The Daily - 24 Hours Inside a Brooklyn Hospital: An Update

This episode contains strong language. This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran. When New York City was the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S., Sheri Fink, a public health correspondent for The Times, was embedded at the Brooklyn Hospital Center. In April, she brought us the story of a single day in its intensive care unit, where a majority of patients were sick with the virus. Today, we check back in with one of the doctors we heard from on the episode, the unflappable Dr. Josh Rosenberg. Guest: Sheri Fink, a correspondent covering public health for The New York Times. For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here. Background reading:“Covid will not win” — here are some portraits and interviews with the staff members powering the Brooklyn Hospital Center. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Duration: 34m
Broadcast on: 24 Dec 2020
Audio Format: other

This episode contains strong language.

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.

When New York City was the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S., Sheri Fink, a public health correspondent for The Times, was embedded at the Brooklyn Hospital Center.

In April, she brought us the story of a single day in its intensive care unit, where a majority of patients were sick with the virus.

Today, we check back in with one of the doctors we heard from on the episode, the unflappable Dr. Josh Rosenberg.

Guest: Sheri Fink, a correspondent covering public health for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

“Covid will not win” — here are some portraits and interviews with the staff members powering the Brooklyn Hospital Center.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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This podcast is supported by TikTok. Sometimes the most interesting discoveries are the ones you weren't looking for. That happens every day on TikTok. A science experiment can spark a whole new interest. A recipe you stumble upon can become a meal you make for the people you love. And a restaurant you've never heard of might become your new favorite spot. That's the thing about TikTok. Follow your curiosity and see where it leads. Your next discovery is waiting on TikTok. Hey, it's Michael. Starting today, the Daily is revisiting our favorite episodes of the year, listening back and hearing what's happened in the time since they first ran. Up first, a story from this spring when New York City was the epicenter of the pandemic. It's Thursday, December 24th. So every morning in the intensive care unit at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, the doctors gather for something called morning report. The people who were on overnight, they stand around and the head doctor is there and they kind of give a report of what happened. And then the new doctors who are coming on, they get that information. When she was at rest this morning, she was being 23. She's a very comfortable thumbs up. They talk about, you know, who was admitted, who got critically ill. And one recent morning report was particularly intense. Okay. All right. Okay. Next patient. There were patients in their 80s and patients in their 30s. There were patients from nursing homes and patients who were homeless. Patients with asthma and diabetes and patients with no underlying conditions at all. Yeah. But as the doctors raced to get through the cases, they all shared a nearly identical description. He was upgraded from acute hypoxic respiratory failure. Okay, next, we'll see a appointment for a failure, secondary confirmed COVID. All right, next, acute hypoxic respiratory failure, secondary to COVID-19. All right, next.

From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bobaro. This is the daily. Today, it's been more than a month since the coronavirus descended on New York City's hospitals and on Brooklyn Hospital Center, where the vast majority of patients in critical care have the virus. My colleague, Sherry Fink, has been reporting from the hospital with the permission of staff, patients, and their families and brings us the story of a single day there. It's Thursday, December 24th. Morning, everybody.

Josh, do you want to spend the, this is Sherry's with the New York Times and she's going to spend some time here a little bit? Pleasure. It's up to you. I'm fine with physician and so for the past few weeks, I've been embedded in the Brooklyn Hospital Center. I'm going to finish around here and then I'm going to go downstairs and cover SI. And what I've been able to see there is incredibly unique. What's happening? What is it like inside a hospital during a pandemic? And then we'll figure out the rest. Okay. Do you want to give me a mic or are you willing to wear a... And there was one doctor I met who really embodied that transparency. Does it beep every time I say a four little word like South Park? Dr. Josh Rosenberg. I am mildly inappropriate. I am just warning you. An attending physician in the intensive care unit. How are you Peter? I didn't see you hiding over there, my friend. There are people from all over the hospital recruited to work in the ICU, so it's not just like ICU doctors and nurses who are used to intensive care treatment, but in fact... She's one of the podiatry residents. So all people who are good with knives and big needles. When I was there that day, there was a podiatry doctor in two of her residents. Those are doctors who work on the feet. No, no, no. What I would like to do is that as much as possible, we're going to try to get all the quovids on one side and then the whole area is a dirty area. And the ICU had actually effectively doubled in size, so it was completely full and they had to turn to other areas of the hospital to turn them into intensive care units. In fact, a big part of the ICU is now in a place that just a few weeks ago was where patients would come for outpatient chemotherapy treatments. That's now an ICU. Thank you. Watch out. Don't trip. Don't trip. Don't trip. Don't trip. It was also a bit of an obstacle course. Don't trip. There were cords everywhere. Please be careful. Do you have gloves? They had pulled apart the ventilators.

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