Belgrade anesthesiologist: People come with milder symptoms, fight for their life after half an hour

Photo: Tanjug/AP

"The coronavirus epidemic is much worse now than when it first started. We have more infected patients who show up with mild symptoms, and in half an hour they end up on ventilators, fighting for their lives! Medical workers are exhausted, they are collapsing from exhaustion, and it is so hot in hazmat suits now that we can barely breathe," says anesthesiology, resuscitation and intensive care specialist in the Clinical Center of Serbia (KCS), 34-year-old Doctor Ranko Trailovic.

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This brave man was first saving lives in the Clinic of Pulmonology of the KCS, and then he was recently transferred to help his colleagues in the KBC Bezanijska Kosa.

"Every shift spent in a Covid center is difficult. A patient's condition changes from minute to minute and someone goes from a good general condition very quickly to a ventilators and fights for their life! It's incredible what can suddenly appear in a patient and change the course of the disease in a minute. The fact that the youngest patient I treated on a respirator was only 20 years old confirms how terrible all this is. We step in when the lungs lose their function and when a serious clinical condition occurs," Doctor Trailovic begins his story for Kurir.

"Putting a patient on a ventilator is most difficult decision! You are constantly questioning what is the right time to connect to a ventilator in order to help a sick person. Over time, a person gets used to it, but the concern remains whether you have made the right decision. It all leaves a mark. When you lose someone. It is a human, but also a professional defeat for every doctor. Many people lost their lives in this epidemic, and it is especially difficult when a young person dies,"says Doctor Trailovic, and then recounts in a single breath what it's like to work in the "red zone."

"Now, in July, it is incomparably more physically demanding. Imagine that you are terribly thirsty, so feel free to multiply that feeling by 100. Well, that's how we feel. When it is 35 degrees outside, it is much higher in the IC room, in addition to all the devices and patients. Air conditioners are not used because they spread the virus, while hazmat suits are made of impermeable material. So, we're in a nylon bag. The amount of heat that the body produces is amazing. We are wet through to the skin, thirsty and can barely breathe," Doctor Trailovic describes the work in intensive care.

Asked how much the clinical picture of the infected has changed compared to April and May, when the epidemic began, he said:

"It is harder now for both the patients and the healthcare system. The clinical picture of the infected is more dangerous, because the virus develops faster, and the therapy works much more slowly. On the other hand, hospitals are full, medical workers are tired, so it's getting more complicated. There's physical exhaustion with constant effort and certainly stress, which is huge. We're not whining. It just is that way."

Doctor Ranko Trailovic also describes what it feels like when you successfully remove a patient from a ventilator.

"That feeling is in fact the engine that drives enthusiasm and it is a source of inspiration and strength to be doing such a demanding job. Of course, separating a patient from mechanical ventilation is also a complicated matter. When patients finally speak after many days, you can hear a variety of stories. Some don't remember anything, some think they dreamed it, and some remember everything. They are mostly filled with gratitude, they get attached to us, they trust us," Doctor Trailovic says proudly.

(Telegraf.rs)