COVID-19 Places Burdens on So Many Patients
By Alexandra Kenefake, MBS
My patient clutches her side and inhales sharply. As she does, her mask slides down her face. Her contractions are quickening. The nurse in a gown, faceshield, and two masks gently reminds the patient to place her own mask back over her face. She does not want to think about COVID right now, but even hours before this patient meets her newborn child, she is constantly reminded of COVID.
Before she came to the hospital, she received all her prenatal care while wearing a mask, with healthcare workers also wearing masks. Some of her prenatal care had to be done over the phone because she had a cough one week. If she saw her doctor without a mask, she might not be able to recognize her.
She and her boyfriend had to get COVID tests the week before the delivery, and when they arrived at the maternity ward, signs in the hospital warned her not to touch buttons, not to enter without a mask. In the maternity ward, her and her boyfriend must stay in their room the entire time, for fear that they could be accidentally exposed when walking around the hospital. This was hard because they were both feeling nervous, the labor was long, and she knew her boyfriend liked to walk to clear his head.
She wanted to have her mom there for this delivery too. Although she loves her boyfriend, the father of this child, she knows deep down that her mom would have helped her the most as she pushed. But the hospital has a one-visitor rule, and she had to choose the father. Her boyfriend facetimes her mother into the delivery room, and her voice comes in like static.
Upstairs, an oncology ward is nervously awaiting COVID test results for the entire floor. A member of the healthcare team who worked with these patients tested positive for COVID yesterday. In the emergency room, a stroke code is called, and the resident physician in neurology almost makes it to the patient but he realizes he forgot his face shield. The ER did not have those for him last time, so he doubled back to make the trip again to his office. In the pediatric ward, children are no longer there, instead COVID patients mingle among the murals of flowers, butterflies, and animals. In the OB department we call a patient’s family member. The attending physician reminds him about needed COVID testing, to which he replies- “COVID isn’t real.” I really wish that were true.
Many articles have been written about the sacrifices made by healthcare workers. However, what is not discussed as frequently are the sacrifices that patients must make in their own healthcare. Needed treatments are delayed, life-changing events, like births and deaths, are held over video chat. Preventative care is delayed, and surgeries are postponed. When I see people breaking quarantine or doubting the virus, I do not think they realize that it is not just about whether or not they will get COVID, but how this will affect the non-COVID care of themselves, their family members and loved ones.
