Alarming videos from hospitals around the world show what doctors are facing as they treat coronavirus patients
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- The coronavirus pandemic is pushing healthcare systems around the world to their limit.
- In alarming videos, medical workers from New York to India describe the toll the coronavirus has taken on them.
- View more episodes of Business Insider Today on Facebook.
As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, healthcare systems are working at maximum levels of operation.
Doctors and nurses are navigating unprecedented territory as ICUs across the world fill up.
In alarming videos, healthcare workers from New York to India described the toll the coronavirus has taken on them. Read on to see what they had to say.
In London, doctors are dealing with overwhelming spikes in patient intake.
"We can't cope with a big spike. We just can't," Jim Down, a critical care consultant in London, told Reuters. We're planning for many more patients, for all our theaters to be full of Covid patients and possibly beyond. None of us have ever seen anything like this."
In Italy, one of the early coronavirus hotspots, medical professionals are still scrambling for supplies, even as the number of new cases begins to level out.
Italy has experienced one of the largest and most deadly coronavirus outbreaks.
Daniela Confalonieri, a radiologist in Milan, said healthcare workers are facing a critical lack of supplies.
"All medical staff in Lombardy and Italy have been left on their own with face masks," she said.
And Cecilia Bartalena, a doctor in Pisa, said the lack of face masks at her hospital is forcing workers to limit time with patients.
"We can stay in the patient's room for a maximum of 10, 15 minutes because the capacity of the filters decreases with time," she told Reuters.
"I do it for the patients because they have no choice," she said. "I do it only for them, and also for all my other colleagues. You should know that every time we work it is our choice, a choice we make every day."
In Peru, hospitals are also experiencing a lack of equipment. The country has almost 10,000 cases as of April 14.
One doctor in Peru, who asked to remain anonymous, described the bleak conditions in his hospital, where not all coronavirus patients are getting treatment.
"All of the patients - whether or not COVID-positive - are walking around the hospital without receiving attention," he said. "No doctor wants to attend to them because of not having, unfortunately, the personal protective equipment, for fear of infecting our families, our children."
Over 4,000 miles away in India, train carriages are being transformed into isolation wards.
In India, once crowded train carriages are being transformed into isolation wards.
Once bustling train carriages in India are being converted into isolation wards to treat coronavirus patients.
Sanjay Chatterjee, a senior officer for Southern Eastern Railways, said that required removing some of the bunk beds on their trains and converting some bathrooms into shower facilities for medical workers and patients.
And in New York City, the worst hit US city, healthcare workers are trying to stay optimistic.
In New York City, where more than 100,000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed, hospitals are rapidly running out of room for new patients.
"We have a full ICU. We have every patient in here on a ventilator," Melanie Malloy, an emergency room physician in Brooklyn, told Reuters. "Everybody has coronavirus. Some people also have heart attacks at the same time. This happens and it makes things even harder."
Meanwhile, critical care physician Sanam Ahmed said he is trying to remain optimistic.
"On one hand, I left my kids at home so that I could go and fight this war along with my colleagues," he said. "But on the other hand, I feel optimistic. I feel hopeful because as a critical care physician, this is what we've trained for. We know that this is what we have to do and we know that we're well equipped to do it."
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