The empty bed: Fighting Covid-19 from an ICU
Photo: Reuters
Nothing had prepared us for this.
I enter the transition zone to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the British hospital I work in. Here we go again , I think to myself. A Health Care Assistant (HCA) kindly offers to help me put on my full protective gear. It s heavy and suffocating. But it s there for a reason. Thanking her, I enter the ICU, putting on a brave face.
You must have a brave face. Because you are fighting the odds in here. You leave all your worries, fatigue and fear outside. It s a completely different picture inside. Bed after bed and ward after ward of patients in every direction. Doctors, nurses, HCAs, physiotherapists, pharmacists and even medical students can be seen running around, doing their part. Each patient is holding on for their lives with the help of ventilators and other artificial support. Screens bleep away with their various organ parameters. This is their last line of hope. Only when all
At least 222 frontline health and care workers have been identified after dying with coronavirus.
Through tributes from loved ones and confirmation through sources such as local NHS trusts and other authorities, the PA news agency has confirmed the names of health and social care workers who have died after contracting Covid-19 since March 11 2020.
This chronological list contains people who were working in roles shortly before their deaths where they were likely to come into contact with patients.
The figure is likely to be lower than the true number of workers who have died, as the names of some victims will not yet be in the public domain.
At the moment, it s receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
In the future, the Health Service Executive expects six different Covid-19 vaccines to be stored here.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the trickiest to handle. It has to be stored at ultra-low temperatures, between -70C and -90C.
The Citywest facility, used for the HSE’s National Cold Chain Service, has ten ultra-low temperature freezers for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, another five freezers for the Moderna vaccines, which are stored at -20C, and large freezers with temperatures between -2C and -8C, for any future vaccines.
From arrival in the warehouse to handover at the vaccination site the vaccines are temperature checked and tracked by GPS.
22 Jan 2021 / 07:23 H.
IPOH, Jan 21: The man who died after falling from the third floor of the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital (HRPB) here yesterday was a Health Care Assistant and not a medical assistant.
HRPB director Dr Abdul Malek Osman said the deceased, G. Rama Nair, 39, was a very friendly staff member and did not show any signs of having any problems while carrying out his duties.
“We hope all parties will respect the family’s privacy and avoid making any speculations as well as not spread any inaccurate or fake information,” he said in a statement today.
Dr Abdul Malek, who promised that the hospital would give its cooperation to the police in their investigation, said the deceased had worked from 8 am to 5 pm yesterday.
January 22, 2021
Having been in the oil and gas industry for more than 30 years, Tan Bee Lian witnessed several rounds of retrenchments in the companies she previously worked in.
Every time she escaped unscathed, she thought to herself: So lucky that I was not affected.
Then Covid-19 hit, affecting jobs and economies around the world.
Right before the circuit breaker ended on June 19, Bee Lian then an instrument engineer in an oil and gas consultant and construction company was told she was retrenched through a Skype meeting with her boss.
She was 53 years old and had to leave the only industry she had ever worked in since leaving school.