A War

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Anthony Almojera: "you have a busy day sometimes, but never this"

is used As a senior paramedic in New York City, Anthony Almojera, to the near death. But nothing could have been in his 17-year career, prepared him for the outbreak of the coronavirus.

The State has now had more diagnosed cases of The Virus than in any individual country. It has the gloomy distinction of being at the forefront of a global health crisis.

Anthony is now working 16-hour days to try to save people in The City , while the support of colleagues, afraid for their lives and the lives of their families.

Anthony, a Lieutenant in The Medics and Vice President of The Fire Department of New York 's Emergency Medical Services officers' union, said The Bbc 's Alice Cuddy, What Happened last Sunday - as he calls it, the toughest day of his career.

I've got a Pretty Good sleep the night before considering all the calls That Day . A solid five hours. I Get Up and listen to The News in the shower. More Covid-19 but The World still seems intact. I layer, in order to be ready, at work, in Sunset Park , Brooklyn, at 06:00 for a 16-hour.

I put on my uniform, grab my radio and begin The Process of decontaminating my gear. We have to wipe out all The Radios , keys, trucks, bags, and the rest of the equipment. The Virus can Stay Alive on everything. Nothing is Safe - your employees.

In the wars of the ball, you know, who your enemy is. This is A War with an invisible ball - all you come in contact with a ball that could get you.

I log in that morning at 06:02. I Am able to drive, a bite to eat at the bagel shop. I'm starting to hear on the radio is busy 07:00 PM. We already have More Than 1,500 calls since midnight. I get as for The Assignment - a Cardiac Arrest .

As a Lieutenant, I'm going to help with the paramedic, and paramedic crews to treat patients, and provide resources that are needed. In These Days , there is not a lot of resources, like most days, there are far More Than 6,500 calls.

New York city has the busiest emergency medical services (EMS) system in The World , with over 4,000 calls per day on average. Sometimes you get a spike like a heat wave or a hurricane, but the rest of it was recorded The Day before 9/11. On this day, we had 6,400 calls, but that was not to 6,400 patients - either you like it or not. This is the 9/11 call volume with patients Every Day .

We noticed the increase in cases of 20. March. 22. it was like a bomb.

When we saw this spike, The System was not set. We were like: 'How do we do that with the resources we have?' It is just a case of "let's Get Going '.

now, about 20% of the EMS workforce is sick. We have many members that signed up have Covid-19, we have members who are in the ICU - I have two of them, the fans - and we have over 700 people who are monitored with the Symptoms .

We arrive at The House and I put my mask, gown and gloves.

We find A Man . His Family says he has a Fever and cough for Five Days . We start CPR and I see the paramedics they pass a tube down his throat, and started to breathe for him and the IV.

We work on him for about 30 Minutes before we talk to him dead. I make sure that the crews are OK and get back in my Truck decontamination of the tutorial. I press The Button to go available.

Twenty minutes later, I get a further Cardiac Arrest . Same Symptoms , same procedure, same results. This virus affects the lungs: you can not have enough oxygen in your system, then other systems will start to shut down And Then to fail institution

We press The Button to get a new one.

press The Button after that.

There is only one patient that we have seen So Far , I feel, was Covid-19 and that's because it was a suicide. Imagine: I was there, and my brain felt relief. This person is dead, and it is a suicide. I felt relief that it was a regular job.

It is now 11:00 and I have over arrests of six heart.

In normal times, a medic gets two or three in a week, maybe. You have a busy day sometimes, but never this. Never of this.

The seventh call gets to me.

We will go and there is A Woman on The Floor . I see this woman, CPR on her mother. You told me to breathe stopped and had "the Symptoms ".

We go to work to try and save. How the doctors do their thing, I go to The Daughter and she tells me how it all went down. She says her mother has been sick The Last few days. You couldn't test, but think you had "it".

I ask: "are you the only family here?" She says Yes, but your guys were here on Thursday and worked with my father. He had the Symptoms , as well. He gave up the Ghost.

she looks deaf.

I go back into The Other room and hope that The Medic is going to tell me there are signs of life. She looks up and I know that after the age of 17. The Medic 's eyes say no.

So, now I have to say, The Daughter , the parents of both are dead, in a matter of Three Days .

her father not yet buried. So this woman is going to have a double funeral, if you are lucky enough to have a funeral, because funerals are not right now.

After the call, I go outside and the Cool Air is what I need. We sit for a minute to try and recoup, but we all feel it. Funny, we don't discuss it much. Doctors tend to do.

We Are ready for The Next . We press The Button .

We get another and so on and so on. It is about 18:00 and I just got my tenth.

It is an Asian family that doesn't believe that her uncle has died. I see in your eyes, you can't believe it. You keep begging me to Do Something to him to The Hospital , and I tell you, we could Even if we wanted to. The Hospitals are not working, who has no signs of life.

they always say "you have to save him, you have to save him". The Son asks why we can't just have his heart start again.

The hard thing about wearing The Mask , it is the half covers my face. All he hears are The Words . If I Am able to see my face show allows the patient to see the family, the emotion behind it.

Now all you see is my eyes and my eyes in horror, because I don't know if I can convince this child that there is Nothing More to do we.

Anthony and his team: "the things we see, are sometimes hard to shake to",

I'm on this call with the doctors who lost with me in The House with The Daughter , the parents. You Come Outside and See Me sitting on the stoop. to tell

I have 10 families had, we were not able to do.

I'm beside myself with feelings of bewilderment. I've never had to do A Day like this in my career. I'm emotionally drained.

the things we see, are sometimes shaking hard. And with this, people will be different afterwards. There is no way that the majority of the EMS workers came, from this happy-go-lucky. Maybe some of you these moments of clarity and appreciate The Flowers and the sunrise, but for many of us, if we close our eyes, we will see.

The Medic looks at me and you come over and sit next to me. They both put their arms around me and we support each other.

It was her fifth arrest this day. All of us know what we feel. We feel We Are just together for a bit. We sit, And Then press The Button .

It is 21:30 - half an hour before The End of my tour. A further arrest. Same Symptoms - Fever and cough for days.

We work to go on him up to me and say, my twelfth family, I'm sorry, we can't do more. I have worn out never been so, and I'm going to get back, ready to Go Home .

I'm single and have no children. This is the only Time In My Life that I ever happy that I'm not single, because I bring it home. But so many people are concerned about this.

I got myself a job where I can be sick and die. Members of the families signed with the knowledge that their loved one could be sick and die at this job, but they do not report you to bring the loved one home to you. Now I don't have people sleeping in their cars because they want to make it home to their families.

The stress that the members have, it weighs heavy on me is your concern that if you die on The Job , their families are taken care of.

coronavirus pandemic, new york city

Source of news: bbc.com