“American medical schools are still predominantly white and wealthy,” she writes. Although Goldberg’s subjects seem to be the crème de la crème of the medical profession, she digresses liberally into the establishment’s shortcomings. For the most part, neither senior physicians nor new graduates had been trained to worry for their lives while caring for patients.” All struggled to establish trust while spending minimal time near patients and wearing bulky protective equipment that covered their faces. “Another challenge for the new doctors,” writes Goldberg, “was the pervasive fear of infection. However, early on, half of patients placed on a ventilator died. Entering through the respiratory tract, the virus attacks the lungs, often leading to pneumonia and respiratory failure so severe that patients require a ventilator. Readers who hear that Covid-19 kills only a small percentage of its victims, comparable to the flu, will be shocked at the horrific suffering that her young doctors witnessed. Not everyone stepped up, but the author offers appreciative profiles of those who did.
Medical schools teach essentials during the first three years the fourth is generally elective, so leaving early is an option, and all New York City medical schools asked for volunteers during the pandemic. New York Times journalist Goldberg sets her scene close to home at Bellevue Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center, both of which were already understaffed and overwhelmed in April 2020. A moving account of six medical students who graduated early in order to join the battle against Covid-19.
0 kommentar(er)
