In the United States, the coronavirus epidemic is advancing at a worrying rate. The 3,000 dead mark was crossed overnight from Monday to Tuesday. The France Inter correspondent was able to reach one of these New York doctors who are on the front line in the face of the disease.
America is preparing to experience the peak of the Covid 19 epidemic. In recent hours, more than 160,000 cases have been identified, of which about half are in New York state alone. This Monday, a US Navy hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, moored in the port of Manhattan to relieve the city’s hospitals, already saturated.
Doctor Jason Shatkin works in the lung disease department at Valley Hospital, located in New Jersey, opposite the Manhattan peninsula. This doctor tells of the exhaustion of the teams, the lack of equipment and the concern in the face of this wave of patients which continues to grow.
FRANCE INTER: How are you?
DOCTOR JASON SHATKIN: “We went into survival mode. It’s very hard, both emotionally and physically. We go through the twelve-hour shifts, we rest a little, and we go back to the front. I usually work in a cabinet, and I see my patients at my office. Sometimes I also make hospital appointments. But for the last ten days, I have spent 100% of my time, all my days and part of my nights, in the hospital .
All of the patients I treat are infected and test positive for coronavirus. All are considered seriously ill, and placed on artificial respirators. And to date, none have been able to get out of ventilation.
The hardest part are the deaths. We see young people dying. Old people. If the situation worsened still further, we would be faced with choices that until now we have never had to make: remove a ventilator from a patient, to benefit another patient, who would have more chances of survival. I hope I don’t have to come to that “.
Is your hospital suffering from a lack of arms? Material?
“We need everything. Masks. Respirators. More respirators! The situation is extremely tense from that point of view.”
Are you at the maximum of your reception capacities? Can you welcome new patients?
“No. It’s as if we were already routed. We reached our maximum capacity. Today, tomorrow, we will no longer be able to accommodate people. Impossible. We have already transformed several floors of the hospital, for example the spaces devoted to outpatient surgery, in intensive care rooms. Normally, we have 54 intensive care beds. They are all occupied “.
As a professional, have you ever experienced such a situation?
“No, obviously. Never seen anything like it. They say the situation is comparable to the black plague epidemic in Europe in the 14th century. I don’t know. What I do know, however, is that In New York and that region, the population is extremely concentrated, congregated, people live on top of each other, and you can spread this virus easily, even if you are asymptomatic.
It has been calculated that one infected person transmits the virus to about 2.2 people. I really fear that in a few days the situation in the New York City area will be out of control. We are already in a disaster situation when the epidemic peak is not expected for ten or fifteen days. If this lasts for weeks on end, then our establishments will be more than saturated, overwhelmed “.
What message do you want to send by taking the time to answer a journalist’s questions?
“The message is very simple. Stay home. Don’t play basketball in parks or playgrounds. Don’t congregate. Stay home. Avoid others.
If everyone does this for at least two weeks, then maybe this virus will go away. And maybe we doctors will face the death of our patients less. Yesterday a 44-year-old man with five children died [La voix se brise]. These people are dying. Old people. Young people. I beg you … Stay at home “.
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