Modern-day miracle workers
EXCLUSIVE: Powerful and moving account of the frontline fight against coronavirus from inside an NHS intensive care unit
THIS is the view from inside an ICU at the heart of the Covid battle, as staff struggle with surging cases.
The Mirror visited Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital, where patients fighting for life are now much younger.
But the dedication and determination of medics shine like a beacon of hope.
I AM standing on the front line of the battle against coronavirus... around me are not the frail elderly or the clinically vulnerable, but men in their 30s and 40s, once fit but now fighting for their lives.
Few of us see the inside of a real intensive care unit, unless we are medics or patients threatening to slip to the edge of life.
So it comes as a surprise to find that instead of frenetic activity and overwhelming tension, there is an air of professional calm.
An army of doctors, nurses and technicians dressed in stifling PPE go about their duties methodically.
While Britain still lies in the grip of the deadly pandemic, these selfless men and women work quietly on amid the despair.
The Daily Mirror visited the ICU at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital to witness the frontline fight against the resurgent virus. Staff are clearly exhausted as they work in sweltering gowns and scrubs, but there is no letup in their professionalism and they have learned quickly how to save lives in an ever-deepening crisis. This is no sensational TV medical drama… colleagues even occasionally manage to joke with each other and gentle laughter breaks out.
It is probably an antidote to the daily misery they witness. All patients in this unit have coronavirus and it is operating at almost full capacity.
But one of the things that strike workers this time round is the age difference to the bulk of older patients in the first wave last spring.
We hear the man to our right in his 30s is “incredibly sick”, hooked up to ventilator and dialysis machines.
Nurse Suki Dhadda, 29, said: “They are definitely getting younger. At the beginning of this pandemic they were at least in their 60s and 70s. Now they are in the 30s, 40s and 50s. We are seeing that no one is immune.
“People say, ‘This is what you were trained for,’ but we were never trained for a global pandemic. When you are treating patients in here with this virus who are in their 30s, not far from my age, we are not used to this.
“When they realise the severity of their situation they are shocked.”
Deputy chief medical officer Dr Brian McKaig added: “There are not many conditions that can leave a fit 40-year-old in ICU but we’re now seeing that Covid is one of them.
“We’re absolutely in the eye of the storm and it is probably going to get worse before it gets better.
“What’s demoralising at the moment is we are in lockdown and everyone is coming in saying the roads are as busy as before lockdown.
“We can see the impact of this in
There aren’t many conditions that can leave a fit 40-year-old in ICU. Covid is one of them
Dr BRIAN McKAIG NEW CROSS DEPUTY CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER
our patients and our staff. We are really creaking.” Although there are younger people now being treated in ICU, deaths in the under-60s have actally decreased. They make up just 5.9% during the winter wave, down from 8.7% in the spring.
We stand in the hallway that separates the three areas of the intensive care unit. Some patients lie unconscious on their fronts – a position that allows more oxygen in.
Floor-to-ceiling glass walls have been installed to split the previously open plan ICU for protection.
A bell rings and a “runner” in the corridor strides passed to deliver medicine to one of the kitted-up nurses. Full PPE stays on for at least two hours as constantly removing items is an infection risk.
Dr McKaig said once workers step through the glass it is “intense, hot and difficult to communicate”.
Suki added: “The PPE is a barrier.
Some elderly people wake up here and are bewildered because they don’t know where they are. ICU is a scary enough environment without being able to see our smiles.”
New Cross has around 30 new people admitted with the virus every day and is not expecting a peak until at least the end of January.
And while staff are dedicated and seem to perform miracles to keep seriously ill patients alive day in day out, they are not superhuman.
Some need professional help as they struggle to cope with the workload and emotional ordeal of routinely staring death in the face.
After shifts they can have debriefing sessions staff trained in trauma management. Operational nurse manager Sara Lawley said: “We never imagined we could be working at these sort of capacity levels. I’ve got many staff seeing a psychologist that we’ve had since the first surge. ICU nurses are very good at just keeping going.”
New Cross has one in 10 of its staff absent – and 100,000 NHS workers either have Covid or are self-isolating.
The most severely ill patients require one ICU nurse each. Currently it is three or four patients to a nurse.
Research by University College
London found an ICU operating at more than 85% capacity meant patients were 20% more likely to die.
Dr McKaig admitted New Cross was operating at “between 98% and 100%”.
As the UK death toll yesterday rose by 1,280 to 87,295, he said: “The only time we get a bit of capacity is when two or three patients die at the same time.” And in a desperate appeal to the public to follow lockdown rules, he added: “We can only hope people stay home and take up the vaccine.
“Those are the only things that will get us out of this situation.” New Cross has around 700 beds and 324 of them are occupied by patients with Covid-19. It has had to open up wards adjoining ICU to deal with patients on continuous posiwith tive airway pressure machines. They work by pushing air and oxygen into the mouth and nose.
It is a last-ditch effort to prevent deteriorating Covid patients being placed in an induced coma on ICU.
But if it fails, they will have to be ventilated, which comes with its own problems. Muscle wastage means survivors can face a month of recovery time for every day in this state.
We passed a tent set up outside as a Staff Rest Area. There weary medics sat apart on wooden benches with haunted looks on their faces.
But Suki reminded us there is positive news amid the struggle.
She said: “It’s heartwarming when you see someone make it.
“We usually stand by the door and clap them out. Some people probably think we’re mad stopping to do that, but it makes it all worth it.”
It’s heartwarming when you see someone make it. We usually clap them out
SUKI DHADDA NEW CROSS HOSPITAL ICU NURSE ON POSITIVES