The Grim Truth of COVID-19

In December, the Santa Barbara Independent put out an open invitation to health-care workers who deal with COVID-19 patients to tell us their stories. The following is the first of those stories.

Most medical narratives involve high drama with scenes out of Grey’s Anatomy or ER. But drama is not the narrative of this pandemic; the reality is much more grim. The narrative of this pandemic is overwhelmingly one of suffering — the suffering of those sickened by COVID-19 and their loved ones.

I am a Hospitalist at Cottage Hospital, a specialist in Internal Medicine primarily responsible for the management and care of hospitalized patients, and right now most of these patients are admitted for complications related to the novel coronavirus.