Last month we were introduced to Bill. Bill is a nurse manager, and has been on the frontlines fighting COVID-19. A story from his hospital changed our perspective on the fight for this virus and was deemed as one of the most important calls Elvis Duran has ever taken. The story went:
"Last Thursday, we had 7 patients in the emergency department that were all in critical care, they needed ventilators, but we only had one available critical care bed and basically it was myself and two other doctors that had to choose which one of these seven patients would get this critical care bed. Knowing that no matter what you choose, only one of those patients would get that critical care bed and knowing the other six were going to die, was really difficult," Bill shares fighting back tears. "How do you explain to six other families members 'I'm sorry that this one patient over year has a better shot of surviving than your loved one."
"Who am I to play God?" asks Bill, "Who am I to choose who lives and who dies. Knowing that I left work, I got to my car, and I just broke down." Bill continues his story to a speechless Elvis. Seeing this first hand, is just horrible and so Bill is begging our listeners and anyone that will listen to please stay home and stay quarantined. "It allows us to treat the maximum amount of people as possible." We hope Bill sharing this story will place it into perspective for people to understand.
Well Wednesday, May 6th, Bill called in again to give us an update on how he and his hospital are doing. "I can not thank you guys enough for everything you have put out there in regards for being safe and healthy," he continues to say his hospital is down to 50% capacity which is huge for them! He says, "Despite everything that was gong on i feel like our team has grown so close together. It’s beyond words and the dedication and the nurses that have been working long hours, the pay off has been immense. We’ve been discharging patients, but that doesn’t mean we get to be complacent." He finishes with Elvis saying, "Thank you for everything you have done for me personally, I can’t say thank you enough."
If you forgot the original conversation Elvis and Bill had together listen below.
Photo: Getty