Melbourne coronavirus: Inside a COVID-19 intensive care unit - NEWS.com.au

Harrowing footage has been shared of Melbourne’s coronavirus frontline as hospital staff open up about the “distressing” reality of working in an intensive care unit.

ABC’s 7.30 filmed inside three of Melbourne’s ICU wards where doctors and nurses are working around the clock to save as many COVID-19 patients as possible.

One in 10 of Victoria’s ICU patients have coronavirus. Footscray Hospital has six patients hospitalised with COVID-19, with two in ICU.

One of the ICU patients there is grandfather Vishwa Nathan Nair, who has been in the ward for the past two weeks.

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His son Abhi, who also has coronavirus and is isolating at home, told the program he was struggling to come to turns with the fact his dad could die.

“I cannot imagine my mum having a life without him. I cannot imagine a life where I don‘t have dad around,” he said.

“I’ve had the talk a couple of times, but I have sort of tried to skip over it. It’s going to be heartbreaking.”

In ICU family members aren’t allowed to be by their loved ones’ sides when they die. Instead a nurse will stay with a patient and do video calls with their family.

Footscray Hospital ICU physician Dr Forbes McGain told 7.30 Victoria’s second wave had been “more concerning” because of the amount of community transmission.

“Our intensive care unit is filling up fast. It‘s quite distressing actually,” he said.

“We lost a patient the other day that we palliated. That’s really distressing to see, patients dying because of this.”

Dr McGain, who is working 12 hour shifts, said things were “particularly hard” for nurses.

“I feel for them, because they‘re the most exposed to the patients and trying to do all the good care that they can, but knowing that they’re at higher risk,” he said.

“And then you go home and you just hope that the family doesn’t get COVID from you.”

‘BIT OF A SHOCK’

Another in ICU is Kaillee Dyke, who is pregnant with twins and on a ventilator at Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Her partner Chris Lassig shared her story on Facebook earlier this week, revealing they had both been diagnosed with coronavirus and she is slowly making progress.

“For those who haven’t heard the news, this post may be a bit of a shock,” Mr Lassig wrote.

“Kaillee and I have both had COVID-19, and while I’ve fully recovered she is still very sick.”

He shared a video of Ms Dyke taken last Saturday at the couple’s home. It showed her struggling to breathe.

“Shortly after recording it though, she was taken in an ambulance to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where they put her on oxygen in intensive care.

“She’s been there a week now, on a ventilator and sedated so she’s unaware of what’s going on. But she’s slowly making progress, breathing more and more by herself with the machine only providing back-up.

“It’s now a matter of waiting until her lungs have healed enough to work on their own. The doctors say with COVID-19 it’s very hard to predict, but hopefully it’ll be soon.”

Mr Lassig shared a message from Ms Dyke about the need to wear a mask, revealing the couple had spoken about the issue before she got sick.

“If the government is going to say to wear masks, then just do it. They’re not overreacting with the measures that they’ve put in place, they’re clearly there for a reason. And … anybody can get it.”

ONE IN 10 IN ICU HAVE COVID-19

Australia‘s deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth revealed one in 10 of Victoria’s intensive care unit patients currently have coronavirus.

Of Victoria’s 5942 coronavirus cases, 127 patients are currently in hospital, and of those 31 are in intensive care.

Among those in ICU two are aged in their 30s and are relying on the help of ventilators, Dr Coatsworth told reporters today.

“We know that COVID-19 can affect all ages and it can affect all ages with severe disease,” he said.

“The issue is the proportion of people who get disease at varying age groups and it‘s a reality that the older someone gets, the more likely they are to get severe disease.

“It‘s not to exempt anyone from the possibility of severe COVID-19 disease and the fact that we’ve got two people in their 30s … Assuming that they could well be healthy, it’s a real wake-up call for people who are in their 20s or 30s.

“This virus will not discriminate and potentially you could become very unwell, critically unwell, life-threateningly unwell.”

But Dr Coatsworth said the statistic “is great news for those who require intensive care for severe COVID disease”.

“It’s also, at least in part, one of the reasons why our results out of intensive care are so good compared to the rest of the world, because people can access care for COVID-19 as and when they need it to the point of getting ventilated and cared for,” he said.

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2020-07-20 12:11:56Z
CBMiqQFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9saWZlc3R5bGUvaGVhbHRoL2hlYWx0aC1wcm9ibGVtcy9jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy1hdXN0cmFsaWEtaW5zaWRlLWEtbWVsYm91cm5lLWNvdmlkMTktaW50ZW5zaXZlLWNhcmUtdW5pdC9uZXdzLXN0b3J5LzRlYTE4Mzc0YTBmNGQzY2IxOTM1NjJiOGJlOTRjN2Nm0gGpAWh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLm5ld3MuY29tLmF1L2xpZmVzdHlsZS9oZWFsdGgvaGVhbHRoLXByb2JsZW1zL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWF1c3RyYWxpYS1pbnNpZGUtYS1tZWxib3VybmUtY292aWQxOS1pbnRlbnNpdmUtY2FyZS11bml0L25ld3Mtc3RvcnkvNGVhMTgzNzRhMGY0ZDNjYjE5MzU2MmI4YmU5NGM3Y2Y

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