Danielle Moulton takes just three things into the hospital with her in the morning: her car key, a pen and her cellphone in a plastic zipper bag. The rest of her belongings stay in the car as her day in the Covid-19 wards in the Cape Town hospital starts.
The process takes a while. At the beginning of their stints in the Covid-19 wards, the interns used a buddy system to put on and take off the equipment. They watched each other to make sure everyone was doing it correctly until they got used to the procedure. “Working in PPE for a full 24-hour call would be exhausting, and there’s a very high turnover of patients coming in.”
She described an amazing camaraderie she believes has always been there, but is coming to the fore now when senior specialists help with the simplest of procedures, like taking blood samples.To make the day’s work easier, the group makes a list of which patient needs what and works their way through it. There are treatments and tests to see to, and new admissions to handle.
On a good day, Moulton may get time for a break. She runs to her car and sits on it, afraid to sit inside and contaminate it. Her lunches are energy bars or bananas, anything she doesn’t need to touch too much. A few sips of water, and it’s back to the wards. These short breaks mean she has to go through the full process of taking the PPE off and putting it on again. Some days are so busy that she forgets to go to the bathroom.Moulton carefully takes off her PPE to be washed or thrown away.
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Source: City_Press - 🏆 7. / 72 Read more »