https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj.p1983
"When Kelly Fearnley first stepped on to a surgical ward as a doctor at
Bradford Royal Infirmary in August 2020 her head was still buzzing with delight
at having finally achieved her dream of qualifying in medicine.
As a mature student she had financed herself through a medical degree by
working shifts as a pharmacy assistant. Now, aged 34, she was ready to get
stuck into her foundation training.
Early months were spent dealing with emergency surgical patients but by autumn,
as the second wave of covid-19 struck, the hospital opened several covid wards
and she was deployed to work on one of them.
She remembers: “I walked onto the ward full of covid patients to find only
plastic pinnies and flimsy blue surgical masks. I’d expected long sleeved
surgical gowns and FFP3 masks. I remember asking a senior nurse where the other
masks were. She replied, ‘These are the ones we’re using now.’
“I spent 10 hours a day for five consecutive days surrounded by infectious
patients so I was subjected to high viral loads on a ward with no ventilation
and an absence of respiratory protective equipment.
“It was essentially a covid soup.”
The next week Fearnley tested positive for covid-19, and three weeks later she
became severely unwell. She hasn’t worked since. Because of long covid,
Fearnley has been forced to relinquish her provisional registration and is
currently not able to work as a doctor."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: September 21, 2023
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-89603560
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
