When Doctors feel the pinch of Covid-19, medical fratenity takes heavy toll

Musical ventilators, sleepless nights, and record-breaking numbers of deaths were taking a toll on doctors in the front line of the war against the Covid virus.

“They say being a doctor is a noble calling, they say being a doctor is something to be proud of, they say being a doctor is something only a few can do, but they never said being a doctor was easy,” said Dr Sayuren Moonsamy, flight doctor and medical evacuation expert.

Moonsamy said during the past wave, they were forced to work longer hours due to the immense patient load.

“While we may have seen close to the same number of patients we saw daily pre-Covid, the patients we saw now were far sicker and demanded more of our time, energy, and compassion,” he said.

“There were days when I felt like I was drowning in an endless sea of patients. No matter how hard and fast we saw patients, more and more kept coming. Never before had I felt this hopeless.”

Moonsamy said in the third wave doctors, were begging and pleading for intensive care unit (ICU) and high care beds, ventilators, or high flow oxygen devices.

A doctor working at a Johannesburg hospital agreed to speak anonymously for fear of losing his job.

“I went through a tough time about six weeks ago when I lost a non-Covid patient because there was no ICU or hospital beds available.”

He said Covid had become part of the working environment and staff appeared to be less scared “probably due to all of them being vaccinated”.

Trauma specialist Dr JP van Niekerk said there were a lot of doctors suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from the pandemic. “You get frustrated and angry when you see people who are not vaccinated die from the virus.”

Psychologist Ivan de Klerk said most doctors were relying on peers and supervisors from a psychology and mental health point of view for support.

De Klerk said he knew of a few doctors who did continuing professional development activities that are meant to support the medical and paramedical fraternities.

“Unfortunately, as for support, there really isn’t much.” Moonsamy said it became the norm to ask colleagues to identify patients that could be stepped down to the general ward to free up a bed for a patient in desperate need of high care or ICU.

“It became a game of ‘musical ventilators’ at a point. Where machines were passed on promptly to the next patient in need.”

Moonsamy said he saw emergency departments become saturated with patients who would normally have a throughput time of two to four hours, but due to the lack of beds, ended up lodging in the emergency room for three
to five days on average.

“I saw and initiated treatment at the back of ambulances because there were no available beds to see patients in the emergency room,” he said.

“And if this wasn’t bad enough, patient after patient, you had to speak with the family and let them know you’re trying your best to help their loved ones. And with that came every death that saw a piece of you dying too.”

Moonsamy said it was difficult to hold back tears while breaking bad news to a family. He said some days he would anxiously watch the clock for the end of his shift.

“The thing that kept me sane was the fact that everyone I worked with was in the same boat as me. We rallied together and supported each other as we tackled each day,” he said.

“We took every opportunity to make each other smile. Whether this was in the form of a highly inappropriate joke, a coffee, a chocolate and, more often than not, it was a hug. What about social distancing? Well in that moment of absolute despair, that’s all we needed,” he said.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za