{"id":6902,"date":"2022-09-01T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T00:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=6902"},"modified":"2022-09-01T07:42:38","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T23:42:38","slug":"295-dealing-with-devastation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=6902","title":{"rendered":"303. Did We Do Enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"

3\u00a0<\/sup>Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation,\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup>who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup>For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ.<\/strong><\/span> [2<\/span> Corinthians 1:3<\/span>, NRSV<\/em>]<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[L] Medical staff helps Covid-19 patient get up [R] Nurse holds patient\u2019s hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do people deal with devastation?\u00a0 In real life, everyone has a story to tell. We listen to our great benefit.\u00a0<\/span>Personal stories of post-patient-deaths from three medical staff are touching stories for reflection as we move into the passion and death of the Lord in Holy Week.<\/span><\/p>\n

These stories come from a New York Times opinion-video, produced by Alexander Stockton. The video is titled \u201cHow Front-Line Workers Are Struggling to Cope with Losing Coronavirus Patients | NYT Opinion\u201d. We accessed it on 31 August 2022 at https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tlsYYIshbDw<\/a>. In the op-ed, \u2018The Wounds Are Still Fresh\u2019, which posted this video, Sahan Hapangama, Louis Galabert and Sarah Norris noted that front-line medical workers are struggling with the devastation that comes after patients have died. Their brief op-ed continues:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOnce a global epicenter of the pandemic, New York City has \u2014 for now \u2014 brought things under control. But where does this reprieve leave front-line medical workers? In the video above, we get a rare and intimate look at three \u2014 a hospitalist, a physician assistant and a palliative care physician \u2014 who worked at one of the hardest-hit hospitals in the Bronx. They\u2019re confronting an unanswerable question: Did they do enough? The deaths may have subsided, but medical workers are still dealing with the devastation.<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Sahan Hapangama (hospitalist):<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had a young patient who was doing very well, and then one morning his blood pressure started dropping. Unfortunately, he passed away. I kind of broke down and just cried. I tried to pull myself together because I wanted to notify his mother about what had happened and she was so appreciative but I feel like I failed him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think as doctors we try to put on a strong front and put on a strong face, but the anxiety, the fear, the exhaustion, and the absolute frustration, even now, months later, I\u2019m still trying to battle those emotions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe scars on my face from the N95s will certainly heal, but the emotional scars I will have for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Louis Gelabert (Senior Physician Assistant):<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I wouldn\u2019t sleep. My mind was just going continuously thinking of not doing the right thing for the patient. That feeling never left me. It just hits me. It\u2019s still fresh. It\u2019s still fresh; the wounds are still fresh.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The chaos and death Covid-19 brought to New York City hospitals have subsided. But health care workers are now struggling with what comes next.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s one patient that I will carry with me for a very long time, an elderly gentleman. We knew that a patient of his age, with his comorbidities (the\u00a0fact<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0people<\/a>\u00a0who have a\u00a0disease<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0condition<\/a>\u00a0also have one or more other diseases\u00a0or\u00a0conditions<\/a>) wouldn\u2019t survive being on a ventilator. I contacted the family. The brother asked me if he can pray with him. I took my cell phone over a bit to the stretcher side of the patient in a very noisy emergency department, and through my ppe, my mask, placed the phone close to the patient\u2019s ear. I leaned in and said, \u201cYour brother wants to pray with you.\u201d His eyes suddenly opened up wide. I felt like the family was there with us, was witnessing everything we were doing for his loved one. In about a week\u2019s time, I found out the patient succumbed to his illness. It hurt. I cried (looking deeply sad, quiet, and solemn, pausing momentarily before speaking again). I just felt that I was very close with the family. I felt like I knew them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Sarah Norris (Paliative Care):<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time someone dies, every doctor, every nurse, every therapist feels responsible. I think about the patients who died. I think about their families. I thought about them a lot on Mother\u2019s Day, on Father\u2019s Day (Dr. Sarah\u2019s voice starts cracking as she speaks with obvious deep emotions).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t pull off what to say to another physician when their patient dies. It\u2019s heart-wrenching to see their slumped shoulders, see their head down, see them using paper towels (her voice cracked, her face in torment, pausing before continuing), because I don\u2019t know what to say.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we as doctors and nurses decide we did a good job if somebody dies? I think that part of the definition is \u2018Did you know them?\u2019 Did you take time to get to know the patient?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Louis Gelabert: \u201cIf they were on their last breaths, we would hold their hands and we would whisper to them, \u2018It\u2019s okay, we\u2019re here with you. We\u2019re here with you.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Sarah Norris: \u201cWhen you the doctor and you the nurse having a spectacularly bad moment, you need someone to look in the eyes and tell you, \u2018I know you\u2019ve done everything you know how to do, and it\u2019s not your fault.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Sahan Hapangama: \u201cWe look out for one another while trying to look out for the patients as well. It helps strengthen us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Louis Gelabert: \u201cThere was one day, we intubated three patients within one hour. I noticed that my phone had multiple text messages. My wife sent me videos of the neighbourhood kids. They made signs and I actually have those signs hung up on my porch outside. [One huge sign reads \u201cThank you, Louie. Thank you, uncle Louie\u201d with colourful rainbow.] What got us through the hardest moments during this time were the people, our colleagues and our loved ones that were supporting us. And every day before I do a shift, I tap the sign with my hand before I get into the car. No, I\u2019m never taking it off.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now imagine the early disciples, together with the eleven apostles (Judas Iscariot having killed himself), hiding in the Upper Room for three days after the excruciating passion and death of Jesus. Imagine the haunting scenes of the humiliating torture and crucifixion of Jesus hanging over their heads and the chaos in their hearts. How did they deal with the devastation? Were they guilt-ridden? At the material time, \u201cdid they do enough\u201d for the Lord, such as not abandoning him but keeping company with him? How chaotic were their emotions, including those lamenting all the way as they took flight, left Jerusalem, and headed back to their respective villages (such as Emmaus), their hopes and dreams dashed? Today, in our own time, \u201cdid we do enough\u201d for the Lord who said: \u201cTruly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me\u201d (Mt 25:40)? <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, September 2022. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n

You are most welcome to respond to this post. Email your comments to jeffangiegoh@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/u> <\/strong>You can also be dialogue partners in this Ephphatha Coffee-Corner Ministry<\/em> by sending us questions for discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3\u00a0Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation,\u00a04\u00a0who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.\u00a05\u00a0For just as the Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh","author_link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?author=1"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"From Our Perspective<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"3\u00a0Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation,\u00a04\u00a0who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.\u00a05\u00a0For just as the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6902"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7177,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902\/revisions\/7177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}