If someone would have said to me while in EMT school that I was going to work on the front line of a pandemic for over a year I would never believed them. Would I have changed my mind about my career change? Probably not. I love what I am doing and have never regretted the change.
This pandemic entered the world in late 2019 and basically took over everyone’s life in early 2020. Masks, isolation, and then vaccination. We got it under control but then… it came back full force and even worse.

Working EMS has been, and is, a challenge. New protocols and guidelines almost daily. For a long time we didn’t see any covid patients and we thought that this was it. Then we heard on the news that it is getting worse. I personally didn’t see any increase at work right then. But about 1.5 – 2 weeks ago it all exploded. Almost every call we ran on was either a covid patient or a traffic accident. Now and then a fall too. At the ER the staff started to look desperate when we came in with another patient. Nowhere to put them. People came to the ER by all possible means. If it wasn’t by ambulance, they actually drove or even walked to the ER. It has come to a point where the ER has to go on full divert. The patient can no longer choose where to go, we have to take them to whatever facility has room. Several times all ER in the county are on divert and our dispatcher has to rotate them and tell us where to go to even the pain out. We have to wait for hours with the patient to get a bed. And during this time the patient has to stay in the truck if it’s a covid patient.

We got a transfer from one ER to a hospital. The patient was in a Trauma room. But the patient wasn’t a trauma patient. This ER has two trauma rooms. But right now they are used as extra ICU. To cope with everything they have put two ICU beds in each trauma room where they keep patients that are on vents. No one can come and visit them. They have a machine breathing for them. Our patient had the machine breathing 100% for her, she had no respiratory drive left herself. A week ago she was a healthy woman in her mid age. No medical history, didn’t take any medications. Just living a good life. Now she was sedated, not knowing what was going on around her with more medications hanging around her than I have ever seen and several pumps making sure she got the right amount at the right time. Next to her was another patient, in the same situation.

We came to the hospital with the patient and came to the floor she had been assigned a room at. There are 10 rooms at that unit. All ICU. All covid. In every room are two beds. 20 patients. That means 20 patients sedated, on a vent, with medications hanging that will hopefully, maybe help against the virus. Around them works doctors and nurses around the clock. Mask on, gown on, gloves on, and then off. Then on and off. For every patient interaction. Machines beeping here and there. A drip was finished. A patient needed to be rolled.

I stopped for a second and looked around. I saw some strong but very tired caregivers. They are working so hard. They are exhausted. Knowing that in the very moment one bed gets available it will be filled right away. Sadly, many of the patients that are there will not walk out the doors… ever. I doubt that our patient will. And this was just one unit. There are 5 more just at this hospital.

We picked up another patient from her home. Family told us that she had refused to go to the doctor for about a week. She was grey in her face, fighting to breathe. We came to the ER and within 10 minutes she was sedated and intubated and on a vent. Before we even cleared our call.

Something with this week has increased my respect for the ER nurses and the ICU nurses incredibly. And covid will not end. I believe this is something we will have to deal with on a daily basis, as the flu or any respiratory illnesses. If you don’t think covid is a real thing… sorry, you are so wrong. It is a real thing, and it is hitting hard. And the virus doesn’t care who you are, what color of your skin you have, your sexual preference, shoe size or who you voted for.

So please… be careful. I don’t want to have you in the back of my ambulance transporting you with lights and sirens on a vent to another facility. Please…