Coronavirus: Westmead Hospital frontline staff ready for surge in infections
The first wave of the coronavirus has passed but like all doctors geared up and ready for action on Westmead Hospital’s front line, Dr Django Nathan is holding his breath for the next surge.
NSW
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At 3am the medical day registrar on Westmead Hospital’s COVID-19 ‘Red’ ward lies awake and worries.
The first wave of the coronavirus has passed but like all doctors geared up and ready for action on the hospital’s front line, Dr Django Nathan is holding his breath for the next surge.
“The 3am lying in bed awake moment is always to do with the patients I am treating and how they are doing and whether I have missed anything,” Dr Nathan said.
The hospital has treated 50 patients for COVID-19 since the very first patient was placed in isolation on January 23. There are now only two in intensive care.
“We were prepared for the virus to hit us like New York and that is what we were expecting three weeks ago. Instead we have a downward trend, every day here is less frantic than the one before.
“But we cannot relax. As long as there are new cases the virus is still here,” the 30-year-old registrar said.
To him the coronavirus is a mental challenge for both the medical workers and the patients.
“It’s a personal choice how you meet a difficulty – do you choose to be overwhelmed or do you choose to do the best you can and make the most of the situation.
“We have all accepted that we could get it but we have decided we will just do the best we can. Rather than run away from the virus I have seen the health staff rise up and face the challenge,” he said.
Patients fall into two categories. “Some people are fighters and they are working hard to get their lung function back and walk around the room. Some people are just exhausted and completely placid.”
Every one of them faces the emotional pain of being isolated from loved ones as their bodies battle the virus.
But numbers are falling. At its peak the Western Sydney Local Health District’s contact tracing team were dealing with 30 new cases a day. Yesterday it had just two possible infections.
The district’s intensive care unit co-ordinator, Dr Thomas Solano, said the steps taken had “absolutely not'' been an over reaction.
“If you think you have overreacted then you have hit the nail on the head,” he said. “It has given us this opportunity to regroup and plan. It has been an absolute lifesaver.”
The hospital now has 39 intensive care beds with another 64 in a brand new unit. The capacity is there to upscale if necessary.
ICU director Dani Goh has witnessed first hand how those beds and ventilators save lives. “Once you are here in ICU you still have weeks. It’s a very slow recovery,” she said.
The ventilators are helping people to breathe as their bodies fight the virus. There is no treatment or cure.
Standing in her eerily quiet unit she said: “We are very grateful that people have been so responsible and given us this window to prepare.”
But she warns another surge in infections is on the horizon. As restrictions are lifted she hoped awareness of hand hygiene and social distancing would limit the spread. “But I think we will see a resurgence of the disease,” she said.
“At the moment we are planning to surge up to 200 per cent capacity,” Dr Goh said. “What it is going to look like is anybody's guess and that’s part of the problem.
“We are holding our breath.”