[New Tang Dynasty News, Beijing time, January 03, 2023]”In the face of life and death, some people are struggling, some are waiting for the arrangement of fate, and some just give up.” An emergency doctor in a tertiary hospital in Shanghai, in 2022 I wrote such a heavy sentence on the last day of my life. Everything the doctor recorded in the article was described by those who forwarded it as “the darkest moment in medical history”.
On the first day of 2023, the Chinese public account “Sea Lancet” reposted a statement written by a doctor in the emergency department of a comprehensive tertiary hospital in Shanghai the day before, which attracted the attention of many netizens. This article, which has been popular among Chinese netizens, recorded in detail the extreme chaos and unprecedented severe challenges faced by the emergency department of a tertiary hospital in the past half month.
At the beginning of this self-report, it listed the work data handed over by the emergency room on the last day of 2022: 1987 visits, 175 ambulances, and 241 patients under observation. Behind these abstract numbers, the concealed image is that the emergency room is crowded with dense crowds of patients in black and gray coats, and scattered among these patients are medical staff in bright blue overalls who are constantly moving. And all kinds of ambulance stretchers, “the tall ones are chest-length, and the short ones only reach the ankles. If you walk carelessly, it is easy to step on a patient who is lying flat…”
In this hospital, whether it is pre-examination, billing, medical treatment, examination, medicine collection, or infusion, there is no link that does not require queuing. In some places, the queues even stretch for more than a hundred meters. The smell, and the people in it seem to have been numb for a long time, and no one will remember the problem that the new crown virus can form “aerosols”.
The doctor revealed that in the past two weeks, 19 doctors in the rescue hall on the first floor of the emergency department have had 16 positive cases, and the longest rest period of all the infected doctors was 4 days, the shortest was zero, and the time of returning to work The standard is “no hyperthermia”.
The article wrote, “Many colleagues who returned to their posts, especially a few female colleagues, are still weak and alone, submerged in the wave of patients at any time; their voices are hoarse, and the frequency of coughing is higher than that of patients when they receive consultations.”
According to the article, the N95 masks worn by the hospital staff have good airtightness, but they have a high degree of pressure on the bridge of the nose. If there is no band-aid protection, the local skin of this mask will break after wearing it for two days. As a doctor, I almost never take off my mask during the 8-hour work process. Waiting for the day’s work to be “retired” and returning to my car, I will take off my mask and drink some drinks, or eat some thermos filled with goji berries and American ginseng, “to calm down my heart rate and breathing” and relieve myself. Drive home after God comes.
The article mentioned that my usual work and rest time is around 11 o’clock and I must have lunch, but now, “the moment when I dress up and rush into the rescue hall, it seems that the adrenaline soars, and the heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar all keep up with the moment.” After eating as much as possible for breakfast, I will “not eat, drink or urinate” during the day’s work. This overdraft process lasts for 8 hours a day. As long as I can persist until I get off work safely, I feel very satisfied.
The doctor wrote, “The working environment in the emergency room is going from bad to worse. We know that the peak is coming, but every day the records continue to be refreshed, and the expected peak has not occurred.”
Every day when he takes over at eight o’clock, the height of the medical records in the arms of the night shift doctor is from waist to chin, and these are only the cases of new patients who come the next day. Anxious family members of patients will rush into the shift office at this moment to inquire about the condition, find a way out, call for help or come to inform the patient that he has passed away. “The first news in the shift group is often that the night shift colleagues tell how many death certificates have not been filled in last night, and the family members will bring the deceased’s information to handle during the day…”
The doctor observed that almost all the family members of the patient feel confused about the future,“Absolutely insecure, full of anxiety, panic, even anger and hostility”。
The article wrote, “I have to say that the devastation of normal life by this epidemic is almost as devastating as that of war. I encounter too much helplessness and despair every day. These mortals living in every corner of the city see hospitals as Operation is the last straw, because their greatest wish is to stay alive.”
According to the description in the article: The contradiction between medical supply and demand in hospitals is unprecedentedly prominent, oxygen beds are hard to find, and even oxygen pillows in medical equipment stores are sold out. Those secondary hospitals, private hospitals, and foreign-funded hospitals that usually have a high bed vacancy rate are said to be in a saturated state.
After staying in this hospital for a few days, a family member of a patient asked the doctor to help contact other surrounding hospitals, regardless of their level, just asking for a quiet bed so that his family could retain their last dignity. Because he has seen too many deaths in the past few days, which makes him want to escape every day.
There was a sick old man standing alone next to the long-abandoned ATM machine in the emergency room, without the company of his family members. Fortunately, his vital signs were still stable. When the doctor asked the family members of other patients around him, he was told that the old man’s son was on the second floor and was taking care of another old man who was infused in their home.
At noon, the old man’s son went to the doctor, apologized, and said that several people had collapsed at home, and the two old men made him physically and mentally exhausted, so he decided to take the old man home directly.
The doctor’s own family was also going through tough times. Five of the 7 people in the big family got positive. For a few days, 4 elderly people in the family had a fever at the same time. There is also a daughter who needs to be taken care of at home. The father-in-law had a fever of 39 degrees for nearly a week. The old mother who lived in the suburbs also called to say that she had a persistent fever and felt various discomforts after taking antipyretics. At that moment, the doctor himself “collapsed instantly.”
He wrote at the end of the article, “In the past, when encountering New Year’s Eve and saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, there was always a summary and expectation. Now, I feel that the experience of this half month covers my whole year’s life memory”, “There is no trace of taste , insisting on it every day, just like the distance after 30 kilometers of a marathon.”
(Editor in charge: Li Ming)
URL of this article: https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/01/02/a103615120.html