V IP P S P OT LIG H T
Physician Deaths And COVID-19 Wri t t en by Pa u l a H. C o o k so n LC S W
A
s if the healthcare field were not stressful enough, along came the international pandemic, COVID-19. Physicians who were already burdened and experiencing the detrimental effects of the bureaucratic medical system have become absolutely overwhelmed. Droves of deathly ill patients, and poorly equipped facilities, have left medical professionals scrambling to provide critical care; it is a surreal situation; a nightmare that health professionals are living every day. Our medical professionals are getting sick from COVID-19, and many are dying. COVID-19 has shown us how 8 | A P RI L / M AY 2 0 2 0
misinformation, politicization and lack of proper equipment can result in catastrophic loss. Among those losses include the very people who followed their calling to heal the sick. These medical professionals were also mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents and best friends. They had lives outside of medicine; they had loved ones, dreams and hopes. These medical professionals chose the field of healthcare and ultimately their commitment to the health of others put them directly in the danger zone of the pandemic that took their lives. Future accounts of this pandemic and the catastrophic loss of lives will tell the story of why so
many of these deaths could have been avoided. Will we learn from the losses of COVID-19? Will we allow the grief of this pandemic to inform us on better healthcare management systems and prioritizing patient care and physician support on a national level? Inadequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Physicians and health care workers on the front lines have been doing battle with coronavirus with insufficient armor. Similar to September 11, 2001, when firefighters and police officers had insufficient safety equipment to do their jobs, health providers are in
