INDUSTRY
Why I Work In Healthcare
COVID-19 HEROES: IN THEIR OWN WORDS Every day, people are putting their own lives on the line to fight the pandemic. In this section, we have been showing the faces and telling the stories of these heroes. Here is what some of them have to say in their own words about the work they dedicate themselves to. Compiled from various sources. DENNIS CANALE, 43, physician assistant at Staten Island University Hospital Northwell and NYPD detective Second Grade For the past 16 years I’ve been assigned to the NYPD’s emergency service unit. ESU is an elite SWAT rescue team in the country. This pandemic kind of took me in a different light I walk into the hospital and see the amount of critically ill patients. it feels like a Hollywood movie with people in protective gear that you would never dream of in a hospital setting. I watched one lady pull up and she saw us come to the car all dressed up and she just started crying. I had several people giving prayer hands and a nodding gesture saying thank you, thank you, and they give you the heart sign, and saying thank you so much, thank you so much, god bless you. And it makes you feel good at what you do. It makes you say alright, I’ll go back tomorrow. People who didn’t sign up in the medical field: the physician assistants, the doctors, the nurses, and most importantly the people that clean and repair, the people that are clerical, the people that help all the medical professionals. They didn’t take that job thinking, ‘Hey, I’m going to go out today and put my life on the line.’ I know that as a law enforcement officer I am going to run the risk of death. I know it every day. They don’t. But they’re all there doing it. It’s amazing to watch. LUIGI CAVANNA, 67, head of the oncology ward at Guglielmo da Saliceto hospital in Piacenza, Italy In early March, when the epidemic hit, the situation in the E.R. was extreme. People were coming in all the time, dozens of them, already in serious condition. Beds and stretchers everywhere. One of my patients was in the E.R. for 10 hours and then she signed a paper stating that she wanted to be taken home. She said she’d rather die in her own bed. So I visited her at home and gave her some medicine. Within a few weeks, she got better. That’s when I realized we shouldn’t be waiting for the Covid-19 patients to get to the hospital. We needed to go to people’s homes, even of those with mild symptoms, and treat the disease before it could get worse. I started to drive around the area surrounding Piacenza with my staff on March 10, and initially we visited as many as 15 people a day. Then we gradually became better organized, and now we have three teams and we continue to work also in the hospital. Above all, we stay in touch with the patients and their families, and monitor the course of treatment on a daily basis. So far we have visited almost 300 patients. We can do this thanks to the hospital’s resources and private donations of protective equipment. Every time we enter a patient’s home we wear two gowns, two masks, caps, shoe covers.
61 | HS&M SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020
