HOSPITAL HEROES

What life is like on the front lines of the pandemic

- Damien Martin

While the rest of us sheltered at home to buy them time, pitching in where we could, and maybe taking part in salutes to them every evening at 7, frontline medical workers have been putting their health on the line to fight a highly communicable disease. BOSS spoke with three of them who have different specialties and from different parts of the US to get a sense of what life has been like inside hospitals. Dr. Christopher Barrios is a pulmonary disease and critical care specialist at Saint Louis University Hospital. Dr. Naveen Kukreja is an anesthesiologist and ICU doctor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Denver. “Claudia” is an emergency room nurse in the Boston area, one of the hardest-hit metropolitan areas. BOSS granted her anonymity for fear of retribution for speaking out.

Diagnosis

One of the trickiest things about COVID-19 has been recognizing the symptoms. In some people, it presents as a classic respiratory illness called Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), Barrios said.

“But we have had people test positive that did not have any respiratory symptoms. I’ve had people come in with abdominal complaints, get a CT scan of their belly—which usually catches the lower lung fields—and have the lower lungs be abnormal, and they test positive for COVID-19,” he said.