May 13, 2020
Heroes on the front line: Dr. Vijay Sankaran
A new Coverage series features the voices of doctors and nurses battling the coronavirus in Massachusetts
Around the world, health care providers are on the front line of the battle against the coronavirus.
Many are struggling not only to treat a disease with no known treatment, one to which no human has natural immunity. They are also facing an unprecedented global shortage of the masks, gowns and gloves known as personal protective equipment, due to international manufacturing shortfalls in the face of the pandemic. That equipment is essential to preventing health care workers from getting infected themselves and from passing the virus to patients and to their own family members.
Doctors and nurses and physician assistants and other health care workers sign up to work long hours, nights and weeks, away from their families. But never in our lifetime have they been asked to put their own health and their loved ones’ health at such risk.
At Coverage, we are giving Massachusetts doctors, nurses, PAs and NPs a chance to speak to you, our readers, in their own words. We asked that they share their simplest, most urgent messages as they fight this new virus with no vaccine and no cure, a virus vulnerable only to our common human bravery, ingenuity and compassion.
I think despite there being a pandemic, we just need to do what we can do to care for patients. It's also an important time when we can as physicians and scientists can learn from what's happening. I so appreciate all the staff at the hospital there to clean, to take care of things, all the nurses on the front lines. I'm also really grateful for people doing their part staying home during the shelter-in-place order. This is everyone doing their part to keep our community safe. Both my wife and I are clinicians here. We just need to do our jobs. Our patients depend upon us.
- Dr. Vijay Sankaran,
Associate professor of pediatrics and
attending physician in hematology
Boston Children’s Hospital
More in the "Heroes on the front line" series:
Gloria Batista
RN
Boston Health Care for the Homeless
Brad Robillard
RN
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Suzanne Cook
RN
Tufts Medical Center
Avital Rech
Nurse manager
Boston Medical Center
Trish Powers
Operating room RN
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Dr. Michael Kiernan
Cardiologist
Tufts Medical Center