Medical practitioners and essential workers work countless hours while the rest of the world quiets down and stays home to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading. Doctors and nurses are being praised for taking care of patients admitted due to COVID-19. Respiratory therapists are the unsung heroes in this battle.
Doctors and nurses acknowledge respiratory therapists as essential teammates during these trying times. Respiratory therapists are the ones in charge of intubating patients and managing their ventilators, which are usual activities in a hospital’s intensive care unit or ICU. According to Dr. Mark Hochberg MD, before the virus hit the whole world, hospitals and their ICUs are seldom packed. Now, facilities dedicated to treating COVID-19 patients are being built to lessen the load in hospitals.
While most doctors are knowledgeable in intubating a patient, the task is a respiratory therapist’s primary job. They intubate a person with a breathing tube and hook the tube to a ventilator. Experts in their area, respiratory therapists visit each critical care unit and assess a patient’s situation. Part of the job of respiratory therapists is to ensure a patient is breathing safely on the device. This task requires them to stay in a patient’s room for some time.
COVID-19 is aggressive, and close contact with patients puts a medical professional’s life in danger. Dr. Mark Hochberg MD shares that among all the medical professionals working hard to fight against the virus, respiratory therapists are the ones who are in most danger. They put their health on the line like other medical professionals, but they are not praised, if, at all, seen.
Dr. Mark Hochberg MD 