The world needs to know that this is real!
A Respiratory Therapist shares the pain of losing patients to COVID-19, and what it takes to win the battle against this disease.
I want to share this story because I am a frontline healthcare worker, and I want to share the insights of my job with the world.
Many do not know who we are when we say “ I am a Respiratory Therapist.” We are frontliners along with the nurses and doctors. We are the first ones to be there when patients can’t breathe and require oxygen.
We are the ones to set up oxygen devices to stabilize patients in need. When they stop breathing we are the ones to come into the room with a ventilator assisting, intubation and safely placing the patient on the ventilator with accurate life support settings.
Doctors and nurses do not operate ventilators as often as a respiratory therapist. We are the experts for ventilators. Ventilators are the key source to saving lives in this fight against Coronavirus.
As we get thousands of ventilators across the nation, remember those ventilators will not operate without us - your respiratory therapists! Yet no one talks about us during this crisis.
COVID-19 is a respiratory illness, and this is our specialty. All these patients require respiratory therapists to provide them with the right equipment and make the decision to best suit them for their survival.
Most physicians don’t know which machine will benefit these patients most, and hence we step in. Yet there is no recognition from anyone about who we are.
We are the ones to extubate patients (remove the breathing tube) as well. We get them off the life support machine slowly, with the accurate settings adjusted for them.
There are times and days we don’t get breaks at work due to the volume of patients we are taking care of. We are burnt out from working long hours.
But still no one speaks of us or appreciates us. Please give us the acknowledgement we deserve. As we say, we are the unsung heroes.
We are frontline workers exposed everyday during intubation and extubation of patients from ventilators. We are the frontline workers risking our lives, working countless hours during the week to help you and your loved ones breathe better.
We are afraid of losing our patients on a day to day basis. We are also afraid of being exposed to this virus and bringing it to our families and loved ones. But still we are fighting to fight this virus together.
My happiest moments during the COVID-19 crisis have been seeing some patients struggle to fight this virus and make it through. I love seeing them discharged from the hospital with no need for respiratory devices.
My saddest moments have been seeing some patients talk and smile and appreciating you for helping them - and then a few days later, their condition worsens and they no longer can speak or get off the oxygen devices.
The saddest moments are seeing patients being scared and defeated by this virus, and sometimes being unable to do anything to save them.
All we can do at these moments are let our tears flow and pray for them and their families as they have no one next to them, except for us, us for hope. Working in those conditions feels like a war zone.
The most influential people during these hard times are the colleagues who are there to back each other up. We do our morning prayers together, give each other hope, and continue to fight this together as real heroes.
The world needs to know that this is real! Those numbers of deaths we see on TV are real! Those are patients who are someone’s father, mother, sister, brother, cousin, uncle, aunt, etc..
If we all work together and follow the proper guidelines to stop the spread of this virus, at the end we all will win and not let this virus defeat us! Together we are stronger!
Luvna Yeasmin, Registered Respiratory Therapist, New York City