The effects of the pandemic on health care workers remains to be seen, but burnout doesn’t capture the extent of their distress.
Reporter @AvaKofman shadowed EMTs in Los Angeles as the virus overran the region.
This is their story. (THREAD)
Reporter @AvaKofman shadowed EMTs in Los Angeles as the virus overran the region.
This is their story. (THREAD)
2/ Before the pandemic, EMT Mike Diaz could always take for granted there would be enough resources to tend to patients.
But as COVID cases soared in LA County, the 911 system was on the verge of collapse: The more people needed help, the less EMTs could do to help them.
But as COVID cases soared in LA County, the 911 system was on the verge of collapse: The more people needed help, the less EMTs could do to help them.
3/ Diaz and his fellow EMTs had to wait for hours to offload newer patients until others were discharged or died.
With so many crews stuck at the hospital, there were fewer and fewer ambulances on the road, which led to dangerous delays in emergency response times.
With so many crews stuck at the hospital, there were fewer and fewer ambulances on the road, which led to dangerous delays in emergency response times.
4/ To combat this vicious cycle, EMTs like Diaz were forced to do things they’d never done before. They stayed awake for 48 hours at a stretch, picked up extra shifts to cover for sick colleagues, and brokered final goodbyes between patients and their loved ones.
5/ But it wasn’t until they started rationing oxygen that Diaz began to despair.
6/ Some of Diaz’s patients appeared to be suffocating, but so long as their blood oxygen saturation was above 90%, he had no choice but to deny them.
People gasped and heaved and moaned.
It made him feel like he was watching someone drown.
People gasped and heaved and moaned.
It made him feel like he was watching someone drown.
7/ One patient, desperate to see a nurse, called 911 from inside the hospital. Others called him names. He understood their frustration. He was frustrated, too.
8/ How could he convince someone whose lungs were filling with fluid that he actually wanted to help them when he was mostly just standing there?
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