San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Health care workers share their voices
Today’s paper features the voices of some of the front-line health care workers who have been caring for people infected with COVID-19. Staff writer Paul Sisson has been covering the coronavirus pandemic since it emerged.
Q: How long have you been covering health care?
A: I’ve been on the health care beat at the Union-tribune since 2012, but I previously handled the job for several years at the North County Times. I’d say about 10 years, give or take.
Q: Why did you undertake this project?
A: It has been clear to me since the beginning that there may come a time where our health care system begins to become overwhelmed, as was the case in New York in the spring.
When we saw a marked increase in local hospital admissions, accompanied by huge surges in positive cases, it seemed like now was the time to try to get out and find a way to help frontline workers share their voices. I wanted to try to get out of the way as much as possible.
Q: What was involved in getting people to talk?
A: I reached out to every health system and hospital in the region, and most were not willing to allow us to wander their halls and pull people aside to interview. But a few were willing to do so, and so we went with the willing.
We did make the commitment not to share information that might violate patient protection laws, though that did not turn out to be an issue. Generally, I find that most like to talk.
Q: Other than the cooperation of hospitals, what was the key part of doing this project?
A: Mr. Nel Cepeda, a masterful visual journalist able to work in two different mediums — video and still photography — simultaneously. And that’s not really the whole picture.
He often has excellent questions of his own and has been working in San Diego long enough that he usually runs into someone he knows while we’re in the field. This project was a partnership.
Q: What precautions did you take to stay safe?
A: I wore a mask, sometimes an N95, sometimes a surgical mask, and made sure to limit touching surfaces.
That’s enough, given that nobody’s letting us wander into an infected patient’s room.
They’ve gotten so good at using negative pressure systems to keep any airborne particles from seeping out of those rooms that there is little danger in common areas like hallways.
Most who have worked in these situations for 10 months now without getting sick say they feel safer at work than they do moving through the community. But that’s because they’re meticulous about properly donning and doffing their PPE and are always watching each other’s backs.
I have developed a ritual of wearing shorts and a T-shirt under my customary long-sleeved work shirts and pants.
The underlayer allows me to avoid arrest for indecent exposure while I carefully peel off that outer layer outside my vehicle and drop everything, including my shoes, into a garbage bag.
Then I wash my hands and remove my mask, pulling it off by the straps without touching the outside.
Another hand washing occurs after stowing the mask in the bag with my clothes which will sit untouched in my garage for a week. I imagine this process is more for my mental health than my physical health. I could probably get away with just chucking the mask in a trash can on the way out.
Q: You’ve been in many of the region’s ICUS. Has that been hard to watch?
A: It is difficult to look through those windows and realize that, because of visitation restrictions, their loved ones are not going to be able to come in and hold their hands unless they’re about to die.
It looks like the ultimate loneliness. You can’t help but put yourself in their shoes.
But you also see these teams of workers, not just doctors and nurses, but respiratory therapists and X-ray technicians and environmental service workers cleaning, endlessly cleaning.
I think the most indelible image that stays imprinted on my mind is the first time I saw a team “prone” an ICU patient at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center back in April. I’ve seen it again and again everywhere from La Mesa to El Centro, and it never ceases to amaze me. You’ve got multiple different workers of different types literally flipping a sedated person from front to back or back to front to help with lung function.
There is a powerful gentleness involved. They need to lift a heavy weight all together without dislodging breathing tubes, IV lines, catheters, and probably a whole bunch of other stuff that I don’t even notice.
Health care workers have truly shown us all what it means to pull together.
Q: You’ve been covering the pandemic since February. What have been your biggest challenges?
A: I think the biggest challenge has been the pace. Though we did catch a bit of a break in the late summer, this pandemic has been throwing off news relentlessly since February, and that often makes for long days. But I know I’ve got it easy compared to the women and men who have lost jobs or who, whether in an intensive care unit or behind a cash register, have truly put themselves in harm’s way during this pandemic.