A rare opportunity to connect with loved ones

To the Times:

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, our lives and routines have been significantly changed. Many of us now work totally from home while others have totally lost their jobs. Children are home full-time and our parenting tools are being challenged.

We are fearful of becoming ill, our children being ill, our careers being altered, financial loss and losing control of life as we know it. Yet at the same time we are provided an opportunity to help others and engage with our families. While not by choice, we have the chance to spend more quality time with our family.

For the first time in a while we might be able to sit at a dinner table together and discuss our day. Through our comments and actions we can teach our children about values, the importance of a family and how to handle stress. We can encourage them to care about others and not just themselves. We can show them how people can and should work together, how parents and children can and should be open about their feelings and concerns, and how there is comfort and strength in coming together.

This is an opportunity to make something good out of misfortune and connect with those in our lives who mean so much.

What are we seeing on the ground? We see a rapidly dwindling supply of personal protective equipment, ventilators, and sanitation materials as the virus strains our healthcare system. Residents are begging on social media for additional gear. Medical students are being asked to delay graduation.

We don’t have enough coronavirus tests – so workers with recent travel are unable to be tested despite our immediate exposure to the most vulnerable patients. This is all due to the Trump Administration’s failure to prepare for this crisis. Instead of addressing these grave concerns, the president was denying the severity of the pandemic, spreading false information about private industry making equipment for us when it is not, and pointing fingers at hardworking governors – who have actually been in the wards seeing how desperate we are for support.

There is a phrase in medical training: “You are not training for the exam. You’re training for the day where you are what’s between the patient and the grave.”

But our sacrifices can only go so far as our numbers of cases double every day. It’s on the Trump Administration to ensure that all of our work is not in vain, and that we have the backing of those in power. Our patients need it.

“We can show them how people can and should work together, how parents and children can and should be open about their feelings and concerns, and how there is comfort and strength in coming together.”

— Dr. Patrick McHugh