Oprah - Jul/Aug 2020

FEELING

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T H E O P R A H M AG A Z I N E

PANDEMIC

HEALTH HEROES

As Covid-19 began invading America’s most densely populated city, the 47,000 -plus staffers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital prepared as best they could for an onslaught. Meet three caregivers who fought the fight of our lives.

MARIE-LAURE D. ROMNEY EMERGENCY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center

On January 21, as she heard reports of Seattle’s first confirmed Covid-19 case, Marie-Laure D. Romney, MD, thought about New York City’s packed subways and sidewalks. She realized it was only a matter of time before the emergency department (ED) she oversaw at the Allen Hospital, a 200-bed community facility in Upper Manhattan, would be overrun with coronavirus patients. To prevent the overloading of hospital systems and the spread of infection in close quarters, she and her colleagues would have to completely reimagine the ED. And they’d have to do it fast.

After some preliminary discussions, Romney’s team officially met in early March to determine how they would handle the isolation and ballooning volume of Covid-19 patients. And as the outbreak picked up speed in mid-March, it was time to put their plans into action. First, a wing of outpatient rooms was converted into a respiratory unit where critically ill patients were housed together. Romney assigned staff specifically to the unit, which allowed them to work more efficiently and extend the life of their valuable personal protective equipment, since they wouldn’t have to remove it to treat the uninfected.

As coronavirus cases proliferated, an open treatment area was transformed into an additional pop-up ICU. Partitions created makeshift private rooms; fans and vents filtered the air to prevent pathogens from escaping. In tents outside the hospital, fever and cough clinics allowed low-risk patients to seek treatment without risking exposure in the ED. “There were points when we were stretched thin, but at least our plan made for organized chaos,” says Romney.

By April 7, as many as 85 percent of the Allen’s beds were occupied

by Covid-19 patients. Romney’s team helped facilitate family video chats and frequently checked in with those infected to remind them they weren’t alone. Romney herself dove into 12-hour shifts, checking oxygen-tank levels, coordinating shift changes, and quickly directing the newly admitted to their bed assignments—all to keep patients moving through the ED to make room for new ones.

In mid-April, the Allen’s ED staff learned that, for the first time in weeks, discharges outnumbered admissions. That energized Romney—as did witnessing her colleagues, New Yorkers, and people all over the world banding together. “For better or worse, our actions impact one another, as a local and global community,” she says. “That’s a fundamental lesson that I hope will translate beyond this crisis.” —ARIEL DIXON

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“We had to keep thinking one step ahead.

If we had approached this like it was any other day in our emergency department, it would have been chaotic.”

—MARIE -LAURE D. ROMNEY

P H O T O G R A P H S B Y Benedict Evans