Q: Can you describe your current employment?
A: I’m a vascular surgeon.
Q: How was your workplace and medical specialty affected by COVID-19?
A: Well, we were faced with some challenges as far as being able to do elective procedures. What that means is that patients that required to have a vascular issue fixed were impacted, as most of the hospital beds were taken by COVID-19 patients.
Q: Was there something that scared or frightened or angered you during the first few months?
A: Nothing frightened or angered me during the initial months, but what was challenging was that you had young patients with diabetes that developed severe pulmonary respiratory infections from COVID-19 and weren't able to recover from it. And they soon after passed away.
Q: How were you or your family personally impacted by COVID-19? Did you have a particular routine that you created or followed to de-stress or detach yourself from what you were seeing?
A: The way it impacted myself and my family was that, you know, my parents are much older. They’re in their seventies, so we were worried about hanging out with them. So actually, we didn't really see our parents for about three months. And then when we started to see them, we would only hang out in an outside area, so we wouldn’t really be close, and we didn't hug or kiss. So that was a little bit challenging. As far as the routine, not much really changed except that obviously we had to wear the mask mandated by regulations. Obviously being able to go to our outdoor activities or restaurants or social activities—a lot of that was impacted.
Q: How have things progressed in the last few months? Are you receiving fewer patients with COVID-19?
A: Yeah, I mean, it’s pretty much non-existent. I think we only have like two patients in the whole hospital, so that's a good thing. It’s clearly, you know, with the vaccination and with the season change not being the usual flu season, it looks like the impact has completely changed right now on the population
Q: What are your hopes for a post-pandemic world?
A: I think trying to get our routine back to the way it was is probably the best way. So I’m hoping for that to occur
Q: Is there anything you want future generations or future doctors to know about handling another pandemic?
A: I think that the most important thing is being able to help each other. Try to communicate with different ways of management and try to collaborate ideas and newer innovations with each other. You know, in our generation of physicians, COVID-19 was the pandemic that we had to deal with. In the 1980s it was HIV. For each generation there is probably going to be a pandemic that will impact the medical industry and the healthcare industry, and the most important thing is being able to collaborate ideas and treatment plans.
Q: Are you planning to continue with your field?
A: Yes, of course.