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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHorrifying eyewitness report from the front lines
Last edited Wed Apr 8, 2020, 10:56 PM - Edit history (1)
Im redacting any names or other identifiers. This is not my story. This is the story of a close friend of a close relative. Although I do not know the nurse personally, I know my relative is completely devastated and cant focus on his work or anything. Im 100% certain this a real account.
....I dont need anything. Im on a 14 day commitment. I know there are a lot of people at home counting on me to convey the truth about what is real and actually going on here in New York. I am absolutely mortified and scarred for life. I have NEVER, under any circumstance felt such unimaginable defeat. Its the worst episode of greys anatomy. Its 100% worse than that nightmare you had that you left without giving report. Doctors are resorting to checking their own vitals and drawing their own blood if need be. They are moving patients around, pulling carts to more open areas to intubate right in the hallway, 3 feet from another patient. There are people praying out loud, absolutely begging nurses and doctors running all over the place in circles around them to save them. And theyre dying. Theyre dying right there in the hall. Were running out of oxygen tanks over and over again, leaving these people with nothing. The wall oxygen is being occupied by vents. People cant breathe and theres nothing we can do besides prone them and try to comfort them while another one crashes and needs to be intubated. So, you have to walk away and try to help the next. People are circling the drain, and put in que to be intubated next. My emotions and thoughts- all over the place- up and down-all day long. One minute Im hyping myself up saying, you can do this! Be smart! Who can you help? Then, I cant do this. This is terrifying! is it worth it? What if I catch it? Be strong for these people! Say the right thing! It might be the last thing they hear. 🥺 Then, Id cry. Ive got on so many layers over my face that nobody can see that Im crying, so I kept working. Nobody knows where anything is. Nobody is a staff nurse. Working tirelessly to perform tasks like starting IVs, foleys, essential meds, oxygen, etc. without a break to remove the mask for 12 hours straight. Not even a sip of anything to drink. I started with 6 patients and couldnt even get into the computer to look at a single thing about them for the first three hours. When I got in, it had been 27 hours since a set of vitals were documented on my vents. My vented patients are on drips to gravity. I say to myself, You better guess right because If you run that fentanyl too fast youre going to be the reason she finally dies. Its haunting! Hundreds of alarms are sounding every second of every minute. Hourly rounding is to make sure my patients are still alive, and for what? Theyre all waiting for their turn. During one of the waves that we completely ran out of oxygen, a man was strugling, praying in the hallway. He was noticed to be dead with his hands folded over his chest. He lie there, dead,for an hour before he was put into a body bag and moved wherever the rest of them are going. Labs are overdue from 2 days ago. Pharmacy is doing their best to load they Pyxis and were out of Zithromax, rocephin, and hydroxychloraquine every 20 mins. We keep trying to pull it because sometimes we get lucky and its there. Then we have to decide which one of our patients to give it to because its ordered for all of them. And these people are on carts in the hallway without masks and carts are blocking doorways, closets, utility and storage rooms. We put in a chest tube in the hallway. We put in foleys in the hallway. Privacy is not a thing here. Everybody has diarrhea. People are getting cleaned up- maybe once per shift. I did vitals on my vented patients once, maybe twice in a 12 hour period. I had some patients that I never checked a pulse ox on in 12 hours. There are a hundred or more nurses and doctors all garbed up, running in circles doing what they can, and its not enough.
I cried. I got mad. I felt useless. And everyone said, youre doing the best you can. We all are! But, I thought we came here to save people. The reality is that we dont have the resources to save people. For the first time ever, as I try to pour water to a plastic cup for a lady to take her medicine, I think Maybe this is the end of the world! Otherwise, why would every- single- thing- we are doing be going so wrong?! The water wont turn on. When it does turn on, its dripping- drops into the cup. Then, I cry again.
Demovictory9
(32,457 posts)all shift because the mask can't be removed.
captain queeg
(10,207 posts)That POS will get the best medical care possible if he ever contracts it, thats whats disgusting.
central scrutinizer
(11,650 posts)And the resident can say, oops! Clumsy me! I forgot to sedate him first
captain queeg
(10,207 posts)Alwaysna
(574 posts)BComplex
(8,053 posts)That's a nightmare.
Dem2theMax
(9,651 posts)I would absolutely refuse to treat him.
I guess that means I've lost my Humanity. I will blame it on him. And he deserves it.
littlemissmartypants
(22,691 posts)I hope the last thing president psychopath sees
is the face of a health professional who's covered in protective gear, preferably giving him the finger, while pulling him off a ventilator.
Dem2theMax
(9,651 posts)Tiger8
(432 posts)Although I doubt even Lector could stomach eating anything so disgusting and evil.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)And so heartbreaking. 💔😭
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)bdamomma
(63,868 posts)heartbreaking, my heart goes out to all Drs, nurses and therapists, all first responders you are all angels.
We need to hold those who are responsible for this horror to the highest forms of punishment/imprisonment.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
Jim__
(14,077 posts)People need to know the truth. There are still people telling us that it's only old people who are about to die anyway. The truth exposes these fools for the monsters that they are.
people
(625 posts)Central Scrutinizer, you are a real life hero. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. And again, thank you.
central scrutinizer
(11,650 posts)Im just a retired teacher. This is not a recount of my experience.
Woodwizard
(844 posts)A horrible as it sounds is it vetted? I just removed someone on FB for the exact opposite he was posting YouTube's that the virus is a hoax. We need to really do our research in these times.
central scrutinizer
(11,650 posts)Thanks for the advice
Pepsidog
(6,254 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)would be the reported indiscriminate use of hydroxychloroquine for all patients. Apparently, they have no diabetics or patients with pre-existing heart conditions. That's quite remarkable.
And the stagecraft ending of the water only coming out in drips. If it makes people stay home great, if it is a story that gets discredited the conspiracy people will have a field day.
generalbetrayus
(507 posts)This is supposed to be a respiratory disease. People cleared the shelves of toilet paper because they didn't understand that. I suppose stress could be causing the diarrhea, but I'm just a tad suspicious of this story.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)stillcool
(32,626 posts)UpInArms
(51,284 posts)The horror of this will last an eternity...
3Hotdogs
(12,390 posts)She was taken off her regular post at prep for elective surgery. That is because there ain't no more elective surgeries.
Says she is now in a ward where the only way out, is in a body bag.
I don't know how she is handling it since I don't see her much.... 12 hour shifts and overtime.
Maybe I'll have time with her over the weekend.
I don't know what to say to her when I see her.
questionseverything
(9,656 posts)tell her ,her fellow citizens love and support her
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)BobTheSubgenius
(11,564 posts)It makes ME want to cry, and I'm nowhere within light years of that nurse's world. Holy shit.
JHB
(37,160 posts)certainot
(9,090 posts)in every state
even obama, who shithead limbaugh says raised taxes on med equipment manufacturers so he's responsible for the PPE manufacturers moving offshore....
every advertiser on any rw radio station contributed to this. they didn't get the message with anita hill, or sandra fluke, mike brown, colin kaepernick, or global warming. they and the university and pro sports teams that support those stations - fuck you
Olafjoy
(937 posts)That is the biggest nightmare I have ever read about. I have no words for that horror.
2naSalit
(86,646 posts)If it's true it's terrible. But I am not convinced that it is.
flying_wahini
(6,605 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)...regardless of specific contraindications for diabetics and persons with a roster of heart conditions?
I'm not a medical professional, so I would not know.
EndlessWire
(6,536 posts)This experience is happening to people who by their very nature of caring are going to be continuously crushed by their inability to make a dent in the horror.
After we get through this, they are going to need some PTSD treatment (called something else now) of their own. I hope they get it.
Duppers
(28,125 posts)Over an email from a friend. Her loved one, who like this nurse, is facing death in the ER every night, knowing he himself is at great risk.
This is not right. Wishing there were a hell for that soulless subhuman in the WH.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)If the bastard had an ounce of humanity in him he would be doing everything humanly possibly to make sure that our healthcare providers had everything they needed to safely do their jobs and that our nation had every resource available to help stop the spread of this virus.
He just doesn't give a shit. This is just another opportunity for him to make a quick buck at the expense of the American taxpayer. He is the most evil, soulless man on the face of the earth.
littlemissmartypants
(22,691 posts)It's the very thing that floats his boat. Frighteningly disgusting, but it's the way psychopaths work. Nothing will make him sympathize.
WestLosAngelesGal
(268 posts)Can't they move some patients to the USNS Comfort Hospital Ship?
coolhandlulu
(148 posts)You cant move unstable patients like those. If you were to move them to another floor, you would need a minimum of four people. Doesnt sound like they could spare the people it would take. Also, sounds like once you made it back, a couple of more patients would be dead.
coolhandlulu
(148 posts)I hope you dont mind. Im a nurse in AL. Just quit my job because not enough PPE. This sounds like the worst nursing nightmare ever.
DFW
(54,403 posts)...from one of my Doctors Without Borders friends in Kenya or Malawi.
I'm betting it's from someplace similar to midtown Manhattan?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)...to do this:
"Pharmacy is doing their best to load they Pyxis and were out of Zithromax, rocephin, and hydroxychloraquine every 20 mins. We keep trying to pull it because sometimes we get lucky and its there. Then we have to decide which one of our patients to give it to because its ordered for all of them."
Apparently, they are indiscriminately giving hydroxychloraquine to patients with diabetes or heart conditions in order to kill them immediately, rather than to wait for the virus to do it.
The severity of side effects and no proven therapeutic value has already causes several institutions to cease their investigational use of it.
DFW
(54,403 posts)I wonder if Trump can be prosecuted for recommending it. It's not like he risks his license to practice medicine, and thanks to Moscow Mitch, he retained (temporarily, anyway) his permit to practice politics.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)It is a prescription drug. Obtaining it without a prescription would be illegal, and the only person responsible for the drugs prescribed to you is your doctor. If your doctor is taking recommendations from Donald Trump, then you have bigger problems.
The_jackalope
(1,660 posts)This is so far beyond horrifying, the mind reels and refuses to take it in.
I was expecting this, but I prayed I'd never see it. Yet here we are.
bucolic_frolic
(43,176 posts)against the virus and the screwups that sandbagged the existing system to save money and lied to us about the pandemic and lie to us about how great we're doing.
Medicine won't be the same for many years, many. I'm so powerless. I'm angry, numb just reading about it.
Heads must roll in 2021.
in2herbs
(2,945 posts)still being allowed to land in NY. Are the passengers being tested before they get off the plane?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Stopping air cargo would not be very good for anyone. If you think the cargo hold of commercial flights is taken up by luggage, have a closer look the next time you see an airplane being loaded for flight.
Secondly, what would it accomplish?
Kaiserguy
(740 posts)to America. They have burnt it all down and think that it ok to have done so. Deplorable doesn't begin to describe them.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)didnt have to get this high in the US