“I used to consider this virus to be the same as any other illness we would encounter in a day’s work. However, the world doesn’t take pause for just any other illness.
The reality of COVID didn’t truly hit me until my father became a ‘person under investigation’ – the term used for patients who are awaiting a COVID swab result.
On a day like any other, I received a dreaded call from my mother filled with concern about my father fainting. Immediately, I pleaded with her to bring him to the hospital to be assessed because I knew he was high risk. I met my parents there but when it came time for my father to go into the ED, I wasn’t allowed to go with him. That night I was scheduled to be the on-call senior medical resident at the same hospital, so I knew that I could at least keep an eye on him even if only from the periphery. Other family members of patients don’t have that luxury anymore.
The experience prompted significant self-reflection on how important it is to make the time to update the family members that are anxiously awaiting to hear about and advocate for their loved ones. COVID has been a wake-up call. A game changer.
If this virus insists on invading my life, I’m choosing to use it to make me a better physician.”
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