year
attending ER doctor at the Leominster campus of UMass Memorial
HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital. He is one of the many
doctors who have been donning protective gear to treat a growing number of
such patients.
In one of the most vivid scenes in the HBO miniseries
"Chernobyl" (among many vivid scenes), soldiers dressed in leather
smocks ran out into radioactive areas to literally shovel radioactive material
out of harm's way. Horrifically under-protected, they suited up anyway. In
another scene, soldiers fashioned genital protection from scrap metal out of
desperation while being sent to other hazardous areas.
Please don't tell me that in the richest country in the
world in the 21st century, I'm supposed to work in a fictionalized Soviet-era
disaster zone and fashion my own face mask out of cloth because other Americans
hoard supplies for personal use and so-called leaders sit around in meetings
hearing themselves talk. I ran to a bedside the other day to intubate a
crashing, likely COVID, patient. Two respiratory therapists and two nurses were
already at the bedside. That's 5 N95s masks, 5 gowns, 5 face shields and 10
gloves for one patient at one time. I saw probably 15-20 patients that shift,
if we are going to start rationing supplies, what percentage should I wear
precautions for?
Make no mistake, the CDC is loosening these guidelines
because our country is not prepared. Loosening guidelines increases healthcare
workers' risk but the decision is done to allow us to keep working, not to keep
us safe. It is done for the public benefit - so I can continue to work no
matter the personal cost to me or my family (and my healthcare family). Sending
healthcare workers to the front line asking them to cover their face with a
bandana is akin to sending a soldier to the front line in a t-shirt and flip
flops.
I don't want talk. I don't want assurances. I want
action. I want boxes of N95s piling up, donated from the people who hoarded
them. I want non-clinical administrators in the hospital lining up in the ER
asking if they can stock shelves to make sure that when I need to rush into a
room, the drawer of PPE equipment I open isn't empty. I want them showing up in
the ER asking "how can I help" instead of offering shallow
"plans" conceived by someone who has spent far too long in an ivory
tower and not long enough in the trenches. Maybe they should actually step foot
in the trenches.
I want billion-dollar companies like 3M halting all
production of any product that isn't PPE to focus on PPE manufacturing. I want
a company like Amazon, with its logistics mastery (it can drop a package to
your door less than 24 hours after ordering it), halting its 2-day delivery of
12 reams of toilet paper to whoever is willing to pay the most in order to help
get the available PPE supply distributed fast and efficiently in a manner that
gets the necessary materials to my brothers and sisters in arms who need them.
I want Proctor and Gamble, and the makers of other soaps
and detergents, stepping up too. We need detergent to clean scrubs, hospital
linens and gowns. We need disinfecting wipes to clean desk and computer
surfaces. What about plastics manufacturers? Plastic gowns aren't some
high-tech device, they are long shirts/smocks...made out of plastic. Get on it.
Face shields are just clear plastic. Nitrile gloves? Yeah, they are pretty much
just gloves...made from something that isn't apparently Latex. Let's go. Money
talks in this country. Executive millionaires, why don't you spend a few bucks
to buy back some of these masks from the hoarders, and drop them off at the
nearest hospital.
I love biotechnology and research but we need to divert
viral culture media for COVID testing and research. We need biotechnology
manufacturing ready and able to ramp up if and when treatments or vaccines are
developed. Our Botox supply isn't critical, but our antibiotic supply is. We
need to be able to make more plastic ET tubes, not more silicon breast
implants.
Let's see all that. Then we can all
talk about how we played our part in this fight. Netflix and chill is not
enough while my family, friends and colleagues are out there fighting. Our
country won two world wars because the entire country mobilized. We
out-produced and we out-manufactured while our soldiers out-fought the enemy.
We need to do that again because make no mistake, we are at war, healthcare
workers are your soldiers, and the war has just begun.
This is a war against a
unrelenting virus and the soldiers need help.
John L. Ferri
jlferri@epix.net
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