ROME — Dr. Elisabetta Teti recalls the nightmare weeks when the coronavirus first erupted in Italy and girds herself for what her life will be like through the coming winter if tens of thousands of Italians are still getting diagnosed with covid-19 and hundreds are dying every day.
Teti, an infectious disease specialist at a hospital on the outskirts of Rome, already begins and ends her workday in darkness. AP Photographer Alessandra Tarantino followed the 39-year-old doctor one recent Saturday, from her home, through a 12-hour shift caring for patients needing sub-intensive care, and home again, exhausted.
The numbers the pandemic is producing at Vergata Polyclinic Hospital are numbing. Teti ticks them off: 28 admitted patients in two covid-19 units, 18 of them wearing the medical helmets they need to keep breathing; 70 patients in the emergency room, where many are aided by simple oxygen masks; and 10, the number of minutes it takes Teti to “dress up” in protective gear before she can begin her rounds.
The process she completes in a special, sanitized room involves carefully putting on a protective gown, two pairs of gloves taped around the wrists, two face masks, a hair cap and a visor. It takes even longer for the doctor to “undress,” since she applies sanitizing gel to her gloved hands every time she strips off one of her protective layers.
Teti arrives at the hospital as staff members deal with a patient who died during the night. Nurses roll the body away on a gurney. Teti turns her attention to the living.
Communication is
challenging when patients wear oxygen helmets and Teti is covered by layers of protective gear. But her energy and warmth carry across the physical barriers. A male patient in his 60s smiles back. Teti exudes confidence and optimism as she passes from bed to bed.
But when she returns to the meeting room where doctors review patient charts, she acknowledges that trying to keep people with this dangerous virus alive exacts an emotional toll.
At first, most of the medical staff found excuses when the hospital first offered them group psychological support sessions, Teti says. Now, they realize they need the help, and the doctors have started counseling sessions as a team, she says.
Fear of inadvertently transmitting the virus colors Teti’s private life, too. During the first months of the pandemic, Teti and her husband, Stefano Capasso, wore masks at home. They refrained from even exchanging a kiss for months. She slept on the bed, Capasso on a couch.
On this Saturday, the doctor’s husband was still asleep when she slipped out of their apartment after a quick coffee at dawn. But as another heavy day draws to a close, they sit together at their dining table and share the late evening meal he prepared for them.
(AP/Alessandra Tarantino)
Dr. Elisabetta Teti wears a protective suit as she walks before starting the first round of visits in a sub-intensive covid-19 unit of the Tor Vergata Polyclinic Hospital in Rome.
Teti (second from left) takes notes during the morning briefing at the infectious disease department of the Tor Vergata Polyclinic Hospital in Rome. On this Saturday Teti was handling two sub-intensive care covid units with 28 patients, 18 of them in breathing helmets. She was also supervising the covid-19 cases flowing non-stop into the emergency room, a total of roughly 70 people with the deadly coronavirus.
Doctors Teti (foreground) and Pier Giorgio Pace wear protective suits.
Teti talks on the phone in the sub-intensive covid-19 unit of the hospital. When she’s not visiting patients, Teti is constantly on the phone with other departments because on this Saturday she was the only infectious diseases specialist in the hospital.
Dr. Pier Giorgio Pace helps Teti put on a protective suit before starting their first round medical examinations in a sub-intensive covid-19 unit.
Teti (left photo), a 39-year old infectious diseases specialist, drinks her coffee as she has breakfast in her living room in Rome. The workday begins in darkness, her husband still asleep when she slips out of their apartment for the hospital on the outskirts of Rome. Teti, above photo, drives her car on her way to the Tor Vergata Polyclinic Hospital. Teti recalls the nightmare weeks when the pandemic erupted in Italy and girds herself for what her life will be like through the coming winter months as covid-19 surges through Italy, with tens of thousands of people being diagnosed and hundreds dying every day.
Teti leaves the meeting room after the morning briefing.
Dr. Elisabetta Teti visits covid-19 patient 67-year-old Roberto Tortosa in a sub-intensive covid-19 unit of the Tor Vergata Polyclinic Hospital in Rome.
60-year-old patient Nazzareno Santilli breathes, above photo, under oxygen continuous positive air pressure headgear ventilation looks on as Teti encourages his bed neighbor in a sub-intensive covid-19 unit. Communication is challenging when patients wear oxygen helmets and Teti is covered by layers of protective gear.
Teti has dinner with her husband Stefano Capasso at their home in Rome. As this heavy day draws to a close, they share a late evening meal that he prepared.
Teti leaves the hospital. As an infectious diseases specialist at Tor Vergata Polyclinic Hospital, her workday began in darkness and ended in darkness.
Teti talks on the phone about a patient’s condition as she has her lunch in her room of the infectious diseases department hosting the sub-intensive covid-19 unit.
Teti puts on protective gear before starting the second round of medical examinations.
Flanked by colleagues Pier Giorgio Pace (right) and Simona Tedde, Teti reads the medical record of a patient before a medical examination.
With deep marks left on the face by wearing the mask, Teti smiles as she wears a new mask at the end of medical checks.