Thread by @JackieKercheval

#Collaterals In The Time of #COVID19: Perspectives from a #medstudent on her #ICU rotation. 1/8

Collateral formation is one of the more beautiful feats of the human body: when an arterial occlusion grows chronically over time, the body responds by forming collaterals, allowing the end organ to remain perfused. 2/8

This is the opposite of a blown levee or an overflowed dam, which are symptoms of insufficient preparation in the face of a massive onslaught of pressure.
#COVID19 is that pressure, and our health system can choose to build a dam or to build collaterals. 3/8

Let #medstudents be your collaterals. We chose this job just like the residents and attendings before us, and we are ready to help. Policy may forbid us from working directly with COVID-19 patients, but that gives us an ADVANTAGE in other realms. 4/8

We don't have as much exposure risk as other healthcare workers who must continue to work on the front lines-- but we do have healthcare knowledge. Use us to check in on your other patients. Use us to babysit your children when duty calls you to the hospital. Use us. 5/8

There are fewer physicians present in the #ICU at night, with just as many patients. Last night, both physicians in my unit had to perform an emergent procedure on a possible #COVID19 patient. I used this time to touch base with each of the #nurses (true heroes) in the unit. 6/8

By the time the physicians were finished, they didn't need to run around the rest of the unit scrambling to catch up because the to-do list had been made. All this required was ears, a pen, and paper. Let us be your #collaterals. #UseUs. 7/8

Thank you to all of the docs, residents, nurses, MAs, EMTs, janitors, cooks, and so many more for serving as role models and for making it so apparent why this job is a privilege. Let's build #collaterals together, before it's too late. 8/8