Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 03, 2025

“I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This”: Doctors Without Enough Ventilators Are Being Told Whom To Save During The Coronavirus Pandemic

“I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This”: Doctors Without Enough Ventilators Are Being Told Whom To Save During The Coronavirus Pandemic

“I watched like three people die on Saturday - nothing we can do. Zero," one New York City doctor told BuzzFeed News.

At the top of the list for ventilators: patients with just one failing organ. And then there are the others. Doctors with patients who are unresponsive to standard measures, have severe burns, have irreversible low blood pressure, or any other condition that would result in immediate mortality are instructed not to put them on ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic.

As the coronavirus wreaks havoc across the nation, doctors who shoulder much of the crisis are left with devastating life or death decisions.

BuzzFeed News reviewed documents from a New York City public hospital in line with previous reporting from the New York Times that lay out “policy enhancements” for doctors at hospitals across the nation on how to prioritize helping patients who are sick because of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, as medical supplies run low. At least one New York City public hospital sent specific guidelines for doctors on who should receive ventilators in light of the shortages — a harrowing task left to physicians on the front lines.

“I watched like three people die on Saturday - nothing we can do. Zero. You feel defeated,” one city doctor who works at a public hospital with similar guidelines told BuzzFeed News. “You feel drained.”

The doctor asked to remain anonymous, as they were afraid of losing their job should they be identified.

“There’s a list about six [types of] patients that do not get put on a vent. ‘It makes no sense, they’re going to die soon anyway, so let them die’ - like that’s the crazy thought process. This shit hurts,” they said.

During the coronavirus crisis, the steady tone of a heart monitor that signals health officials need to intervene immediately might go unanswered. Somehow that sound, which most of us recognize only from episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, is now the backdrop for health care officials navigating a hospital’s intensive care unit.

“Normally in the real world, you never let that happen so you never really see that. That’s how it was on Saturday. You saw the heart rate go down, the blood pressure go down, the oxygen go down and then everything just flatlines and stops. Literally, we looked at each other and said ‘what else can we do? Nothing,’” the doctor recalled.

“And then guess what? We’re so morbid. We’re so jaded. Guess what’s the first thing we think of [when a patient dies]? ‘Oh shit, we got a new ventilator, let’s get somebody on the ventilator!’”

Doctors, like the one interviewed by BuzzFeed News, are having to reckon with their decisions. Many times that reality only hits at home, when they’re alone, many of them quarantining from the rest of their family members. “When I went home, I was like, what the fuck? I ordered another patient to go on a ventilator when a man just died!”

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. ... Never.”

New York City has become the epicenter of the pandemic. According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, there are 92,743 cases in New York state and 2,473 deaths at the time of this post, with many of them coming from New York City. The crisis is taking a toll on the city’s health care system, especially as it relates to ventilators and protective equipment for health care professionals. Ventilators, the doctor explained, are the safest way to assist patients with COVID-19, as other treatments create more aerosols and could contaminate the hospital.

“It’s scary and it’s tough,” the doctor said. “I think what’s scary is that the resources are missing. This is the richest country in the world and they’re out here talking about recycling masks. ... Now we’re using the same one all day. We’re using the same gown all day. You don’t really have the time to change, you’re just running from one patient to the next, one patient to the next, one patient to the next.”

And then there’s the pace at which the disease ravages each victim.

“Literally, I went out to the visiting area - because visitors aren’t allowed - to talk to the daughter. [The] mom is doing fine, her numbers are OK, we’re just going to watch her and we’re going to see,” they said. Within six minutes of the update, the doctor had to provide another update: “I had to intubate your mother.”

It’s “that fast. That fast,” thye said.

It happened a second time, to a different patient, on the same day.

“I go out to tell the husband ‘OK, everything looks good.’ I go back in, oxygen levels drop, we have to intubate her. ... The crazy thing is how fast people go down and die. Literally, like you walk out and go to the bathroom and pee and come back and you’re running around and your patient is dying.”

“The other day I felt defeated. The patient came in on a code. We looked at each other. The patient had to die. There was nothing we could do.” Any feelings of guilt were upended by the next patient to come through the doors when they had to tell EMS they had no ventilators. EMS said they had nowhere else to go. The patient died.

On March 26, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo approved ventilator splitting, in which hospitals could use a single machine to treat two patients. But the idea is controversial and was condemned by several medical associations, calling the practice unsafe “because it cannot be done safely with current equipment.” The Trump administration, in an open letter Tuesday, called for hospitals to share ventilators with guidelines that the method should only be considered “as an absolute last result.”

New York City Health and Hospitals, which runs the city’s public hospitals, said it is not going to implement ventilator splitting. "We are not implementing ventilation triage. Our commitment is to ensure every patient is treated individually and receives the care they need,” spokesperson Christopher Miller told BuzzFeed News.

For doctors, the burden friends and family take on amid the crisis does not go unnoticed, some of whom unknowingly say goodbye to their loved ones the minute they bring them into the hospital. On March 18, the city suspended all hospital visiting hours except to those who are medically essential to the patient’s care or visiting a woman in labor or someone in an imminent end-of-life situation.

“You know what’s sad too from a provider's standpoint? You know what it is to bring - let’s say - your mom, your wife, your husband, a significant other to the ER, as soon as we take them we say, ‘you can’t come in.’ We come back, maybe two hours later to say they’re not doing well, we have to intubate them. And then maybe two, three weeks later [we] tell [them] they died and they did not see their family through that whole time because they can’t come in.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Harvard Urges US to Unfreeze Funds for Public Health Research
Businessman Mauled by Lion at Luxury Namibian Lodge
Researchers Consider New Destinations Beyond the U.S.
53-Year-Old Doctor Claims Biological Age of 23
Trump Struggles to Secure Trade Deals With China and Europe
Russia to Return 6,000 Corpses Under Ukraine Prisoner Swap Deal
Microsoft Lays Off Hundreds More Amid Restructuring
Harvey Weinstein’s Publicist Embraces Notoriety
Macron and Meloni Seek Unity Despite Tensions
Trump Administration Accused of Obstructing Deportation Cases
Newark Mayor Sues Over Arrest at Immigration Facility
Center-Left Candidate Projected to Win South Korean Presidency
Trump’s Tariffs Predicted to Stall Global Economic Growth
South Korea’s President-Elect Expected to Take Softer Line on Trump and North Korea
Trump’s China Strategy Remains a Geopolitical Puzzle
Ukraine Executes Long-Range Drone Strikes on Russian Airbases
Conservative Karol Nawrocki wins Poland’s presidential election
Study Identifies Potential Radicalization Risk Among Over One Million Muslims in Germany
Good news: Annalena Baerbock Elected President of the UN General Assembly
Apple Appeals EU Law Over User Data Sharing Requirements
South Africa: "First Black Bank" Collapses after Being Looted by Owners
Poland will now withdraw from the EU migration pact after pro-Trump nationalist wins Election
"That's Disgusting, Don’t Say It Again": The Trump Joke That Made the President Boil
Trump Cancels NASA Nominee Over Democratic Donations
Paris Saint-Germain's Greatest Triumph Is Football’s Lowest Point
OnlyFans for Sale: From Lockdown Lifeline to Eight-Billion-Dollar Empire
Mayor’s Security Officer Implicated | Shocking New Details Emerge in NYC Kidnapping Case
Hegseth Warns of Potential Chinese Military Action Against Taiwan
OPEC+ Agrees to Increase Oil Output for Third Consecutive Month
Jamie Dimon Warns U.S. Bond Market Faces Pressure from Rising Debt
Turkey Detains Istanbul Officials Amid Anti-Corruption Crackdown
Taylor Swift Gains Ownership of Her First Six Albums
Bangkok Ranked World's Top City for Remote Work in 2025
Satirical Sketch Sparks Political Spouse Feud in South Korea
Indonesia Quarry Collapse Leaves Multiple Dead and Missing
South Korean Election Video Pulled Amid Misogyny Outcry
Asian Economies Shift Away from US Dollar Amid Trade Tensions
Netflix Investigates Allegations of On-Set Mistreatment in K-Drama Production
US Defence Chief Reaffirms Strong Ties with Singapore Amid Regional Tensions
Vietnam Faces Strategic Dilemma Over China's Mekong River Projects
Malaysia's First AI Preacher Sparks Debate on Islamic Principles
White House Press Secretary Criticizes Harvard Funding, Advocates for Vocational Training
France to Implement Nationwide Smoking Ban in Outdoor Spaces Frequented by Children
Meta and Anduril Collaborate on AI-Driven Military Augmented Reality Systems
Russia's Fossil Fuel Revenues Approach €900 Billion Since Ukraine Invasion
U.S. Justice Department Reduces American Bar Association's Role in Judicial Nominations
U.S. Department of Energy Unveils 'Doudna' Supercomputer to Advance AI Research
U.S. SEC Dismisses Lawsuit Against Binance Amid Regulatory Shift
Alcohol Industry Faces Increased Scrutiny Amid Health Concerns
Italy Faces Population Decline Amid Youth Emigration
×