A Day in the Life of a #COVIDHERO

Laura Leigh Carroll is a registered nurse, practice administrator and wife of Scott Rex, MD. Here she shares what Dr. Rex's typical day looks like during the coronavirus outbreak. 

I would like to call your attention to the 15-18 hour days my husband Scott Rex has been putting in on the corona front lines here in metro NY. 
 
In addition to serving the needs of our patients via telemedicine, doing onsite testing (Drive-up) and caring for 30+ community COVID pos patients, he has been providing relief care to our medical center here in NY, which has been carrying a full patient load of hospitalized COVID patients @ Saint Francis Hospital, Roslyn NY. He currently has 18. 
 
His days begin about 4 am when he rounds on his COVID patients at the Hospital. He dons his hazmat gear- scrubs covered by a full gown he has customized so that it attaches to gloves, mask, goggles and surgical bonnet. He says the hospital is an eerie place: no family or visitors, everyone covered in protective gear. 

In the first week, there was no food to be had, cafeteria was closed and the food donations had yet to begin. IV tubings are extended to run out from patient rooms into hallways to minimize patient contact. And yet he does have minimal patient contact: a routine which requires precise steps to ensure no personal or cross contamination. The patients are literally isolated from the world. Scott says it’s the hardest thing he's ever done: medicine without the laying on of hands.
 
The hospital has patients literally spilling into the parking lot. He texts me and says "It’s a war zone...."
 
It takes about 9 hours to round on 18 patients — bc you have to factor in the time hunting for PPE? If he needs new gloves? He has to find and request same from the charge nurse- they are literally washing and reusing them. We have managed to procure our own personal supply of PPE, and he brings his own equipment. We have donated much of our stash to the facility.
 
Around 2pm- He arrives to our office. We have a triage area in our basement where he immediately goes to strip off his scrubs, washes and changes into a new pair.

Then he begins the management of our "Community Covids"- phone calls, Clinical trial protocols and of course testing. The testing is done "drive-up" style. Patients park across the street and then notify us of their arrival.

Dr. Rex and his MA Juan Moza then prepare all their testing equipment and return to the triage area in our basement to don the testing garb: full zip-up suit, masks, plastic shield, gloves, shoe covers.
 
I then notify the patients to pull down our driveway around to our back parking lot which is private. This routine is repeated sometimes back-back with 5-6 patients. Each time gear must be changed.
 
There are of course telemedicine appointments scheduled in between, patient calls, COVID test results to manage and every day, more hospital admissions. So around 5 or 6pm? Back to the Hospital he goes — but first he washes and changes all his clothes again.
 
At his second rounding of the day, he usually admits 3-5 more Covid patients. Hopefully, a few get discharged and sadly, some have died.
 
Around 9:30 or 10 p.m., I get a text that he is finally on his way home and I get his dinner ready. We have a triage area set up in our garage. When he arrives, he strips off everything, wipes down anything he has to re-use with a homemade alcohol spray and goes straight into the shower.
 
Finally, we get to say Hello. He has a glass of wine, a bite to eat and is usually zonked out in short order.

And the next day? He gets to do it all over again. This has been our life for almost four weeks running.

A glimpse into the life of my #COVIDHERO.