I'm Married to an ER Doc in NYC
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I'm Married to an ER Doc in NYC
1–10 of 211 posts
Re: I'm Married to an ER Doc in NYC
#2The way things are described make the doctors sound powerless. I've been frustrated by the lack the information on the usefulness of hospitals. The impression I've gotten is that they cannot do much, and if they would go as far as intubation, you're highly likely to die even with intubation.
Re: I'm Married to an ER Doc in NYC
#3Not an ER doc, but a doc in long term care facilities which have been hit particularly hard. Fortunately things have slowed down considerably now, but at its peak it was absolutely nerve racking.
There’s an element to this pandemic which many people working in healthcare have felt. We see patients fall sick often, and we see them die often, although this was at an near overwhelming scale. But what we don’t see often is our own colleagues falling sick and, in some cases, dying. This adds a level of despair that I personally had never experienced before, and adds to the stress of the job.
Which is why when it is written off by some as nothing more than a bad flu season, I get upset. This is something worse, and despite all the research that’s been done in a short time, still something we don’t fully understand - and something that is not over.
Re: I'm Married to an ER Doc in NYC
#4the tldr is: being a doc in NYC right now is a high stress - maybe battlefield like scenario. Lots of patients, lots of death, hard to cope with a routine like that.
Re: I'm Married to an ER Doc in NYC
#5I recorded a podcast episode with my brother-in-law, a New York City surgeon, that has become one of my most downloaded. He talks about not knowing important information early, the challenge of going between surgery and home, but most of all, seeing the possibility of having to triage between who might live or die.
We cover non-pandemic stuff too.
Re: I'm Married to an ER Doc in NYC
#6The way things are described make the doctors sound powerless. I've been frustrated by the lack the information on the usefulness of hospitals. The impression I've gotten is that they cannot do much, and if they would go as far as intubation, you're highly likely to die even with intubation.
I have never admitted to a hospital in the US but have heard stories of other folks who have been. I just get a feeling that once you are admitted in a hospital nobody has any power including yourself. Everything is taken over by the "system". This is my biggest fear why I would never want to be hospitalized.
Re: I'm Married to an ER Doc in NYC
#7The way things are described make the doctors sound powerless. I've been frustrated by the lack the information on the usefulness of hospitals. The impression I've gotten is that they cannot do much, and if they would go as far as intubation, you're highly likely to die even with intubation.
I have never admitted to a hospital in the US but have heard stories of other folks who have been. I just get a feeling that once you are admitted in a hospital nobody has any power including yourself. Everything is taken over by the "system". This is my biggest fear why I would never want to be hospitalized.
That may be true, but I meant powerless to meaningfully improve someone's medical outcome due to COVID, regardless of bureaucratic barriers.
Re: I'm Married to an ER Doc in NYC
#8The way things are described make the doctors sound powerless. I've been frustrated by the lack the information on the usefulness of hospitals. The impression I've gotten is that they cannot do much, and if they would go as far as intubation, you're highly likely to die even with intubation.
I have never admitted to a hospital in the US but have heard stories of other folks who have been. I just get a feeling that once you are admitted in a hospital nobody has any power including yourself. Everything is taken over by the "system". This is my biggest fear why I would never want to be hospitalized.
It actually benefits you to have a doctor in the family who is there navigating and talking to the doctors. The doctors are more receptive to each other and listen carefully. Otherwise you are just a number. And the doctors won't try so hard on patients who really don't have any understanding of medicine in the first place.
Re: I'm Married to an ER Doc in NYC
#9> When Alex finally gets home, he takes his scrubs off outside our front door and stuffs them into a plastic bag that he ties off tightly. He takes his hospital clogs off and leaves them outside, along with his backpack and coat.
Why do doctors and nurses walk around outside in their hospital scrubs? It was unsanitary even before COVID and I just don't get it. How hard can it be to change into street clothes before leaving the hospital?
I see nurses and doctors in scrubs on public transit, in coffee shops, cafeterias... they are either taking whatever illnesses were in the hospital outside, or taking the dirt and grime of the outside world into the hospital. It's baffling that this behavior is so normalized that it's described as heroic in TFA.
Re: I'm Married to an ER Doc in NYC
#10the tldr is: being a doc in NYC right now is a high stress - maybe battlefield like scenario. Lots of patients, lots of death, hard to cope with a routine like that.
Tldr artistic writing like that? And then miss out all the details? Cruel.