Letterman [250]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 40
Joined: 3/8/07
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How my morning started yesterday
Mar 17, 2020, 9:02 AM
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Disclaimer: This is long, feel free to ignore
After taking call at our level 2 trauma center Sunday, being awakened at 6:15 a.m. to come in and reduce a dislocated total hip, rounding on our groups' patients in the hospital, fielding several calls from the floor through the afternoon, coming in that evening to care for a woman transferred in from a smaller hospital in Clayton with a broken hip, then performing a total hip replacement on a gentleman with a hip fracture dislocation from a motor vehicle collision I found myself at 200 a.m. Monday morning in a negative pressure room, draining the knee of a man with sepsis and a respiratory illness who had just been tested for Covid-19 in the now famous N95 mask. I arrived home at 300 a.m., showered thoroughly before climbing into bed, then arose 3 hours later to begin my morning routine, round, and head to the office.
I post this from talking with my colleagues in the ER who also recognize the regular workload of medical illnesses and injuries will not significantly slow down. Our medical systems are already operating at relatively high utilization so this additional burden will be added atop that and will strain our system even further. That doesn't consider the fact that medical personnel, despite their precautions, are at higher exposure risk and run the risk of having to remove themselves from patient care at the time we need them most. I am even able to post at this time on Tuesday because our facility has followed the Surgeon General and American College of Surgeons requests to postpone non urgent cases at inpatient facilities to preserve medical resources, protective equipment, and inpatient capacity. For the first time in over a decade, I'm not operating Tuesday morning. This is not a hoax or an attempt by some group to advance an agenda. Northern Italy has similar economics and health care availability to our own country and was forced to make difficult medical decisions due to limited resources versus a surge in cases.
I see this from all directions. I have college student children now at home, one of whom will not be able to present her senior project or have a graduation ceremony. I have a 91 year old mother-in-law in town who needs to be protected from exposure. I have employees to help scramble for child care (and helped cover the cost) since school is cancelled. We are postponing elective surgery and non urgent office visits which are the revenue stream of our business. We have 800 employees, so I need whatever bill passes to include businesses over 500 employees.
To wrap up, please pray for those affected, whether through illness or the crucial attempts to slow the spread. Be thoughtful of measures both privately and governmentally to relieve the potentially devastating effects on our economy and workers. Continue to do those small gestures to make things better for others. Do your part to limit the spread. Don't stockpile stupid items (although Georgia Pacific here is ramping up TP production). Wash your hands. I hope in two weeks many of you (including my own mother) are able to say this was an overreaction and I was wrong. I would counter that if we don't take these measures, and I am correct, the result will be unnecessary damage to human health and loss of lives, which seems far worse.
Stay at home, enjoy your unexpected down time, catch up with others by phone, get those home projects caught up, or in my case study earlier than planned for recertification. Limit your contacts. Don't end up seeing me in an N95 mask with an 18 gauge needle coming toward your knee
(Before I get feedback, this was taken after removal of a portion of my PPE just to show the N95 and face shield, and despite my efforts TNet rotates the picture)
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