In the trenches battling the coronavirus AKA CoV-2 or Covid-19. the nations’ first responders in paramedic units, emergency room doctors, nurses and aids, all suffer from post-traumatic stress in varying degrees working in a medical war zone. Not knowing when they’ll go down with infection the same as patients they’re treating, medical first responders have the unenviable task of doing their jobs. Under normal circumstances, working the paramedic or emergency room beat carries its own stresses, with long hours dealing with life-or-death situations. Add to that now the flood of patients into the nation’s emergency rooms complaining of flue-like symptoms, most likely coronavirus, adds to an already stressful workplace. No matter how much protective gear, there’s not a lot of protection for first responders on the front-lines of the worst pandemic since the 1918 Spanish flu.
Calling her workplace a “medical war zone,” emergency room physician Dr. Arabia Molette goes to work under the most stressful conditions, dealing with the flood of patients presenting with the highly contagious coronavirus. “We’re trying to keep our head above water without drowning. We are scared. We’re trying to fight for everyone else’s life, but we also fight for our lives as well,” Molette said. Molette’s statements offer an X-Ray into the mindset of first responders, knowing the stoical nature of their jobs, while, at the same, time revealing all-too human emotions. Molette finds herself working at Brookdale and St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, facing shortages of oxygen, ventilators and physical space to house growing numbers of patients. Molette expresses the frustration of not having the necessary equipment and proper protective gear to do her job safely.
First responders have little relief, often working long hours in stressful conditions, beyond what’s part of the normal routine. Extraordinary stresses emerge from battling a global pandemic that’s brought 59,968 total CoV-2 cases and 966 deaths to New York, with corpses beginning to pile up. First responders feel the helplessness when they lack the tools needed to save lives, especially the absence in this pandemic of effective treatments. Molette knows that hospitals are under strict orders to admit patients only, not family member who could spread the virus. “You can’t really tell them they might be saying goodbye for the last time,” Molette said, reflecting on the ban on family, friends or next of kin. “People are just breaking down,” Molette said. “Everyone is pretty much terrified at being infected . . I feel like a lot of staff are feeling defeated,” attesting to how stress wears down first responders.
Getting off their long shifts is no relief for first responders dealing with the infectious disease crisis, not knowing whether or not they’ll go home and infect their families. First responders don’t know whether they’ve been exposed to the virus, now a carrier incubating until full-on symptoms appear. Fear of the infection is bad enough but worrying whether they’re a carrier ready to infect their own families is hard to bear. Unlike dealing with known medical conditions, it’s the unknown nature of the invisible virus that spreads ongoing fear. No first responder knows when they’ll come down with the illness, not knowing how their bodies will respond. Mortality rates in the “war zone” in the five New York Boroughs run about 1.7%, about the national average, but too high for comfort. Most medical practitioners know coronavirus is 10-20 times the lethality of the seasonal flu.
Health care workers usually don’t think about getting the same diseases as their patients. Only in a pandemic does everyone share the same probability of disease. “At the beginning, my mentality was, ‘Even if I catch it, I’ll get a cold or a fever for a couple of days,’” Molette said. “Now the possibility of dying or being intubated makes it harder to go to work,” attesting to the real fears dealing with a contagious virus with a 1.7% mortality rate. Molette know knows what it’s like for medics to work when bullets-and-bombs fly at any minute potentially ending her life. With the invisible killer virus, there’s even more anxiety not knowing how and when you can get infected. Working in the “war zone,” there’s no relief for first responders, no way to deal with their own stress while they witness sick patients with severe respiratory distress deteriorate, eventually expiring without seeing their families.
First responders have nowhere to escape other than to the front lines. Some doctors, nurses or aids question whether it’s all worth it, should they just quit and find something else to do. With strong training and sense of duty, the first responders soldier one but only at their own peril. They have nowhere to go with the stress and complex emotions that keep them up at night or, if lucky enough to sleep, experience intolerable nightmares, reminding them about their stressful jobs. With medical and nursing personnel stretched to the breaking point, it’s all hands on deck to fight for their colleagues, feeling guilty about bailing out. First responders should remind themselves, like others, that the battle won’t last forever. While no one has a crystal ball, infectious disease experts see the Covid-19 crisis peaking in the next few weeks, a long time to hang on but knowing there are better days ahead.
