What It’s Like Treating Coronavirus

We need to heed the lessons of the Italian experience

As an ICU doctor, I — along with my colleagues locally and around the country — are diligently working on planning the care of patients with COVID-19. What do we do when a patient comes to the hospital who is suspected to have COVID-19? What do we do if their heart stops? What do we do if there are more patients than the capacity of my ICU? We are, as best as we can, planning “on paper” and getting contingency plans in place so we are ready. I feel good about what we are doing.

Still, given that I haven’t — yet, at least — taken care of a patient with the disease, it is all still theory in my head. Thankfully, there are those who have taken care of these patients, and they are sharing their experience with fellow clinicians.

The Italians are in the midst of a heart-wrenching battle with COVID-19. JAMA published an article describing their experience. In a matter of days, the onslaught of patients quickly overwhelmed the capacity of ICUs in the Lombardy region in Northern Italy. They reported:

There was an immediate sharp increase in ICU admissions from day 1 to day 14. The increase was steady and consistent. Publicly available data indicate that ICU admissions (n = 556) represented 16% of all patients (n = 3420) who…