The coronavirus is making hospital staff sick, too
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A medical worker gestures at a COVID-19 testing station at The Brooklyn Hospital Center. AP Photo/John Minchillo
By David Brand
At least four nurses in a single unit at NYU Langone Hospital are sick with COVID-19 symptoms, with some still awaiting test results, the Eagle has learned. Three nurses and a case manager working with patients with COVID-19 have called out on another unit in the Manhattan hospital.
Three health workers are sick at a birthing unit in a city-run hospital in the Bronx, staff said. A provider at North Central Bronx Hospital has developed COVID-19 symptoms; so have her husband and mother, she said by phone Friday, shortly after receiving a test for the illness.
As a startling surge of New Yorkers with COVID-19 strain hospitals around the city, frontline medical workers — like doctors, nurses and physician’s assistants — are contending with their own health concerns. At least one medical worker, an assistant nursing manager at Mount Sinai West in Manhattan, has so far died of COVID-19.
“I think we’re all going to get sick. It’s just a matter of time,” said the North Central Bronx provider. She asked to remain anonymous while discussing hospital protocol, including the rationing of protective equipment.
More than 25,500 New Yorkers, including 8,214 in Queens, had tested positive for the illness as of 8:30 a.m. March 27. At least 366 had died. But there is no tally of just how many healthcare workers have fallen ill, said Dr. Mitchell Katz, the head of the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation Thursday.
In Italy, healthcare workers account for about 9 percent of confirmed cases, Buzzfeed News reported.
Exposure is inevitable, workers at six different hospitals in New York City told the Eagle Friday morning. Each said they were sick or had colleagues who were sick.
“They’re asking us now to hold on to masks for days and shifts,” said the North Central Bronx provider. “You can’t not make yourself sick.”
Nevertheless, she said, the hospital administration has done a good job communicating with healthcare staff. “Everyone is being kept up to date,” she said.
She also managed to find a silver lining in her symptoms.
“I took an oath to help, and this is it. If I’m positive, maybe I’m in better shape to help after this. That’s how you start thinking,” she said.
At NYU Langone, “a number of staff — physicians, residents, nurses, etc.” have tested positive, said spokesperson Jim Mandler.
The hospital has also overhauled its units to accommodate the increase in COVID-19 patients — including some healthcare staff.
“Right now, everything is turning into all COVID-19,” said a healthcare worker at NYU Langone, who asked to remain anonymous discussing hospital protocol.
Like employees at city-run hospitals, she said she and her colleagues have also had to reuse their protective equipment, even though she has treated more than a dozen people who tested positive for the illness.
“The fact we have to rewear stuff makes the risk of exposing other patients even higher,” she said. Mandler, the NYU Langone spokesperson, confirmed that staff are asked to re-use their PPE, including their N95 masks.
After assisting several people with COVID-19, the healthcare worker is now sick too. She is home with body aches and “extreme exhaustion” that turned into a persistent low-grade fever.
“I got a good night’s sleep and I thought I was feeling better and then I started getting extremely dizzy,” she said Friday. “It’s kind of up and down I guess.”
