LETTER: From the ICU: a clear-eyed look at the horror of Covid-19

To Ozaukee Press:

I do not understand why people would take a chance on getting coronavirus by joining shoulder-to-shoulder in protests of the governor’s and CDC’s orders to be safer at home. Covid-19 is dangerous and nothing to mess with.

It is spread via breathing or touching. In just the first four months of 2020, more than 55,000 Americans have been killed by Covid-19.

 For over 35 years, I taught respiratory care during the day and worked in intensive care units and emergency rooms on the weekends. My work was critical care, life support and ventilators. I am aware of the tremendous suffering of patients with lung disease.

It is so easy for the protestors to say that if they catch Covid-19 by protesting with others, “If I die, I die.” If you get a bad case of Covid-19, besides the fevers, chills, and sweats, your breathing will become labored. You will gasp for air with each breath and will become exhausted from sleep deprivation. You eventually may have to be hospitalized, and if you cannot get enough oxygen through a nasal oxygen tube or mask, you will need to be intubated and put on a ventilator. You will be alone and your loved ones cannot visit you. There is no medicine to help you. Why would anyone want to risk getting this virus?

The medical team for the Covid-19 patients suffers too. Their face masks are tight and the glasses fog up beneath plastic face shields. Wrapped in isolation gowns, health care workers sweat profusely and increasingly tire. There is the non-ending emotional trauma in witnessing the suffering and death of people they cannot help.  Their post-traumatic stress disorder will be no different than that of combat veterans.  

These health care workers and many others are saving America and afford you the opportunity to have a nice day. Why take a chance on becoming another patient in the ICU when it is unnecessary?

Ken Bretl
Beverly Shores, Ind.