“I got in my car and collapsed”: New York caregiver recounts one year of epidemic

Life seems to have resumed its course in New York. So much so that the cinemas will reopen their doors from March 5. The one we nickname “the city that never sleeps” gradually comes out of his torpor. Direction Times Square to take the pulse of the American city. In the aisles, passers-by move at a frantic pace. But the crowd remains sparse and the stigma of the pandemic is never far away. When you look up, several light panels twinkle in the night. In the middle of billboards, stands out a message that did not exist a year ago. On a blue background, it is written in white letter: “Thanks to all the frontline workers” (“Thanks to all the front line workers”).

No one forgot. A year ago, the city was hit hard by the Covid-19 epidemic. Very quickly, New York became the epicenter of the coronavirus in the United States. “It was very hard”, says Sarah Knafo-Rosanel, a cardiologist who has lived the epidemic up close, a wave that will have swept away, in one year, more than 29,000 New Yorkers out of a population of 8.3 million inhabitants.

At the time, the situation was worrying. As the deaths pile up, information around the virus is trickled out. Sarah Knafo Rosanel had already spoken in front of the cameras of TF1 a year ago: “It’s a disease that is still unknown. We don’t understand it yet and that’s what is very frustrating for us doctors and scientists.” The caregiver testified to the drama unfolding before her eyes while claiming to “what she could” to meet the needs of patients.

In spring 2020, the life of the population is punctuated by the daily reports of the epidemic announced by the Governor of the State of New York Andrew Cuomo. From March, New York hospitals are overcrowded. In April, more than 50,000 people were treated in US hospitals for Covid-19. “Last year, three out of ten people who entered the hospital did not leave it”, she still assures. According to an American study, the Covid-19 pandemic caused excess mortality close to 18% from March to April in the United States.

On the political level too, confusion reigns. US President Donald Trump does not seem to take the measure of this epidemic. At the national level, no course has been set. So the population relies on their local governor. New York State decides to put in place a strict containment that will last three months. While the public authorities organize themselves around the measures to be adopted, caregivers must hold on. No matter the cost. “How many times have I gotten into my car and collapsed in tears. It has happened to me many times”, she admits. Sarah Knafo Rosanel worked more than 24 hours at the time. Impossible for her to stop. Only contamination with Covid-19 will force her to stay at home for a few days.

When this healthcare professional leaves the hospital, another anxiety seizes her: the fear of transmitting the virus to her family. “As soon as we get home, we have to go through the decontamination process directly. No one can touch me. Normally, I always have three children who jump on me”, she recounts. Today, the situation has changed a bit. Sarah Knafo Rosanel is vaccinated. She can hug her children again. “She’s a heroine“, slips tenderly her husband. In addition, the doctor has retained unwavering links with these patients who have been close to death. But the caregiver knows that the fight against Covid-19 is not over. She intends to continue to grow beat.