By Tiffany Lai September 8, 2023
I had an evaluation order for a new patient who was admitted to the ICU for COVID. He was a very fit, middle aged man. When I was assessing his mobility and independence, he was pretty much independent except for being extremely short of breath at every movement and needing a high flow nasal cannula to maintain his blood oxygen level. He told me he was the principal at a Christian church in his city and loved to go camping and backpacking. This particular instance, he had done a few days of backpacking and caught COVID from one of this companions. He was not vaccinated.
He was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He had instantly become the favorite patient of all the healthcare workers in the ICU. His situation was incredibly scary but he maintained kindness and a hopeful attitude. A stay at the ICU is hard, even if you aren’t on a ventilator. It’s being woken up day and night by blood pressure measurements and blood draws, being poked and prodded and tested. It’s the feeling of near suffocation with even the slightest movements. It’s being stuck in one room for weeks to months and not being able to see your family. Understandably, it is too much for most people and they lash out. This man endured that but was still grateful and patient with us.
The PT and I taught him exercises to keep up his strength in the ICU and energy conservation strategies for when he needed to get out of bed to use the bathroom or sit up for awhile. Although he wasn’t on our caseload, we would check in to see how he was doing every so often.
His progression was similar to a lot of COVID patients early on in the pandemic. He would have great days where things seemed to be getting better and then suddenly have horrible days requiring more medical intervention to keep him going. Unfortunately, at that time, all medical staff could do was support his lungs as best we could to allow more time for his body to fight off the infection. For him unfortunately, his condition seemed to be deteriorating. Doctors had done some scans and his lungs were severely damaged by the virus. He appeared in all ways healthy, except his lungs were shot.
The day finally came when I heard a code blue called over the PA system. It was for that man. They did everything they could, but he passed away.
I’m going to say something about working in healthcare. I am never not affected by someone dying. When there are more deaths than recoveries, it’s easy to become depressed working in the hospital. I remember this period being a dark time for a lot of us.
His nurse in the ICU met his family. After they had grieved, they came back to us later and told us everyone in his family received the vaccine. I know the COVID vaccine is a hot button topic of dispute. This is simply the first hand account of what I’ve seen on the front lines.