W5: Inside a COVID-19 intensive care unit

[Music] CTV's w5 life-saving care of mid the pandemic you don't know what happens with these patients undergoing a life support because we don't know if they'll ever get on people were essentially asleep for weeks i own my life to them i don't want to take this back to my family i don't want to fair to anyone else we've had colleagues lose their lives i know for sure that the world that left behind dead and gun jailed for life and trying to come home you can't just put an 18 year old in jail for life we only want our son's close enough to be able to see them i wanted to be able to come home CTV's w5 with Avery Haynes sandy Renaldo and Lisa Laflamme here is Avery Haynes welcome to a special edition of w5 this is the one place where no one wants to end up the Cova intensive care unit wearing a mask is now mandatory in this hospital and especially here where every single patient is connected to a ventilator the toll of fighting this disease is heroin not only for the patients who have it but also for the medical teams who are trying to save them [Music] the silence is eerie the patients here don't speak they are heavily sedated and medically paralyzed inside negative pressure rooms no sounds of visiting families just a steady beeping of machines doing what the patient's can no longer do breathe that silence is pierced by the dreaded code blue someone's heart has stopped the Koba team grabs the crash cart and deploys to another ward of the hospital code Blues are what this team is trained for kovat 19 is all new in health care during köppen we are building an airplane while we're flying so you got a good mean still tacky he's febrile dr. Barry Nathanson has been doing rounds for 25 years in the ICU at South Lake Regional Health Center in Newmarket north of Toronto he and his team are learning on the job how to treat those most ravaged by the mysterious virus what difficult is this for you to be dealing with this with so much unknown day in and day out we know that the mortality in kovat is high we're learning that it may be higher even and then we feared it's not easy work but it is powerful and it it does lead to emotions and there are tears the code blue has been dealt with and now it's a vente farming cos it's not showing any innovation a very young COBIT patient on the other side of the glass has stopped breathing even with a ventilator [Music] which means full protection is needed to go in and investigate does she stopped breathing for time there the alarms went on now I see if she's coughing yeah the respiratory therapist suctions and anxiously gestures for her to breathe dr. Nathanson watches over as yet another crisis is averted good job daddy and now he can begin his rounds okay get a sense of how he tolerates having a reduced level of sedation to see if there's any room to maneuver at all after almost a month on this machinery he's been going back and forth yeah I don't want to keep on paralyzing him and we kind of skating in an unhappy territory and we're not making any progress either early before kovat the icy you might have the odd patient on a ventilator for a few short days but COBIT patients are hooked up on the life-support for weeks given that we're well into ventilation 25 days or so we might be able to get her tricked so he's not anywhere near where we thought he would be today right the expectation yesterday when we intubated him was that this morning we be able to reduce the sedation do a sedation vacation and get him excavated precipitously and he's nowhere close tonight so you're good I'm gonna move on very good let's keep going we made a promise to the hospital not to identify any of the patients here in the ICU but looking into the rooms I can tell you that it's disturbing to see just how young the people are in this room a woman in her early 30s and in fact on this day there's no one in this unit over the age of 61 been a huge surprise we were expecting elderly people to fit a certain pattern and it's been very surprising and it's been very difficult to realize over time that on average these folks are much younger than we'd expected it's incredibly difficult to look in and see such a young face it is difficult and yeah there are cases that make me we'll see that you know that could be me or mine or someone close to me that's never far away hope it doesn't really care who you are it just cares about replicating Edie Anderson is a respiratory therapist why do they call what you do here one of the most dangerous rules for Kovac treatment we basically have our face right beside the endotracheal tube which is connected to their lungs if they were to cough all of that will come up in our face also when we're doing the proning they're connected to the life-support or the ventilators we call it if that circuit disconnects it's just gonna showers with all of that spray which puts us a high high risk of getting cold but kroning is when patients are flipped into different positions a last-ditch attempt to get more oxygen when the respirator even at 100% isn't enough it's been that tough test case for you toughest for me was my first time recently withdrawing care I was a young mother with a young child at home an infant at home and so that that had hurt yeah previously healthy and she ended up [Music] succumbing to her illness and the family wanted to withdraw so we withdrew care it can't take at all and it's never easy but it's part of our job after weeks on the front line of the war on kovat Edie is suffering I actually had to take myself to emerge one day because the anxiety was giving me chest pain there's the fear because I don't want to take this back to my family I don't want to hurt anyone else a lot of family and friends are contacting us oh sorry coworkers we're saying we love you yeah give me two seconds sorry normally I'm good with this but is it just that it's just it's overwhelming to take to the top it's like so stressful just I already have a stressful job and then additionally to it it's heartbreaking you know you don't know what happens with these patients when they're going a life support because we don't know if they'll ever get off so Patricia spoke to the family and we are going to choose with childcare it's anybody close enough to come in or miss any milk stuff just not having family here is the saddest thing of all time and again families are making the tough decision to end life support after weeks without improvement just a few rooms down another decision is made to turn the machines off what's this like for you and the team this is a particularly powerful and poignant loss because he's been he's been in our family here in our home here for a month and we have we've given ourselves to him we've done everything we can possibly do for him it will be intensely tensely sad and we'll move on behind that curtain a once healthy man in his early 60s has lost his battle against the virus one of our very first patients and we have even though he's been on the machinery and unconscious we form a bond with the people and we have a vision I have a vision of what he was before this and my vision my goal was to get him back to that that's what that's what we did it became pretty clear gradually over time that that wasn't going to be achievable and so the team is on to the victories Julianne kiwanis was the very first person this team had to intubate when the kovat ICU ward first opened just 39 years old a mother of four year old twins kovat stole her ability to breathe and I remember looking at Julie right in the eyes and I remember seeing that fear and we didn't know if she was going to see her family again she didn't know if she was going to see her family again or wake up and come off the machine the numbers were very unfavorable but we knew what we had to do unfavorable because here only half the ventilated patients have survived Julian's spent two weeks on the ventilator your skin and then this hi I'm standing near the after by how many days Julianne made a vow I will fight for my children I fought my night freedom with such little good news from the ICU the entire Hospital lined the hallways to cheer just even watch her dislike walk out of the hospital is like absolutely incredible as Julianne was finally reunited with her husband and turns her children were gonna get their mum back her husband was gonna get his spouse back it's one thing to put your life in your health and your well-being on the line for someone when you have confidence I get that they're gonna get well but it didn't help not knowing if we were going to be doing all that to no avail so once we saw that it just got it with wind in our sails [Applause] [Music] now learning on a job aren't you completely staying ahead of a deadly disease our greatest fear is that people will no longer abide by these public health directors when w5 continues [Music] day break at the South Lake Regional Health Center in Newmarket Ontario less than an hour north of Toronto dr. Barry Nathanson is about to start another 12-hour shift inside the Cova intensive care unit and so the events are kind of stuck and we're waiting for her was when her daughter was on the phone she actually tracked her head and her eyes towards a telephone that UPS on Friday as dr. Nathanson does his rounds there is rarely good news and often his days are filled with phone calls gently telling families to prepare for the worst and for those who do survive little is known about the long-term effects of having the disease and of being sedated and medically paralyzed for so long for Julie Ann Kiwanis who didn't know if she would ever see her children again the recovery has been slow Julianne you've been home from the hospital for three weeks now what has your recovery been like physically it's it's challenging in a way that I cannot do the things that I normally do my my arm is with my left I was really weak I'm still limping I do have a lot of memory loss hanging believe it's the effect of via the drugs but it's the emotional impact that is the hardest to deal with as she was coming off the heavy sedation Julianne had vivid hallucinations that her children were dead it's hunting me it's hunting every time like there's no day that I don't ask my husband like is this real a man at the trimming I'm really alive I'm here right I always sleep with the lights on because I'm scared I'm scared I'm scared to be alone but I asked my husband to to sleep beside me and to check every time if I'm really or not it's a journey it's a it's a process but what is with you today okay Jen Watson is a physical therapist who works in the ICU she helped Julianne regain her physical strength after coming off the ventilator here she's moving the muscles of an unconscious woman who's been on life support for six weeks side to side then we're gonna take this wrist we're gonna go up cross so we go into the room then we lift them up into the chair in position them there and do bad exercises as well some good work you're doing all of this though with people who are not conscious yeah sometimes they are sedated and that's the tricky bit because we have to find that nice fine line between when they are sedated and to be able to do things like basic stuff like squeeze your hand and blink on command or Sanaa just and no Leslie Depot is a nurse who is intimately involved in post ventilator care and says it's not just getting the muscles moving again waking up from the kovat nightmare can be traumatizing these people have been on an unexceptional amount of sedation sometimes further medications required to paralyze their body so that the machine can actually do what it needs to do people were essentially asleep for weeks you know for some people they wake up and are just finding out that this is what's happened to them and where are their families there's a ton of reorientation lots of going in there and reminding them you're totally safe it's April it's not March anymore you know there's a lot of that most of the kovat patients on this ward spend at least three weeks on a ventilator this isn't normally something we'd have go on for that long but we just know these patients are needing it longer than than other conditions might have the long-term complications from being on event later being on those paralytic drugs we just don't often see people that are vented for that long on that much sedation because this is all brand-new so long-term how are these patients recovering so it would be a great thing to go back in six months and we'll have hopefully some more data and in a year and in five years and in ten years but it's I think it's too soon to tell because it's an anomaly up until this point to have somebody under those under those circumstances for that long what do you have to say to the nurses and doctors and respiratory therapists and physiotherapists who saved your life well I wouldn't be here without that I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart for taking care of me like I owe my life to them and I wouldn't be with my kids without your love and care for us so thank you I love you guys I love you there is so much still to learn about how to treat this disease and doctors are also noticing that some people are coming in without the typical symptoms of dry cough fever and headache kind of learning on a job aren't you completely dr. Stephanie C works on the COBIT medicine ward treating patients who weren't sick enough for the ICU is there something that you at least expect that via coded positive and they come in with a different presentation completely and then by chance you find out that they're positive there been a few that with again kind of neurological symptoms or just generalized weakness one of her patients an 84 year old man came in with signs of a stroke so we weren't expecting kovat whatsoever more blurry vision some dizziness weakness and he didn't have any typical symptoms that you expect how was he doing now perfect he's doing great and so today after seven days in hospital Leonard Johnson who has never before been away from his wife of 60 years is going home were you scared this past week Leonard you got a disease that everyone's talking I was terrified but it seems as though you've done really well with this right oh yes yes overall I've come o pretty good yeah compared to others I'm very fortunate South Lake Hospital has not seen the much-feared surge instead it's been a steady and never-ending wave of new patients they have enough ventilators you should have a napkin they're closely monitoring their supply of personal protective equipment and they've also set up these special coated tents just in case [Music] the stress though extends from the front lines to the CEO of the hospital Arden Krystal you know there was a scene that I witnessed in the ICU and it was a man that they were just about to intubate and he was conscious and I looked at him through through the glass and the fear in his eyes literally I had to turn away and I had to I had to leave because I it made me so emotional because I could think about I could see what he was thinking he was thinking am I going to wake up and I can only imagine what that feels like it seems as though that there could be a breaking point for the staff especially in the ICU how do you make sure that they don't reach that breaking point we have a mental health and wellness team that people can just call up and see immediately if they feel stressed and we go around and we round and we ask people how they're doing they've also started doing this [Music] a stress busting dance party every morning at 11:00 all of the normal activities that we would do to help reduce our stress you know get to the gym and exercise see our friends and family all those things are not possible and so to be able to have some fun with your work family is a little bit of a replacement back in the intensive care unit which Lyon dr. Nathanson has a call from a nearby hospital what's happened all I can tell you is we will make it happen but I got to figure out how but you know about a patient from another hospital coming I know that they are having a struggle and they were asking for some help and Calum is gonna get back to me they're in surgeon they need help so we need to take somebody okay with some empty beds here they can help out hospitals in the area have been trading off patients when one gets overwhelmed if the patient is Kovac partners there is no way of knowing when this will end and the team here is worried about what happens next what's your concern if things open up too soon as it relates to what could happen in here our greatest fear is that we would open up our society too early and therefore risk a second wait we're relying on the people who throw accolades and honors at us that doesn't really help if you really want to honor health care workers then follow public health directives and recommendations our lives will come back but we need to do it in a measured way slowly and carefully but if that surge does happen the team at South Lake Hospital is ready sixty doctors from other specialties have been retrained and will be redeployed here to the Cova ICU [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Official W5

Views: 521,671

Keywords: W5, COVID-19, coronavirus, hospital, ventilators, Southlake Regional Health Centre, intensive care, life and death, covid care, flatten the curve, doctors

Id: ZCTRpJAMyE0

Length: 22min 47sec (1367 seconds)

Published: Sat May 09 2020