In the World With COVID-19: Forging Bonds Within My Community

Written by Jamidah Nakato, PhD, Co-Director of Linde Healthcare Educators Without Borders and Assistant Lecturer at Makerere University, Uganda

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A number of lessons have been drawn by each one of us during this crisis: some good, others bad. However, the good news is that good or bad, we are learning from them. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I had a routine: I would wake up in the morning, do my chores, prepare for work, race the kids to school and head off to work in the wee hours of the morning. When I would arrive, it was all work, work, and more work. By the time evening clocked, I would find myself still engrossed in volumes of assignments, books to read, and emails and letters to read and respond to with no end in sight. As it grew dark, I would collect my belongings, pick up the kids from school and race home thinking of assignments for the next day. This routine has been going on and on for years.

In the World With COVID-19: Diving for Pearls

Written by Mahsheed Khajavi, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at Florida State University

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I believe that our current situation in this hospital is worse than it was when we started. We have seventeen patients on ventilators, four of whom are under the age of 35. One patient, age 31 and parent to four children under the age of eight, died at about 4:30 AM this morning.

In the World With COVID-19: The Man Who Wanted to Live and Go Back Home

Written by Ali Ershadi, MD, former Nuvance Health Global Health Program fellow

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I started my shift around 7 PM that night. Our team got a sign-out from the ICU day-team. We had one pending admission in the Emergency Department: a 30-year-old COVID-19 positive man who presented with hypoxia and conventional, non-invasive oxygenation: one of the most common themes in my daily job over the 350+ hours I’ve worked in our ICU as a night and day critical care doctor over the past two and a half months.

In the World With COVID-19: Blindness: A Brief Inquiry into Seeing and Observing: Part II

Written by Chris Esneault, senior at Brookfield High School and Global Health Program summer intern

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During their time in the asylum, the principal characters learn various lessons about human behavior. While I do not intend on giving away the story in hopes that you will eventually read it, I will say that during their time in the asylum, the characters must deal with problems of power, assault, personal identity, and courage.

In the World With COVID-19: Blindness: A Brief Inquiry into Seeing and Observing: Part I

Written by Chris Esneault, senior at Brookfield High School and Global Health Program summer intern

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Rarely do I pay attention to the small quotation, line, or paragraph that appears at the beginning of a book. Even more rarely do I actually take the time to read and meaningfully analyze this short piece of text. However, I wholeheartedly believe that the epigraph (yes, I spent time educating myself on book anatomy) beautifully encapsulates the meaning of Blindness by Portuguese author José Saramago. 

In the World With COVID-19: The Impact of COVID-19 at Saint Francis Naggalama Hospital, Uganda

As each nation mobilizes its communities to combat COVID-19, a virus that knows no borders, the global community unites in solidarity. Our new series, titled “In the World With COVID-19,” features reflective perspectives on the ways in which the pandemic is impacting our global health family in our international partner sites in nine countries around …

In the World With COVID-19: New In Every Sense of the Word: Part II

Written by Majid Sadigh, MD, Trefz Family Endowed Chair in Global Health at Nuvance Health and Director of the Nuvance Health / University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine Global Health Program

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The COVID-19 pandemic has proved that we can no longer afford to function in compartments. This global public health crisis demands a remarkable level of collaboration among sectors, disciplines, and geographic locations. We are learning more deeply the extent to which we can, and must, learn from each other. It is time for us to unify in the ways we have always intended but have yet to initiate. Engaging our colleagues in international sites toward this end is crucial. 

In the World With COVID-19: New In Every Sense of the Word: Part I

Written by Majid Sadigh, MD, Trefz Family Endowed Chair in Global Health at Nuvance Health and Director of the Nuvance Health / University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine Global Health Program

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As we are all experiencing, the COVID-19 pandemic has altered most aspects of life as previously known. Global health education is no exception, with global health programs throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe at a standstill as everyone processes the constantly unfurling situation and scrambles to find alternatives to field learning. Rather than settle in stagnation, our program has continued to publish stories, resources, and educational materials on our Global Health Diaries blog and eMagazine, giving the platform to our international and domestic partners to share their experiences and insights during this time, as well as a COVID-19 resources page with biweekly summaries of relevant articles.

In the World With COVID-19: Thoughts on the Paradox: Part II

Mahsheed Khajavi, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at Florida State University

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My sister in law, Yoshimi, is a gifted photographer. She has sent many pictures from the “weeks of furlough.” In the past, I would have looked at the pictures and made a casual comment or two. Now I look with different eyes. Her photos bring the present experience to me and enable the diffusion of a more permanent truth of things as they are.

In the World With COVID-19: Thoughts on the Paradox: Part I

Mahsheed Khajavi, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at Florida State University

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I am working in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at present.   I love it. I hate it. I love the work and caring for so many ridiculously sick patients. We had 26 yesterday in the unit: 22 on vents, 19 with COVID-19. All require huge PEEP pressures, high oxygen requirements, and pronation. Their markers of inflammation are obscene—D dimers of 15K-124K with the normal here 200-500, CRP’s 25 to 400, and sed rates 90-140. Many have acute renal failure, refractory hypotension, and profound encephalopathy. What is troublesome is the uncertainty of clinical decisions (anticoagulate or not, start antimicrobial therapy or not, convalescent plasma or not, renal replacement therapy or not, ECMO or not...)