This Covid – 19 world -wide pandemic is affecting all of us around the world, from all walks of life. It has unfortunately caused death, suffering, lay – offs, financial stress and social upheaval in a way that we would never have predicted, so suddenly. Everybody knows this of course, unless you are living in a cave somewhere off the grid. But what many don’t realize is that physicians who work on the front lines treating people with this disease must find ways to handle their stress, and it turns out, one of the common ways is what we call gallows humor.  We use this tool not to minimize the stress and suffering from disease that our patients suffer every day, but instead, to relieve our own stress a little, so that we can enjoy a few laughs in the middle of the war, and then re – charge a little to push onwards with renewed  vigor.  The gallows humor is usually stupid and sometimes brutal, but that makes it funnier.   I think.  And of course, we say these things to each other in private, or at least we make every attempt to do so.

               Recently, I was the first in our group to intubate (place a breathing tube in the airway) a patient afflicted with this virus who unfortunately went into respiratory failure.  I used all the protective gear available, as did the wonderful staff who assisted me at the bedside, to avoid infection due to the high risk of virus aerosolization with this procedure.  We didn’t know if he was actually infected at the time because the tests were not back yet, but we assumed he was.

               The next day, after an exhausting night on call, I told one of my partners about this case and that I hoped we were all safely protected during the procedure.  He said,  “Carson, you know if you become infected, and go into respiratory failure, we will intubate you, but we will intubate you without anesthesia or sedation, so that you can remain awake while on life support, so that you can take “on – call” responsibility for the hospital by doing telemedicine on a lap top in your ICU bed while on the ventilator.”

               I love my partners.

               “Endeavor to Persevere” From Chief Dan George, in the Outlaw Josey Wales.

© SRCarson 2020