ER doc goes to ICU from front line
Adeline Fagan started her 12-hour emergency room shift on July 8 with excitement.
A New York native and graduate of University at Buffalo medical school, the 28-year-old was working on completing her second year of residency as an OBGYN in Houston. Her primary task was delivering babies, but she also was treating COVID-19 patients at a time when virus-related hospitalizations hit record numbers.
Her July 8 shift began as a normal day. Then came the body aches and splitting headache. She tested positive that evening for COVID, and what started as a moderate breathing problem became relentless pain that led to her own hospitalization and, eventually, a stay in the ICU.
Fagan has been on a ventilator and ECMO machine, which oxygenates her blood, for about two weeks. She is constantly sedated and often under druginduced paralysis. She is expected to be
on a ventilator for roughly six more weeks.
For Fagan’s younger sisters, Maureen and Natalie, her story is the ultimate cautionary tale. It offers a window into another life overtaken by the virus, someone who they say is an active runner — now relying on machines to breathe. She is also among thousands of health professionals who have been sickened across the nation and state.
“We would like people to understand the gravity of the situation,” Natalie said. “There are many people out there who do not think they’ll get sick. But the fact of the matter is Adeline’s story is a universal one right now. We could be Adeline. So taking every precaution can protect yourself and your neighbor. Wear a mask, social distance, stay home if possible. You don’t have go through what Adeline is going through.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded 136,290 cases and 632 deaths among health care personnel. In
Texas, the Department of State Health Services reports 3,350 confirmed cases among medical workers, but officials warn that is not a comprehensive number.
Another more hidden toll has emerged as frontline workers become increasingly exhausted, overworked and overwhelmed both physically and emotionally. Fear of bringing the virus home to family or falling sick themselves is a constant.
At Harris Health System, which operates the city’s two safety-net hospitals, just over 5 percent of the nearly 9,000 overall employees have tested positive since the beginning of the pandemic, officials there said. At United Memorial, two nurses in the COVID units were recently admitted to their own hospital after falling critically ill with the virus.
Adeline’s sisters declined to name the hospital where she worked. Hospitalizations were surging in Texas when she started treating COVID patients. The day she tested positive the state reported a then-record 9,610 hospitalizations.
Maureen, Natalie and their other family members watched as COVID took its toll on Adeline from her hospital bed. During daily, around-the-clock FaceTime calls, the sisters noticed her pale skin and dark circles under her eyes.
Sleep eluded her. If she was not awakened every couple of hours for respiratory therapy sessions, the shortness of breath kept her up. A general sense of anxiety accompanied her symptoms, and the frequent video chats became a way to keep her calm, Maureen said.
“At certain points, she was so weak she couldn’t hold her phone up,” she said.
The sisters have not been in touch with Adeline since she was transferred to the ICU in early August.
By Monday, a GoFundMe page for Adeline had already collected more than $111,000, which will go toward her medical expenses, travel expenses and various other bills. Her parents started traveling back-and-forth from their home in Lafayette, N.Y., for Adeline’s treatment, making it impossible for their mother to work and care for their 91-year-old grandmother. The sisters are now picking up the slack in New York, while the parents tend to
Adeline in Texas.
Maureen said the family did not think her condition would deteriorate so rapidly. As someone who suffers from asthma, Adeline had dealt with shortness of breath before. She used her inhaler every day while quarantined at home to combat the breathing problems. It wasn’t helping, Maureen said. Her lips began to turn blue. That’s when she was admitted to the hospital.
In addition to her breathing problems, she was also experiencing constant muscle aches, soreness and headaches, Maureen said. At one point, she said her lungs felt as if they were on fire. By Aug. 3, her lungs could no longer support her.
“We never really thought it would get this far because you kind of think this doesn’t happen to you — that it’s something that happens to other people,” Maureen said. “Adeline is not an unhealthy person, and it’s kind of unreal. As things progress you wake up every morning and ask ‘What’s going on?’”
Adeline has wanted to be a doctor since she was a little girl with a toy stethoscope, Maureen said. Her recent struggle has been shared by those who have seen her positive attitude and passion for her work firsthand. On Twitter, one woman who identified herself as her former teacher in medical school said she was “one of the sweetest, most genuine people I’ve had the opportunity to work with.”
“This has shaken me to the core,” she said.
Dr. Kevin Hopkins, a medical director at Driscoll Children’s Craniofacial & Cleft Center in Corpus Christi, said Adeline cared for his mother as a certified nursing assistant at Crouse Hospital in Syracuse.
They bonded, he said. His mother encouraged Adeline to keep plugging away at her medical school applications, despite her previous rejections.
“She was so sweet and compassionate and caring for my mother (her last time in hospital).” Hopkins said. “She is a very special person — she touched my family with her determination and heart and how kindly she treated my mother.”