Film Shows How One Hospital Battled the Pandemic
2 min readJuly 1, 2021 — For New Yorkers, March 11 to Might 2, 2020, was most absolutely the worst time of the pandemic.

Just about 19,000 individuals died of COVID-19 in New York Metropolis throughout people weeks, which translates to around 350 deaths for every working day and more than a single dying each individual 5 minutes. No a person skilled the chaotic early days of the pandemic far more than the city’s necessary personnel, together with all those on the entrance traces at Mount Sinai Healthcare facility.

And, in The Surge at Mount Sinai, a documentary streaming on discovery+ now, you will be transported into the hospital’s intense treatment units and meet various sufferers hospitalized early on, as effectively as the heroic Mount Sinai ICU medical professionals, nurses, and help staff members.

To discover out how his staff is performing and what he thought about the film, we interviewed David L. Reich, MD, president of Mount Sinai, just one of the country’s premier and most overcome wellbeing treatment techniques, by way of Zoom. Examine on for his feelings on COVID-19, the documentary, and what problems him most appropriate now.


WebMD: When did you know we were being in hassle with this virus?


Reich: Late February. I’m lucky to be connected with colleagues in Italy, and the messages of desperation begun coming by means of through that time. It was extremely horrifying. They discussed that this is not just a respiratory virus and that it overwhelms hospitals and team. They explained to me to check out to be all set.




WebMD: The film actually delves into the posttraumatic stress ailment (PTSD) your group is however emotion. How much are you focusing on this today?


Reich: We’re blessed to have Dr. Dennis Charney as the dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He’s an expert in resilience, and he jumped on this for the reason that these problems are foremost on our minds. We a short while ago produced the Centre for Anxiety, Resilience, and Own Growth to assist our team recover. This virus was like a war, and we know from PTSD similar to wartime that PTSD has phases and can final a very long time. The toughest matters for our staff was the anxiety that they would be contaminated or provide the infection residence. Then there was the reality that, with this virus, our sufferers had been dying on your own without the need of relatives members present. The employees stepped in, doing FaceTime with spouse and children associates who were being declaring goodbye. Our chaplains couldn’t be in the medical center so, if the family members asked for it, the team, specifically our nurses, said prayers at the instant of demise. We were being a surrogate for these families who couldn’t be there at the most critically psychological instant in lifetime, which is when you shed a liked 1. To move in at that moment was a little something that improved all of us endlessly.

