3/🎥 I cared for 9/11 hero Colonel Victor Correa as he died in our @VA hospital years later. His story is told in #EveryDeepDrawnBreath. He carried men out of the Pentagon saving lives. Watch more of his testimonial…
4/ “During the explosion, I was able to capture a ball of fire, and I heard people screaming. I felt it was my duty & responsibility to go back & help them survive. There was a thin line between who made it and who didn’t.
5/ “I got on all fours, crawling around in the dark & smoke to find them. Another officer & I held our hands together and made a human cot to carry them out. I walked home on a dislocated hip without even knowing it. Showered and came back to the #Pentagon.” Col Correa 😭
6/ Col. Correa: “I look at the bravery of those who ran in there, those are the heroes.”
Here are 3 pages from #EDDB about the final days of Col. Correa’s life. READ OF HIS #BRAVERY & #COURAGE.
NOTE 9:11 was his time of death – on the dot!
7/ Similarly, love is the way to conquer fear in #COVID. Those who give of themselves to others do so regardless of religious, political, socioeconomic background, skin color, or language spoken. It must be done for LOVE. That’s the common link to our escape from #COVID19.
8/ Success in a #COVID ICU is best marked by how uplifted & dignified each person feels under our care. Such care ⬆️es survival: bit.ly/2YRGCxm
Even in death, WE SUCCEED if they feel valued. Delivering #love is the primary antidote for loneliness & fear.
9/fin
Likewise, #Fear & #VaccineHesitancy must be addressed w a loving ear. “What are you scared of? Tell me your concerns. Let’s talk.” The secret sauce in our success will be how much love we extend to the person next to us.
1/🧵🎥 Tennessee has highest #COVID19 case rate IN THE WORLD 🌎‼️
1/3rd are KIDS, & we haven’t even peaked!
Dr. Jeff Balser, @VUMChealth President & CEO, explains our dire situation. Despite 375M doses of #Vaccine is US alone, we have ~50% overall #Vaxxed & need YOUR help.
2/ This surge is different. The children are disproportionately affected – 1 in 3 new cases. Overall, and this is hard to believe, but we are at our ALL TIME HIGH in admissions.
3/ 🎥 Except for immunocompromised patients, almost all in hospital are #unvaxxed. We are re-deploying OR personnel to the ICU and having to curb care for non-COVID pts. It’s just not fair to them. Not getting vaxxed means more suffering for everyone.
2/ Early in COVID, computers predicted “Berry” (for Bari-citinib), an FDA-approved medication for rheumatoid arthritis, could be repurposed to stop SARS-CoV-2 from killing us. Now we proved it! Why did the computers think it would work?
3/ Bari has antiviral mechanism but mainly we thought it would work by interfering with the intense inflammation the virus 🦠 causes, which is what leads to so much lung, heart, blood vessel, & brain damage (#delirium).
By no means do I think the #Unvaxxed patients filling our ICUs to capacity are evil. NO. But I do think there is evil involved in the misinformation leading many good, caring people to that decision. And I listen to each. Please hear me out.
2/ Philosophers define evil as “a deprivation of the rationality that proper human action requires individually and as a member of society.” In that sense, we can discuss choosing not to be vaccinated and “cooperation with evil.”
3/ Thus far, “cooperation with evil” has been used as an argument by some in the #antivaxx culture as a reason NOT to get #Vaccinated. The main argument is that Pfizer and Moderna were safety texted w the HEK-293 fetal cell line.
1/🧵 “Live every day like you have a terminal illness.”
The most important thing I learned @ISICEM, after 3 ✈️ & 4,400 miles to Belgium for this huge meeting of #COVID ICU doctors, had nothing to do w science.
The iconic @JRandallCurtis1 taught me…(pic & story shared w perm)
2/ My friend of 25 years opened his lecture on End-of-Life with, “I have a disclosure of sorts. I’ve been diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, aka Lou Gehrig’s disease), so this will probably be the last time I lecture at this meeting.”
Then he asked us to PAUSE.
3/ Talk about a Frame Shift.
I already knew, but it all hit me like a thunderbolt⚡️. The Father of ICU EOL #PalliativeCare research & former president of @atscommunity had just told us all that he has a fatal illness, and we could hear it in his speech pattern.
2/ of every human being who comes into my care is such that they feel fully human, fully respected, and that they don’t think they lost part of themselves in the process of critical illness.”
Yet #LongCovid pts are telling me they’ve lost themselves.
3/ my colleague #delirium neuro @doctorShawniqua is haunted by this too. She’s trying to find out what exactly happens to the neurons & synapses in the brain of critical illness survivors so that we can manage people more safely during and after illness.
1/🧵 Elite Black Swimmers are taking a wonderful place in Sports History!
When I was a boy, we had no Black swimmers on my AAU team. At 2015 NCAA’s, 3 Black women stood on the podium in the 100 free: Simone Manuel, Lia Neal & Natalie Hinds.
2/ The #Olympic 4x100 free relay had 2 of those women (@swimone & Natalie) on the podium wearing bronze in Tokyo. Natialie came back after quitting swimming & hough Simone was not in top 6 at trials, coaches put her in finals & she had the fastest split!
3/ About that historic 2015 NCAA’s, Maritza McClendon said of Manuel, Neal & Hinds🥇sweep: "A tear instantly came to my eyes, I couldn’t believe it. This is a true moment in history for minorities. 3 women of color take 1,2, 3 in the 100 free!” @GDavid01