Manhattan Emergency Doctor Records Day of Treating COVID-19 Patients

A critical care physician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan filmed a sobering account of his daily routine during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in New York City.

Dr. Adel Bassily-Marcus recorded this video on April 13, after a day off that he spent with his family. After driving to the hospital, he begins doing his rounds of patients, many of them who he says have been placed on ventilators due to complications of the virus. He explains that treating patients with COVID-19 can be lonely for everyone involved. Intubated patients cannot speak, and those that are awake cannot see visitors for risk of infection.

“We spend extra time, try to connect with the family, either through video chat or simple phone calls,” says Bassily-Marcus. “It’s a very unusual situation where you don’t have family members next to the patients.”

Bassily Marcus notes that many of the patients are young, “with no past medical history.”

Passing one patient, he notes that she is pregnant, and “on the verge of being intubated.”

“We are trying to save her,” says Bassily-Marcus. Credit: The Mount Sinai Hospital via Storyful