Surge: An ICU Nurse on the Front Lines of New York City's COVID-19 Epidemic

How can COVID-negative patients stay negative within a hospital that is overrun with Coronavirus cases? Systemic problems in the hospital setting are nearly impossible to overcome at the height of the crisis, and the implications are deadly.

The day of New York City's highest COVID death toll has arrived. In the ICU, patients inadvertently pull out breathing tubes, alarms go unnoticed, and hastily trained medical staff continue their desperate battle against a disease they never signed up to fight.

Cheers of support. Intimate whispers of farewell. An otherwise stoic nurse is moved to the emotional brink.

She works in one of the top-tier hospitals in the country, but because of the strains Covid-19 is putting on the system, the hospital staff is losing hope and all that’s left is a sense of duty.

Quality of care begins to suffer as cases overwhelm the hospital and caregivers are stretched thin. The consequences are tragic and deadly.

The Covid-19-only Unit isn’t only facing a shortage of ventilators and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Without basic medications and safety gear, patients and staff are both at risk.

A cardio-thoracic ICU converts to a Covid-19-only Unit, where an elite team of doctors and nurses are regularly exposed to the deadly disease while caring for ventilated patients.