{"id":8798,"date":"2020-05-13T19:05:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T19:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2021\/01\/19\/working-at-the-medical-front\/"},"modified":"2022-09-07T15:33:21","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T19:33:21","slug":"working-at-the-medical-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/working-at-the-medical-front\/","title":{"rendered":"Working at the medical front"},"content":{"rendered":"

In April, Ben Daxon \u201905 had jumped fully into the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, where life had been upended, when he wrote a hopeful post on his Facebook page:<\/p>\n

\u201cDay one is done. I\u2019ll be on nights (most likely) for the rest of my time.<\/em><\/p>\n

Every time someone is extubated (when a breathing tube is taken out and patients breathe without a ventilator) the hospital plays the Rocky theme song over the entire speaker system. It\u2019s encouraging. It\u2019s fun. It lets everyone know of a “win.\u201d Unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t happen much.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sad place. The sense of futility is everywhere. Patients are alone and not able to see their family, and vice versa. Most know there is a good chance they will die; at least, if they\u2019re awake enough to realize what\u2019s going on. The health care workers also know their patients will likely die. But we try. We must. Because every now and then we get to hear the Rocky theme song.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/a>

Ben Daxon ’05, a critical care medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic, during a shift at a New York City hospital where he volunteered to work at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p><\/div>\n

Daxon, an Army veteran and staff physician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, specializes in critical care and anesthesia. When COVID-19 began its path across the world, Daxon found out that his friend, fellow Furman alumnus and fellow physician, Jonathan Davis \u201905, had volunteered to help in New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, I was working in what we call a tele-ICU,\u201d Daxon says, referring to a Mayo Clinic service that provides expertise to smaller hospitals. Davis, an emergency department physician in Augusta, Georgia, called in from New York, where he had responded to a plea for volunteers.<\/p>\n

Both doctors had observed the impact from the novel coronavirus 2 on hospitals across the country as visits and procedures were postponed and even emergency care needs reduced, even as some facilities were overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. But the situation in America’s largest city was different.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe questions he had, the stories he had, the situation he described was far worse than anything I had read in the news. I became acutely aware of how ignorant I was that things had gotten so bad in New York City,\u201d Daxon says.<\/p>\n

Davis says his decision to voluntarily work on the front line of the pandemic \u201cfelt pretty natural,\u201d like someone \u201cwho enlists in the Army when he sees his country going off to fight in a war that he believes in. I\u2019ve been trained to ease suffering and heal disease as best as I am able, or to contribute to that, and I see a lot of patients suffering and dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says his faith as a Christian compels him \u201cto no longer live for myself,\u201d and the sacrifices his wife Nicole \u201905 makes to care for their five children are critical to his ability to volunteer.<\/p>\n

Before his first night shift in a week of service, Davis was given a tour of the New York. He saw dedicated health care providers who were exhausted and overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when it hit me,\u201d he says. \u201cI walked through the emergency room and there were ventilated patients all around.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Davis plunged into the unknown of serving in a pandemic hot spot, his stories stirred Daxon. He and his wife Amanda, who have three children, talked about the decision to go for a day or two.<\/p>\n

\u201cForty years from now, when our grandkids say, \u2018Hey, Grandpa, you were a critical care doc at Mayo, what did you do during COVID-19?\u2019 I don\u2019t want to say I sat around and watched my friends get furloughed,\u201d Daxon says. He and his wife felt they could handle the stress because of his deployment while in the military. \u201cWe knew what it meant for me to leave. I was in a unique position to go out there and help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Davis and Daxon spent about a week in New York City, but at different hospitals. We\u2019re not naming either location out of respect for the staff and patients. Daxon found catharsis in writing about his experience on Facebook, posting each day about some of his experiences. He says Davis had prepared him to see a virus that was wreaking havoc on its victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese patients were almost uniformly, horrifically sick, needing tons of interventions, tons of medicines,\u201d Daxon says. \u201cThe pathology was end stage. It was a lot to take in. Usually, when you run an ICU, you\u2019ve got a smattering of patients all across the spectrum \u2013 some really sick, some not so sick, some you know are going to be there for a week or two, some you\u2019re going to discharge the next day.\u201d In New York, he says, \u201ceverybody was on death\u2019s door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone who wants to help can do something, Daxon says. Health care professionals of any specialty can be useful in hot spots. Non-medical professionals can help by practicing social distancing to flatten the curve and to, as he hashtags his Facebook posts, #holdtheline. He encourages friends and family to be there for nurses, doctors and others who will need help processing their own trauma once this is over.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of death and a lot of suffering,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to slog away at the task before you and not have it take its toll. In the coming weeks and months, for non-medical people, be ready to give the support, the crying shoulder and whatever needs to be for those who have been in the thick of the darkness, struggling to figure out what to make of all their emotions and experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daxon shared this post after his first night shift, exhausted but still hopeful:<\/p>\n

\u201cNight one is in the books.<\/em><\/p>\n

By the morning no one was extubated, but everyone was the same or better than when I came on. That\u2019s a win in any intensivist\u2019s book. I also got to work with a group of dedicated and compassionate people. Even though everyone on my team was out of their usual role, exhausted, and stressed, I never once heard a complaint or saw anything less than full devotion to the patients. And just for perspective, the ER doc has literally worked the last 19 nights in a row. She has seen a lot of death and dysfunction. I don\u2019t know how she still keeps her head about her. It\u2019s really, really impressive.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hopefully we keep the wins coming, but I\u2019m expecting some loses soon. For now: I\u2019m off to shower, disinfect my room, replenish my Purell supplies, and take my nap. I start again at 7:00.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you all for your prayers and encouraging words. And if you want to help: get a charity started to fund a food delivery truck to a hospital. I can\u2019t tell you how much it helps to have a good, surprise meal.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ever forward. Ever hopeful.\u00a0#Holdtheline\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Words<\/a>

Words of inspiration in the New York City hospital where Ben Daxon ’05 worked during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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