Responding to Corona Crisis: One Doctor’s Perspective
BY RUTHANNE ASHKAR
It took two weeks from the time of the first U.S. death from Covid-19 for the virus to rear its ugly head in Michigan. But even the extra 14 days were not enough for our local healthcare systems to prepare for our area’s rapid rise to third largest pandemic hotspot in the country, according to Chaldean Foundation board member Dr. Nahid Elyas, who has been practicing medicine in Michigan for 22 years.
Dr. Elyas, a 1982 graduate of Al-Mustansiriya University College of Medicine in Baghdad, suspected from the moment he received a call from one of his regular patients on March 9 that she might possibly be suffering from a coronavirus-related disease, so he and his staff donned personal protection equipment (PPE) before she arrived. When relating the story to the Chaldean News, Dr. Elyas, who specializes in internal medicine, expressed gratitude for his patient who arrived at his office in Farmington Hills wearing a mask of her own.
In spite of the inability to perform a coronavirus test himself, Dr. Elyas was able to confirm that his patient’s symptoms; high fever, body aches and low oxygen level, as well as the fact that she had just returned from a trip abroad four days prior, was indeed in line with a Covid-19 infection. He called ahead to the Emergency Department at Ascension Providence Hospital in Southfield and informed them of her impending arrival.
On the evening of March 10, after results from the test administered at the hospital confirmed the presence of coronavirus, Dr. Elyas said he contacted the Oakland County Health Department and informed them of what was to be one of the first two documented cases of Covid-19 in Michigan.
Adhering to the CDC protocol for infectious diseases, Dr. Elyas shut down his office and he and his staff went into quarantine for the next two weeks before subsequently reopening for business as usual when all of them showed no signs of having contracted the disease. Fortunately for his patient, who is also Chaldean, after six days in the hospital she was released and continues to do well.
But this has not been the case for many of a succession of coronavirus victims in Michigan in the days that followed.
Dr. Elyas fears that, lacking consistent national guidelines for bringing the pandemic under control, the U.S. is going to require more recovery time than those countries that have adopted stricter containment measures and provided an abundance of critical tests.
“We have a shortage of diagnostic tests and personal protective equipment,” Dr. Elyas told the Chaldean News. “At the end of January and beginning of February there were signs that the disease was spreading from China to other parts of the world, but we were not prepared.”
“I think if we were more prepared, the outcome would be easier for all of us. But we are still running behind in everything.”
“There is no national policy; everything is different from state to state. That is wrong! We are one country and we must have one policy to overcome this virus. People need to understand that if we all do the same things, such as staying at home, across the whole country, we would all have a better outcome.”
Dr. Elyas said that while most hospitals and urgent care clinics now have the ability to perform the new 15-minute tests currently available, outpatient clinics like his still do not. He spoke of having to send one of his patients to a drive-thru testing sight in Detroit. The ability to diagnose a patient when he or she first arrives makes a huge difference in how they are treated, he said. If a patient turns out to be negative, then he and his staff do not have to use the PPE which continues to be in short supply.
Dr. Elyas also stressed the importance of everyone covering their face in public, and said that we are all responsible for protecting others because we are all capable of being carriers and spreading the disease, even if we ourselves are without symptoms.
While much emphasis continues to be on reserving the professional masks for healthcare workers and others performing essential services, such as funeral home employees, Dr. Elyas does not discount the efficacy of covering one’s face with even a simple bandana. Face coverings help us to be aware of just how many times we touch our own faces during the course of a day, even as they help prevent us from spreading germs to others.
When asked his perception of the morale among health care workers on the frontlines, Dr. Elyas had nothing but praise. “They are exhausted but morale is high because this is what they do,” he said. “While everyone else is staying home, they are still working and they are doing a great job.”
He told of one Chaldean nurse he knows whose husband wanted her to stay safe at home with their two children because they did not financially need for her to work. Her response was that it would be a betrayal of all she is as a nurse to stay home during this time of crisis. She continues to work at one of the busiest hospitals in hard-hit Oakland County.