Dr. Holly Bean From Erie from Pennsylvania Reports On Chinese Virus
I rarely post on facebook, usually I try to avoid it and i don't normally talk about what I do. I thought though that it may be helpful to some of you to know what is going on in the hospitals of your community and how this is directly impacting people you know.
Many of you know, but some may not know, I am an infectious disease physician and my husband is a pulmonary-critical care physician practicing in Erie, Pa.
As of right now in Erie, Pa we have 3 confirmed COVID-19 infected patients. I anticipate that this next week, which will be week #2 of quarantine, this number is going to be much much higher, and each week thereafter it is going to exponentially increase. Currently in Erie, Pa it takes 6-7 days for test results to come back. This leads to a delay in diagnosis. So everyone tested in week 1, will not find out their diagnosis until week 2. Generally speaking, you are contagious before you have symptoms. Then once you become symptomatic and get tested, it takes 6-7 days for the test results to come back. By that time you have infected several hundred people, unless you stay home. Please continue social distancing and staying home!!!
If you are a healthy person, it may not impact you very much. If you are elderly, have a chronic condition, or are immunocompromised, there is a high probably that this will kill you. Did you know that if someone is infected with COVID-19 and they are on a ventilator, it is recommend that palliative care be involved to assist with communication with the family and goals of care discussion because of the high probability they the patients will not survive. Stay home for these people!!!!
I am petrified of the upcoming weeks. I’ve accepted that my husband and I will probably will get infected. Likely we will be ok, we are young and healthy. When we start to see more patients with COVID-19 in the hospital, our plan is to move my 2.5 year old daughter and mother in law out of my house to live with my family away from us. If my mother in law gets this, I don’t think she would survive. My 2.5 year old has never been away from me. I want to cry just thinking about this scenario. Imagine not being able to see your kid for weeks. I am begging you all to stay home and continue social distancing!!!
I never thought something like this would happen. We are turning entire hospitals and floors into COVID-19 units. We are not allowing any visitors in the hospital. We are not seeing any patients in the clinics. We are scrambling to learn how to do visits through telemedicine.
I now know the exact number of ventilators in my hospital. There is a COVID-19 I am terrified that we will have to make the same decisions that Italy is doing now, deciding who will get a ventilator and who does not or having to limit those who get a ventilator to someone younger than 60. Can you imagine doing that? That is not something I ever thought we would be doing in 2020. If you stay home and self quarantine, hopefully it won’t get to that point. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to tell you in 6 months that we never ran out of ventilators.
This is a steep learning curve. Every day if not every hour, policies are changing, treatment algorithms are changing, testing is changing. We are getting overloaded with information. Be patient and forgiving of your healthcare providers. We are trying our best as we try to prepare.
I anticipate that this is going to last through spring and into summer. You are going to get tired of hearing this, but please be patient and try to continue social distancing and staying at home. It will make a difference.
Depending on how things go, I will try to update weekly as a check in with you all. If there is one thing that you can do to help, it is stay home.
