It’s 3am and I’m awake. I’m laying by my sleeping daughter and realizing that for the first time in my life that I’m scared to go to work.
I have worked in trauma centers, jails, during bomb threats - but nothing has been as scary as going to
work NOW when the threat of COVID19 is killing people, including my colleagues, and the public is not taking this seriously.
I’m being asked, as a wife and a mom of 5 children ages 6 and younger, to go to work knowing that we have limited supply of protective gear. We are reusing gear that is meant for one time use because we DON’T have any more! This is happening at almost every hospital in the USA. Where is our personal protective equipment (PPE)? How can we DEMAND more supply? How can the public help us? Who is hearing us?!
I took an oath to help others. I never thought that meant risking my life due to lack of preparedness. This is like asking me not to worry about driving on the highway without a seatbelt alongside drunk drivers but hoping I will be unharmed, or mandating I sky dive with a damaged parachute not passing regulations for a jump...hoping that I’m lucky and that it works “enough”.
Being an Emergency Medicine Physician is what I signed up for and I love my career which enables me to help in times of tragedy. But what happens when the doctors and nurses are diseased? Who will be the healers then? Who is going to explain to our young children and families that we could have prevented this by having proper equipment and for the public to stay at home to contain this pandemic?
I know of a few of my Emergency Medicine colleagues who are ill with COVID19. They are in the ICU on life support. While I am laying next to my daughter I feel guilty that they may never get to lay next to theirs....I feel both horrible and lucky simultaneously.
Someone please help us healthcare workers. If you have power - power of your voice, power in government, power in money to order PPE for us or anything. I plead you to help.
And if all you can do is comment below to know
I’m being heard....to share this post so others hear the message that doctors, nurses and many others are risking their lives....or if you have another idea, I’m all ears.
I have always thought that people, by nature, are Inherently good. That we are all true humanitarians at our core. Please channel that inner humanitarian and help us today.
1. Stay home - social distance
2. Help us get Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)! Write your local and federal government officials. Notify celebrities and wealthy philanthropists who can purchase this for us....here is a link to the top 9 companies who make the products:
https://www.businesswire.com/…/Top-9-Vendors-Personal-Prote…
3. Be gentle to your healthcare workers. We are scared too. We are fighting for you and for our own lives.
Thank you,
Dr. Hala Sabry
Emergency Medicine Physician
