Chaos in the ICU: A COVID-19 Crisis

Note: This episode contains strong language.

More than a month since the onset of the coronavirus crisis, the majority of patients — some of whom are doctors themselves — in Brooklyn Hospital Center’s critical care unit have Covid-19. With permission from staff, patients and their families, we shadowed one doctor for a day to get a sense of what it is like on the front lines of the pandemic.

Guest: Sheri Fink, a correspondent for The New York Times covering public health, who spoke with Dr. Josh Rosenberg and his colleagues at Brooklyn Hospital Center’s intensive care unit.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• Test kits and protective gear have been in short supply, doctors are falling sick, and every day gets more difficult. But the staff at Brooklyn Hospital Center keeps showing up.
• On their shifts, medical workers throughout the hospital face unrelenting chaos. At one point while our reporter shadowed, three “codes” — emergency interventions when someone is on the brink of death — occurred at once.

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