COVID-19: First US ER Doctor Dies
On March 25th the New York Post published an article showing some New York City Mount Sinai nurses wearing trash bags as protective gowns against the coronavirus. These nurses wore trash bags because they ran out of those and other personal protective equipment (PPE’s). The shortages are nationwide causing panic and creative solutions. Warriors involved in the frontlines of the current coronavirus pandemic include services beyond the hospital like cops, soldiers and emergency personnel who usually go to the patient’s location and treat or transport them to the hospital when necessary; the caregivers and nurse assistants who care for those patients that recover; and the morticians, pathologists and therapists who handle the dead and console their families. These personnel are all stretched and facing a dangerous enemy today that is killing them alongside their patients. Several doctors and other clinicians have died in China, including Dr. Li Wenliang who tried to warn the Chinese government about the danger of Covid-19. In Italy, at the time of this post 69 doctors had succumbed to the disease. New York City lost its first nurse, Kious Kelly, last week while the first US doctor, Emergency Room physician Frank Gabrin of New Jersey, died yesterday from the virus contracted from the frontlines. The shortage in PPE’s for clinicians and ventilators for Covid-19 patients means that within the next several days we will unfortunately have more infections and deaths from this community as the disease spreads. Fatigue and comorbidities have been blamed in some cases.
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