Rationed protective equipment, tests reserved for the most serious patients: in New York, the American epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, a growing number of caregivers considers themselves in danger as cases multiply in their ranks.
They were about twenty gathered Saturday morning in front of the emergency room of the Jacobi Medical Center to protest against their working conditions in this hospital in the Bronx district.
“We risk our lives to save yours”, said a sign brandished by a nurse, accompanied by the keyword “#PPENow”, for “personal protective equipment” (PPE), the masks, glasses, gloves or aprons necessary for the personnel. in contact with infected patients.
“There is both a feeling of despair and of solidarity between us. Everyone is afraid, we try to support each other, ”says Diana Torres, 33, nurse in intensive rehabilitation in one of the hospitals of the New York group Mount Sinai.
Its intensive rehabilitation unit is not, however, the most exposed to the epidemic, which left 366 dead Friday evening and infected more than 25,000 people in New York City.
But she has already had to take care of several patients with the virus, and had to beg for protective equipment.
“I wasn’t getting anything, I was starting to be messed up,” she says.
“They ration the equipment. We tell you “You only get so many suits, so many masks” and you have to save them. So you put a plastic bag on your combination to make it last longer, ”adds this thirty-something, who relayed a photo that has gone viral showing caregivers wearing garbage bags.
When she returns home, Diana Torres goes into seclusion in the attic of her house in Passaic (New Jersey), so as not to risk transmitting the virus eventually to her husband, her children, or her mother-in-law.
“It’s appalling,” also said a psychiatric intern at another New York hospital in the district of Queens. “There is not enough money, not enough tests, not enough protective equipment – not only for doctors, but also for nurses, auxiliaries, cleaners.”
“People on the front line are not protected, they are like lambs that are taken to the slaughterhouse,” he asserts.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday that hospitals in New York State say they have sufficient protective equipment so far.
He nevertheless recognized “a concern” of certain healthcare workers, for whom the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the national authority in the matter, “did not (protect them) enough”.
For the sake of economy, the CDC recommends renewing equipment less often to prevent possible shortages, explained the governor, indicating that the subject was under study.
“If we conclude that these recommendations are not protective enough, then we will put our own rules in place,” he announced.
“Right to know”
The Queens psychiatric intern, who introduces himself simply as Andrew, is currently at home with fever, cough, and loss of smell: characteristic symptoms of COVID-19, although it could not be tested.
In New York as in other countries, testing is generally reserved only for people with “severe” symptoms, such as pneumonia, whether or not they work in healthcare.
“It’s criminal. It’s already being a big sacrifice to be in health, it’s really a shame to get there, ”says Andrew.
“Technically, we are all exposed,” also emphasizes Diana Torres. So “we all behave like paranos, trying to keep our distance because we cannot be tested”.
“We are doing enough to at least have the right to know”, denounces this mother of three children. “If so, we are all in the incubation period.”
“We are told that we can resume (work) as soon as we feel better”, despite official recommendations which say to wait a few days after the disappearance of symptoms, also regrets Ms. Torres.
Last Tuesday, Kious Kelly, a 48-year-old nurse who had been one of the leaders of his unit, died. He could well be the first New York nurse to die from the coronavirus.
Asked about the number of sick caregivers, an official of New York City hospitals said Thursday “not to have a count”.
In a statement, Mount Sinai management said it was “deeply saddened” by the death of Kious Kelly, while ensuring “always provide staff with the critical protective equipment they need.”
“He was someone who literally lived in the hospital,” says Torres, “he paid the ultimate price”.
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