BY ROBBIE HAMMOND
When first hearing of Covid, it barely registered – a snatch of a news report mentioning a new virus in China. It seemed distant, reminiscent of SARS, which whilst a significant virus globally, barely touched UK shores. Shortly after, in an induction at my intensive care, I remember mask fit testing. It was February, and the conversation with colleagues after was only about the funny sugary spray they used to test the masks. The possibility of a ‘pandemic’ did not seem real.
Yet our first case arrived in early March, and soon a trickle became a flood. We barely kept up with the number of new desperately sick admissions – moving patients without Covid away from the unit as quick as we could, repurposing other wards for ventilators, and redeploying and retraining new staff by the dozen.
Amidst this constant change, the symptoms of the patients we were admitting had an eerie familiarity – worsening breathlessness, and extremely low oxygen levels – so low they often didn’t seem to fit with the person sitting and talking in front of you. We would come to see this ‘silent hypoxia’ a classic marker of severe Covid.
Often the hardest part was updating our patients’ families. In normal times this discussion might be after they had been by the bedside for hours – seeing their relative and getting a sense of the situation. Now they had to wait at home in lockdown for the call, and whatever we said would be all they’d have to go on. Breaking bad news is tough at the best of times, but is nearly impossible over the phone.
Shifts were thirteen hours long, alternating between days and nights. Working for this long in PPE could be exhausting, especially on the nights when you were moving from one emergency to another. But despite this, there were positives. A tremendous sense of camaraderie built up between our team – medical staff from all over the hospital working on the same rota for a common purpose. The constant supply of food being sent in by the public certainly helped too!
Fortunately, the lockdown worked, and by May our case numbers were falling. Some of our long staying patients made miraculous recoveries and came back to the ward after their discharge (wearing masks!) with smiles and cards, totally different to the patient we saw on a ventilator. By July we had no more Covid on the ward – a huge relief.
The concern now is that rising numbers look like we could be seeing a resurgence. Hospital admissions are not up yet, but like elsewhere they seem likely to follow a few weeks behind a rise in new infections. It is so important everyone tries to follow the guidance like we successfully did in the spring – limit gatherings, socially distance when possible, wash hands and wear masks. Hopefully then we won’t see a repeat of March and can look forward to a brighter 2021!