General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWell it eventually had to happen in my practice:
Since 1980, I have treated a family in my practice wherein the husband and father is a well-known local politician. He represented an area of the city that was extremely, Shall we say, caucasian-oriented. His politics were far right, his attitudes towards people of color were, and Ill be polite, questionable, and he was a giant Trump supporter. He lived and breathed all things Trump. Trump was the man who led him to the promised land and I know you all understand exactly what Im talking about. And I have to be circumspect here because this is a public figure and of course I am restrained by HIPAA from revealing who this is or discussing certain aspects in detail.
He was virulently anti-mask and anti-social distancing and anti-just about everything that you can imagine. As an aside, He and his whole family had a warm spot in his heart for me because I literally saved his 18 year-old sons life , but That is a story for another day. Well, guess who died from COVID-19? He had been somewhat compromised medically and succumbed very rapidly. Three days from initial symptoms to termination. He had been to a mask-less party at the New Jersey Shore, sickened appropriately thereafter and just gave out.
For the record, his wife and children whom Ive known my entire career have always been nothing but polite and gracious with me and interestingly, the only Jewish High Holiday card I received routinely from my patients in all these years is from this family. I once estimated that Ive lost approximately 11,000 people who are my active patients, and as a great writer once wrote every mans death diminishes me, but the rapidity with which this Mercilessly took this mans life was positively frightening. In a way, this is like a discount Herman Cain story.
It just goes to show that the virus doesnt care what you think or who your idol is.
Squinch
(52,360 posts)PCIntern
(26,744 posts)Squinch
(52,360 posts)patients she has lost despite her really heroic efforts.
I am so sorry to hear this. I can't imagine the toll that takes on you. I hope you are taking care of your own mental as well as physical health.
PCIntern
(26,744 posts)This place keeps me sane. Im not kidding.
Squinch
(52,360 posts)and in a very personal way.
I am in awe, for whatever that is worth.
yardwork
(63,747 posts)In my community, the large health systems are providing mental health resources and support for their providers and employees. Do you have any support or resources that you could access?
My heart goes out to you and all the providers on the front lines of this. I see the toll it is taking on all of you.
PM me if you would like more details. I will be glad to share the resources local to my area.
barbtries
(29,662 posts)we should all make a warm sheet with phone numbers and emails in case the russians invade again this election. DU is my virtual home.
Thank you for keep keeping on during this pandemic. None of us were trained for this.
GeoWilliam750
(2,538 posts)And very grateful for what you have done to heal the world one person at a time.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And
Thank you.
Ilsa
(62,173 posts)Still, you might feel better talking to a pro, or maybe meeting (virtually) with a group of other doctors asa support group.
A little further south of me, we just lost a fifteen year old.
PCIntern
(26,744 posts)Its part of the business of doing what I do. But thank you...
samnsara
(18,241 posts)..everything trump touches dies.
Im sorry for the loss of this man and the other people who made the wrong choice because of trump*
pwb
(12,156 posts)And they leave a awful stench behind for what?
PJMcK
(22,785 posts)This one illustrates a baffling feature of today's Luddites.
The science is unequivocal: Covid-19 is easily transmitted and can be fatal very quickly. If a patient survives, this virus can leave serious lasting effects.
Why is that so hard for some people to understand?
Thank you for the battles you fight. For what it's worth, you've earned my deepest respect.
mitch96
(14,567 posts)I've seen too many linger on a respirator or in a state of vegetation only to succumb later on down the road. Life is a balance and we can't appreciate the light if we don't experience the dark.
m
PCIntern
(26,744 posts)The way Some people talk about ventilators you would think that they were some benign Star Trek type breathing machine And all will be well by the end of the show, and Dr McCoy will just save them from a terrible fate. Not so fast, Abercrombie.
mitch96
(14,567 posts)Ventilator brain... Never the same again.. He was always off a bit after that. Previously he was sharp as a tack at 68. He just slowly went down the drain. Now was it just his time to get dementia? Or did the vent help it along... Double blind placebo controlled study.... but how do you placebo a vent experience???
m
catbyte
(35,625 posts)his blood sugar levels would go wildly out of whack no matter how tightly we monitored it. His blood sugar would soar into the 800-1200 range and then ketoacidosis would set in and off to the hospital we go. More often than not he'd have to be put on a ventilator for 2-3 days until they got his blood sugar under control. It was brutal every time. He developed vascular dementia 3-4 years before he died and I've often wondered if all those ventilator treatments had something to do with it.
surprisingly merciful for this bug.
mitch96
(14,567 posts)3Hotdogs
(13,305 posts)switched to virus care. During the first weeks, she reported, "No one has left the I.C.U., alive.
Stunning.
LittleGirl
(8,376 posts)If I get it, I want to go fast too, if its going to kill me.
RIP old man
BumRushDaShow
(140,663 posts)I think I know who you are talking about. Didn't realize he had died until I saw an article this morning.
Hadn't really heard his name in the news much lately but he used to be in the news ALL the damn time...for decades... and not for anything "good".
mnhtnbb
(31,933 posts)identifies who this likely is.
BumRushDaShow
(140,663 posts)having a subscription to the Philly Inquirer...
(but am trying to help PCIntern's attempt at "privacy" here...)
Marcuse
(7,975 posts)He was one of the most virulent homophobes in Philadelphia history and his open and abusive disdain for gays and people with AIDS led to one of the first unified takedowns of a politician by the collective force of the LGBT community.
[He] was also known for throwing the word faggot along with a punch, as he did in the 1979 incident with Street, calling him and Streets brother, Milton, then a state representative, the anti-gay slur.
Throughout his years in City Council, the popular working-class former boxer was known for his virulent homophobia. This led to a concentrated effort to defeat [him] in one of the first significant political actions of the Philadelphia gay community. A campaign to unseat [him] was launched by Pride Of Philadelphia Election Committee (POPEC), Philadelphias first LGBT political action committee (PAC).
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,671 posts)Hekate
(94,218 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)He was pretty old, but I am still surprised that he went that quickly. I especially don't understand elderly people who don't take precautions.
Kid Berwyn
(17,678 posts)The virus is insidious. So is the person most responsible for its spread in the United States, demented Donnie the NAZI, Unstable Moron and Putins Puppet.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,593 posts)to help protect us from complacency and carelessness with this horrible disease.
I think often of those emergency care doctors and nurses who have lost close friends and associates in their workplace to COVID-19, even after taking the best of safety precautions. I suffered substantial losses in the last year among my family and friends, but these folks must be in a constant state of mourning and fear of what's to come in the months ahead.
Stay safe and take good care of yourself........
AllaN01Bear
(22,874 posts)i have some of them in the apartment complex that i live and they feel immune from evrything, from the loss of their pension bennies to pos loss of ss , ssi , ssd and now this, " its fake , its not real, the list goes on and on.
malaise
(277,353 posts)but fools often die for wont of wisdom.
Martin Eden
(13,375 posts)Ultimately, it killed him.
Too bad it's killing so many others who did not do it to themselves.
UserNotFound
(109 posts)But, as you say, "...the virus doesn't care..." My chiropractor passed away 2 weeks ago from covid-19. He was much beloved and affectionately known as "Dr. Big Hands".
Anti-maskers are a strange bunch. My best friend of over 40 yrs calls them Branch Covidians. I wish I'd thought of that!
lindysalsagal
(22,297 posts)I'm keeping that. along with this DU gem:
"Did he catch The Hoax?"
niyad
(119,182 posts)Like all the others here, I have the deepest respect for you, and cannot even begin to imagine how you are holding up. Remember that your DU family is here for you.
I lost a friend to this plague last Sunday. I has learned only recently that he had turned trumpet, totally anti-mask. Even coming out of ICU the first time, he refused to take the disease seriously. He relapsed, back to ICU, and a vent. His daughter had to sign the papers to remove life support.i am still angry.
CaliforniaPeggy
(151,761 posts)niyad
(119,182 posts)First died in April.second one, recovering, from June. Now this.
I pray for all of us daily, and check on as many people as I can. Seems so little against the enormity of this horror.
Be safe and well.
PCIntern
(26,744 posts)It stinks.
appleannie1
(5,190 posts)Fine, if they are all so gung ho about dying, take your precious gun, load it and do yourself in without infecting others in the process. Other people CHOOSE to live and are trying to avoid the virus.
OMGWTF
(4,388 posts)mitch96
(14,567 posts)fuck 'em..... they are on their own...
m
jmowreader
(51,322 posts)I went to Carl's Jr yesterday for lunch. In the parking lot was a pickup truck just covered in anti-abortion bumper stickers. (The truck was an old rust bucket; I'm pretty sure he chose these stickers both for their message and for the exceptionally strong glue on them.) Out comes the driver wearing a shirt claiming it would violate his rights to wear a mask.
So...I can't tell you what to do but you can order around every woman in America? Gotcha.
Joinfortmill
(16,219 posts)nuxvomica
(12,830 posts)So I guess when Anna Freud articulated the concept of "identification with the aggressor", she wasn't describing just a phenomenon but an actual disease. As a health-care provider, it is probably especially sad for you to see the conditions that are not only preventable, but easily so. Wearing a mask outside the house is just so much easier than even regular brushing and flossing are. Peace to you and to his family.
Demovictory9
(33,498 posts)PoindexterOglethorpe
(26,493 posts)Not recently from Covid-19.
Roc2020
(1,694 posts)sorry for your loss. This virus is like a rabid hyena shredding lives and lots of people think they can still toy and play with it.
Larissa
(792 posts). . . for sharing. It's a serious lesson to be learned. We must learn it every day. It is baffling that some folks chose not to do so. This pandemic rages on in this country without any national "all hands on deck" effort to stop it. It's a very ominous sign that a state, such as Florida, is doctoring the infection and death rate numbers downward. It means that Covid-19 is out of control there.
Here are some of my shopworn maxims for sharing:
"I have never seen a virus in which the spectrum is so extreme. This disease goes from nothing to death."
~~ Dr. Anthony Fauci
From a New York City health commissioner: "We won't be able to move in front of this virus until we respect its power."
Twenty-five to forty-five percent of the totality of infected people likely are without symptoms. The key is to act as though everyone has it.
soldierant
(7,773 posts)Wawannabe
(6,254 posts)PoindexterOglethorpe
(26,493 posts)who has been willfully ignorant of this disease. Virulently anti-mask? I'm only sorry he died so quickly and easily. Or that he actually used precious medical resources during that short time.
Kacy
(32 posts)Its the second thought that counts.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)This has to be hard on you! Patients youve known for many years are like an extended family. I went to the same periodontist for a couple of decades. When I found out he had died I was inconsolable! I broke down in his office and couldnt stop crying. I had to go back to my car to cry my eyes out! It felt like someone in my family had died.
VA_Jill
(10,775 posts)and for his family. It's a mercy that he went quickly, anyway.
I don't understand these people who absolutely refute science and want to make it all political. I absolutely don't. There are plenty of them where I live. I try to stay as far away from them as I can when I do go out. The fact that we have a president who's an idiot about it doesn't help.
GoneOffShore
(17,578 posts)I'm sorry that you lost a patient. And out of respect for you, I shan't post his name here.
Reading his obit, it's obvious that along with the bad things he did, there was a lot of good there.
Unfortunately he was a dinosaur.
PCIntern
(26,744 posts)But the lessons need to be learned.
GoneOffShore
(17,578 posts)Humans - tough to figure out.
It's amazing that some people don't die of contradiction.
Is that a disease?
Illumination
(2,458 posts)went very quickly. Goes to show how serious C-19 is!
cayugafalls
(5,740 posts)We are just now learning about how this disease will impact us for the future.
We need stories like this to remind us to never forget that we are entering a new era when novel diseases are on the rise and will continue to attack the worlds populations as the density increases unabated.
Covid-19 is not the last pandemic.
Kacy
(32 posts)Look up Herman Cain.
Edit: Ah. The Godfathers Pizza guy. He went public opposing masks. Went to Tulsa Trump Rally. Came down with Covid-19. Died.
Hekate
(94,218 posts)Im glad DU keeps you sane I know I depend on it more than ever. When I read that Skinner was leaving I had a moment of actual panic until I read further.
Take care of yourself, now and always.
Javaman
(63,005 posts)No man is an island entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
John Donne
elleng
(135,525 posts)Be well.
Warpy
(113,065 posts)a moment of perplexity over the fact that he was so certain this was a Democratic hoax, how could it possibly be happening to him? Likely the course of the disease was so rapid that he didn't have time for that.
I've known a few far right patients who have been pleasant and appreciative. I've also had the misfortune of having a few real stinkers in the mix, especially the ones glued to televangelist TV. Even they have been a minority.
His family will need support. Rapid death is easier on the patient but the faster it is, the harder it is on those left behind.
And no, it does no good to anthropomorphize this virus. It exists only to find a cell and use the interior machinery to replicate itself and move on. It doesn't care about the body that cell is in. It is utterly impersonal.
mvd
(65,393 posts)At his age and with his condition, he should have been especially careful. Amazing ignorance. I actually had to look up who you are talking about. It said he turned Republican around when Trump occupied the WH. Even as a Democrat, he showed racism.
ZZenith
(4,301 posts)Thanks for your humanity, its really a great thing to witness.
LeftishBrit
(41,302 posts)How awful.
I don't really need to tell you this, but do stay safe: IIRC you're a dentist, so will have contact with people's mouths - please make sure you always have all the necessary PPE.
PCIntern
(26,744 posts)Dentists are arguably, with dental personnel, the highest risk occupation in the United States. I have no problem going to work and doing my job, and I just hope and pray every day that I and my coworkers and all the rest of us are safe and healthy at the end of that day.
When I began my practice, it was largely a geriatric practice, because thats who lived in Center city Philadelphia. Now of course, many thousands of young people have moved in and the town is just hopping and fully regenerated. Sometimes I go back and look at the appointment books from the early 1980s and think about all these great people who are now gone. It is very sobering especially since someday I And everyone else along side me, here and everywhere else in the world will be joining them eventually. The circle of life as it were.