‘Such is life’: In virus wards, death is a foe but a fact

[uk666]

‘Such is life’: In virus wards, death is a foe but a fact

During their daily morning round of the intensive care unit in Paris, France, hospital staffers and medical students pause outside room No. 10, abruptly emptied of the patient who lost his nearly month-long battle against COVID-19 the previous evening.

At the end, the monitors that show vital signs of all ICU patients — the markers of existence, rendered in coloured numbers and graphs of peaks and troughs — signalled that the man in Room No. 10 had lost his battle.

The man died at 6:12 p.m., the medic leading the briefing tells the group. There is a short hush. And then they walk on.

Even for ICU workers for whom death is a constant — and never more so than this year — witnessing the loss of a fellow human being to the virus can be a churn of emotions.

For their own good and for their patients, they try to remain detached. They have coping mechanisms. Meditation or talking helps for some. For others, tending the body of a patient who could not be saved is part of moving on. Because the living requires their attention, and there will always be other deaths to deal with, simply functioning requires not becoming overwhelmed.

But calibrating their relationship with death isn’t easy. Some worry they could be seen as callous if they’re too matter-of-fact or, conversely, that emotions could hurt them if they get too involved. Some days they manage better than others. Sometimes they feel the need to confide to the ICU’s in-house psychologist, in a rage, in tears, in need of her hot tea and understanding.

This is what it is to encounter death, over and over, in the COVID-poisoned days of the 2020 pandemic.