Steinbach doctor gets COVID, pleads with community to abide by rules
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/11/2020 (1759 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
As he worked on the COVID-19 ward at Steinbach’s hospital earlier this month, Dr. Paul Foster learned to ask patients and their families about their end-of-life plans as soon as he met them. He’d seen patient after patient get very sick, very fast, and he needed to know if they would want invasive treatment, and whether they would need to be transferred to a larger hospital if the virus caused them to have severe trouble breathing.
“They could be doing OK on our ward for four or five days, and then suddenly go into this state of severe inflammation and decline quickly. It seems like no matter how well they look initially, you’re never safe,” Foster said Wednesday.
He acknowledged those were devastating conversations to have with patients who were primarily in their 60s, 70s and 80s.
“Especially when this is something that a lot of people would not expect to happen to them, especially with social media posts going around about how it’s just a cold or it’s just a flu, or the spread isn’t as bad as they say it is, or the tests are being faked, stuff like that. So yeah, for me, I’m used to having those conversations at this point, but it of course is a very surprising and very devastating thing for patients and their family members to have to confront.”
Letter from the Bethesda Hospital
As a medical community here in Steinbach we are deeply concerned about the COVID-19 situation in our area.We know we are presently among the hardest hit in Canada, and we envision things getting even worse.
As a medical community here in Steinbach we are deeply concerned about the COVID-19 situation in our area.We know we are presently among the hardest hit in Canada, and we envision things getting even worse.
The situation at Bethesda Hospital is dire. As we write this there is an overflowing COVID-19 ward and our Emergency is straining under unsustainable numbers of critically ill COVID-19 patients. Many patients have been transferred to ICU in Winnipeg. Some have died. This is in addition to the ongoing care of PCH residents, cancer, surgical and obstetrical patients and other admissions for medical illnesses.
Our human resources are being stretched to the limit. On the medical floor of Bethesda up to half the nursing staff have at some point in time been unable to work because they have tested positive for COVID-19 or have been a close contact. Countless other support staff and health care workers have been affected. As a medical community, trying to do our best, we know more will die and we are reeling.
We cannot rely solely on the government or the local health care providers to solve this healthcare crisis. Community support is critical as we continue this daunting task. We need to stay focused not just on headlines but on the individual lives that are impacted.
We need this community, our community, to take public health guidelines seriously. We need people to stay home when ill, even if symptoms are mild. We need to reduce social contacts to household members and we especially need to accept the necessity of wearing masks.
Following public health guidelines is not a statement against freedom or faith, nor does it align science against faith. Following public health guidelines should be the partnership of an active faith community with an active medical community. We are calling on all of our citizens. We especially value the leadership of the faith community as we love our neighbours by caring for the most vulnerable in our midst.
We are asking that our patients and our fellow citizens accept a lesser amount of hardship now to avoid what could be unimaginable hardship in the future. We can change the course of this pandemic, but it will take community support. It will take a healthy medical community and it will take an acceptance of and an adherence to public health guidelines.
This is not a time for fear, blame or indifference. This is a time for us to act together.
Thank you for your partnership.
Dr Jessica Allen, Dr Jennifer Anderson, Dr Alicia Barnard, Dr Jayson Barkman, Dr Cal Bergen, Dr Erica Blad, Dr Harold Booy, Dr Karen Bullock Pries, Dr Matthieu Cooney, Dr Ryan Dale, Dr James Denis, Dr Chris Dubiel, Dr Aaron Dubyna, Dr Mark Duerksen, Dr Gordon Dyck, Dr Neala Dyck, Dr Daniel Fama, Dr Paul Foster, Dr Paul Galessiere, Dr Sule Garba, Dr Tesfay Ghebray, Dr Remy-Martin Gratton, Dr Steven Gray, Dr Lindsay Guenther, Dr Tim Hiebert, Dr Holly Hurst, Dr Mark Hoff, Dr Dan Ilchyna, Dr David Janz, Dr Gary Jawanda, Dr Wilfried Kaethler, Dr Edward Keeper, Dr Samantha Kimelman, Dr Brady Kornelson, Dr Curtis Krahn, Dr Karen Kwok, Dr Greg Longbottom, Dr James Lytwyn, Dr Aaron MacAuley, Dr Christo Minnaar, Dr Lionel Mokate, Dr Brady Murphy, Dr Tai Nguyen, Dr Dennis Paige, Dr Brittany Penner, Dr Nicole Porath, Dr Luzelle Pretorius, Dr Jennifer Preun, Dr Carmel Razzaghi, Dr Adrian Rozbacher, Dr Darren Reimer, Dr Monty Singh, Dr Myron Thiessen, Dr Alexa Toop, Dr Karen Toews, Dr Hang Trinh, Dr Mark Vendremelli, Dr Ray Warkentin, Dr Hillary Widdifield, Dr Eric Xu
On Nov. 13, a day before more than 100 people held an anti-mask rally in a Steinbach park, Foster tested positive for COVID-19.
He’s one of 60 doctors who signed an open letter this week to warn “the situation at Bethesda Hospital is dire.” Since then, surgical staff at the hospital has been reassigned to work in the emergency department. Other staff from surrounding health centres in the Southern Health region have been pitching in as well, Shared Health chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa said Wednesday.
She said the volume at the Steinbach ER has been more stable in the past couple of days — this after nurses spoke out about a surge in emergency room patients that led to some people being triaged in their cars last week.
“The situation continues to be challenging, but they are managing locally and whenever possible, whenever they need clinical teams and other facilities throughout the province, we’ll help out and support as required,” Siragusa said Wednesday.
The Bethesda hospital, which serves Steinbach and surrounding communities, doesn’t have an intensive-care unit, nor does it have staff or appropriate space to put patients on ventilators. Siragusa said the emergency waiting room is being rearranged to separate suspected COVID-19 patients from other patients.
As of Wednesday, 34 people had died of COVID-19 in the Southern Health region. The area has some of the highest virus transmission rates and a 14.2 per cent test positivity rate. Ninety-three new cases were announced on Wednesday.
“What’s happening in Steinbach isn’t necessarily reflective of what’s happening in all the emergency departments across the province, so we’ll have to see if that was a blip or if that is an ongoing trend that we’re going to have to manage longer term,” she said.
The letter by the Steinbach doctors urged the community, and its faith groups, to support public-health measures and wear masks to reduce the spread of the virus.
“As we write this there is an overflowing COVID-19 ward and our emergency (department) is straining under unsustainable numbers of critically ill COVID-19 patients. Many patients have been transferred to ICU in Winnipeg. Some have died,” the letter stated.
Only one doctor staffs Steinbach’s COVID-19 ward on a weeklong rotation. Earlier this month, there were 20 beds in the unit, but more space was expected to be added in recent days.
Foster said he treated about 18 patients during his rotation from Nov. 2 to Nov. 9 and had roughly 100 face-to-face encounters with COVID-positive patients before he started getting symptoms.
Although the 31-year-old doctor is relatively healthy and has a mild case of the virus, he said it still feels worse than the worst case of the flu he’s had.
“It’s really awful and I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. And I say that as someone who has been more on the lucky end of the spectrum,” Foster said.
Even as a relatively new doctor with experience working in Winnipeg intensive care units during flu season, Foster said treating COVID-19 patients is unlike anything he has experienced.
Flu season “was just a totally different ball game,” he said. “Even with the regular influenza, we were stretched to our limits at that point, so I can’t imagine what they’re going through now with COVID, plus all the regular seasonal viruses.”
katie.may@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @thatkatiemay
Katie May is a multimedia producer for the Free Press.
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