For @latimesopinion, Dr. Halleh Akbarnia wrote about a COVID-19 patient who changed her life: “Whether he knows it or not, he will be my silent warrior and guide as I take care of every patient, COVID or not."

Here's the story. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
Op-Ed: I've been an ER doctor for 20 years. I'll never forget this COVID-19 patient

He was a very sick man when he arrived in our emergency room, but he was more worried about the hospital staff than about himself.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
Dr. Halleh Akbarnia has worked as an ER physician for almost 20 years.

"I’m used to the daily grind of heart attacks, gunshots, strokes, flu, traumas and more," she writes. "Yet nothing has made me feel about my work the way this pandemic has." https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
Op-Ed: I've been an ER doctor for 20 years. I'll never forget this COVID-19 patient

He was a very sick man when he arrived in our emergency room, but he was more worried about the hospital staff than about himself.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
She writes that she met her patient, Mr. C., on her first real “pandemic” shift, the first day her Chicago-area medical center began seeing the surge of COVID-19 cases.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
"Gasping for breath, he kept asking if we needed anything, and reassuring us that it would all be OK.

He told us he was a teacher but he was learning so much from us, and he told us how he respected what we were doing.

I felt the same way about him." https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
Op-Ed: I've been an ER doctor for 20 years. I'll never forget this COVID-19 patient

He was a very sick man when he arrived in our emergency room, but he was more worried about the hospital staff than about himself.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
Dr. Akbarnia explains they had to decide how long they would try to let him work through his low oxygen state before intubating him — a procedure that involves putting a tube into his lungs to keep him breathing — but his saturation levels kept falling.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
"He told us he didn’t feel great about this, but then added, 'Doc, I trust you and am putting myself in your hands.'

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
It was not an easy intubation, Dr. Akbarnia writes.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
It was not an easy intubation, Dr. Akbarnia writes. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
It was not an easy intubation, Dr. Akbarnia writes. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
For the next 12 days, Dr. Akbarnia writes that she watched his progress, knowing the grim statistics, and how sick he was. But that after more than a week on the ventilator, he was successfully extubated. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
Op-Ed: I've been an ER doctor for 20 years. I'll never forget this COVID-19 patient

He was a very sick man when he arrived in our emergency room, but he was more worried about the hospital staff than about himself.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
"Mr C. was in the COVID stepdown unit, recovering, without family. Nobody was allowed to visit him. ... I cautiously went into his room, wearing my PPE, and when he saw me, he stopped for a second.

A moment of recognition. I introduced myself." https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
Op-Ed: I've been an ER doctor for 20 years. I'll never forget this COVID-19 patient

He was a very sick man when he arrived in our emergency room, but he was more worried about the hospital staff than about himself.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
“I’m Dr. Akbarnia, Mr. C. I was the last person you saw in the ER. You told me you trusted us to get you to this side. Looks like you did just fine.”

He started to cry. He said, “I remember your eyes.” https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
Op-Ed: I've been an ER doctor for 20 years. I'll never forget this COVID-19 patient

He was a very sick man when he arrived in our emergency room, but he was more worried about the hospital staff than about himself.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
Then Dr. Akbarnia started to cry, she writes.
"I told him that while he is in the hospital, we are his family, and that he will always have a place in my heart."

Read Dr. Halleh Akbarnia's full Op-Ed for @latimesopinion here: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
Op-Ed: I've been an ER doctor for 20 years. I'll never forget this COVID-19 patient

He was a very sick man when he arrived in our emergency room, but he was more worried about the hospital staff than about himself.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-11/op-ed-the-covid-19-patient
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