The Daily - On the Front Lines in New Orleans

Episode Date: April 9, 2020

The outbreak of the coronavirus in Louisiana has become one of the most explosive in the country. Today, we explore how New Orleans became a petri dish for the virus, why Mardi Gras was likely to have been an accelerator for the spread of infections and what it is like now inside the city’s hospitals. Guest: Yanti Turang, a nurse in New Orleans. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading: As Mardi Gras came to a close, patients with mysterious respiratory illnesses began appearing in hospitals — many who had not recently left the country. The first Covid-19 diagnosis soon followed.

I'm half Australian, half Indonesian. I grew up in just outside Melbourne and I've been living in New Orleans permanently since 2009. There was just something about New Orleans that yeah, it really just got under my skin. It's like addictive and you can be whoever you want to be and like there's always going to be somebody who says, you know, that's okay. And that especially happens during Mardi Gras. You never want to miss Mardi Gras. It's sort of like that's when our year begins in New Orleans. There's lots of different versions of Mardi Gras. And I feel like this year I really perfected it. I was like, great.

My four or five days started with these smaller parades. I have like different costume changes, four different costume changes. And then my ultimate costume change happens on Mardi Gras day. And that costume, it's themed around cats. I probably worked on it for about two weeks. And I marched in Crudevue, which is like one of my favourite parades. It's a very tongue-in-cheek parade.

It's a very sexy parade and it's always full of locals. The streets were filled with people, and we were all ready for, like, what we love to say is just the party of our lives. And then you run into everyone you know, people that you haven't seen in years, or sometimes I say to people, I'll see you next Mardi Gras.

It's just an amazing time for community and for people to just spend time together and the weather was beautiful and it's just truly this like magical time like it's when time stops. Just the idea of that there is a virus in the world at that time, I mean, I think it's the last thing from many of our minds. Well, it was for many of us. From The New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro. People are drinking and sharing glasses. They're throwing beads off of floats. And unfortunately, people weren't only catching beads who were here for Mardi Gras, they were catching coronavirus.

This is The Daily. New Orleans in danger of becoming the next epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak. Louisiana has become a hotspot in the pandemic. Confirmed cases tripling since Friday to roughly 1,400. With one of the fastest rates of new cases in the world. 3,500 cases of coronavirus. 10,000 confirmed cases. 12,000 confirmed cases.

16,284 cases of the coronavirus in Louisiana and 582 deaths. Today, my colleague Megan Toohey speaks with a nurse on the front lines of the virus in New Orleans. It's Thursday, April 9th. Hi, Megan here. Oh, hey Megan, This is Yanti. Hi, Yanti. How are you doing? I'm pretty good. I'm a little tired, but I'm all right.

Well, we're so grateful that you're staying up to talk to us. Oh, of course. I really, really appreciate it. I know you must be completely exhausted. It's all right. It comes with the job, right? Yeah. Well, so can you start by saying your full name and tell me what you do for a living? My name's Yanti Tarung. I started nursing around 2009. And from there, I worked in hospitals in Australia and I've transitioned to working in the States. I've also worked for the Ebola crisis in 2015 in Sierra Leone.

And do you remember the first patient who was treated as a potential COVID case in your hospital? Yes. So the ER had had a call that a patient was coming from New York that had had a fever. The patient had traveled through South Korea. they'd been in Thailand, and then they had come back via New York. And the reason why we thought that this was a COVID patient was because they'd come from Southeast Asia. So all of our assumptions were based on travel. And so, you know, I spoke to my charge nurse about it. And I said, look, you know, I actually have had experience with the PPE and all of that kind of stuff. Like, I'm happy to take this patient if they present. Not even like concerned about it.

I was like, oh, my goodness, this is an Ebola. We'll be fine, you know. And yeah, I went out and I greeted the patient. I was in full PPE. So PPE, you're talking about personal protective equipment. Correct. And the personal protective equipment we had was gloves, a gown, two masks. But the thing is, it was interesting, like, I didn't know enough about the disease. I didn't know enough about the virus. And I even think that I was quite nonchalant about it. I will be the first to say that I said, it's just like a really

bad flu. So what ended up happening with that particular patient? We isolated them. The first thing we did was a flu test. And the most interesting twist of this is that patient came back flu positive, which was a relief. She didn't have COVID-19. However, the interesting side, which I think a lot of healthcare workers in New Orleans post-Mardi Gras could talk about, were all the patients that showed up even the same day that I saw that patient that had flu-like symptoms, a fever, body aches, a little short of breath, and they were flu negative. And we would say, you've just got a really bad virus, and you have to just, you know, take care of yourself. It's really hard to kind of diagnose what specifically the virus is because

it just sounds like you have some upper respiratory issues going on. So the people from the community who are showing up with those symptoms, you're not giving that much thought to them. Meanwhile, the patient who had traveled to South Korea, you are having to put on your personal protective equipment and determining whether or not they have COVID-19. Right. Are you telling me that even at that point, that it's still not sinking in for you that this virus could be landing on the doorstep of your hospital? To be honest, I really didn't. was so external. Like, as healthcare workers, the disease process or what was happening with the virus, it was getting flown into our country. The concept that it could already be here,

it just really didn't cross my mind at that point. Good evening, everyone. I'm Cherise Gibson. And I'm Katie Moore. The state has confirmed a presumptive positive test for coronavirus in Orleans Parish. Now, we are told this person had not traveled anywhere. The Louisiana Department of Health are also investigating those who the person actually came into contact with. March 9th was when we had our first confirmed case, and it was at the VA hospital. I think the profile of that patient was an Uber driver who's from New

Orleans. A very good friend of mine who lives next door is a physician as well. And I feel like it was over those two days that it all started clicking into place. And we were like, oh my goodness, I think it's here already. I can remember it so clearly. I remember running up and down, in and out of PPE, healthcare workers looking panicked because we're just not really sure what to do. looking panicked because we're just not really sure what to do and then us saying to patients that you have to isolate and not being able to say here's a prescription that will make you better or this is the true course of the disease and this is

what's going to happen I think that that's when I felt kinda helpless and then overwhelmed by the ramifications of how this city could manage it. All public schools across the state of Louisiana will be closed starting Monday, March 16th. The mayor has also ordered all bars, restaurants, gyms, and shopping centers to shut down to prevent the spread.

The city of New Orleans is trying to stop any crowds from congregating throughout the entire city and NOPD will be enforcing this. And then it just felt like we were in the ER and it was this patient after patient coming through short of breath with a fever, struggling to breathe. And that first week, like it was, I mean, I felt panicked. I felt afraid that I wasn't going to be able to take care of the patients the way that I should be able to take care of them. I know my patients so well. And like some of our patients in New Orleans like

they even find it hard to fill a prescription like to be able to secure food. I mean how are my patients in New Orleans going to be able to navigate social distancing? How am I going to be able to say to them you can't see your grandmother? I feel like there was just so many different factors of pain and trauma associated with this onslaught of the virus that I think within the ER, we felt terrified. and just bursting into tears because in my heart, I felt like I'd hurt the community because I discharged patients who had symptoms but we didn't know enough, and then they were back out in New Orleans. We'll be right back. As the number of coronavirus cases continue to rise around the country,

there are certain areas with large numbers of cases of growing concern. And now Louisiana has more cases per capita than every other state, except for New York and Washington. Streets typically vibrant with music and tourists empty tonight. Meantime, the hospitals are filled and rapidly running out of supplies. 15 years after Hurricane Katrina, residents are hunkered down once again in their homes, weathering a radically different storm. So what changed at your hospital to accommodate for the influx of cases? And what did those changes look like as the reality of this set in? I would say

the screening started to be different. We started to isolate. I think that like internally we made changes to be able to take on this type of patient. However, I don't think we had the PPE to be able to support those changes. Can you explain that a little bit more? So like technically when you go to see an infectious patient, say with Ebola and say now COVID-19, you should be able to don all your equipment, go into the patient's room and do whatever you have to do. Take your gown off in the room, walk out of the room and discard of every piece of equipment that you're wearing because technically it's infected. However, based on the shortage of equipment, we had to think about where is our next gown? How many N95s do we have? I've got to go to the next room. Should I just wear the same gown? Am I wearing one pair of gloves? I think that that

across America has created its own critical problem in terms of healthcare workers managing what's going on with the infectious disease itself. The fact that they have to question their safety when they leave the room before they go into another room to be able to take care of someone is asking so much. That's basically asking them to put their family and their loved ones all on the line. And I just think that it takes its toll. And I think all healthcare workers across America are going to feel this. So you were saying that there is a rationing of personal protective equipment happening that creates concerns for your safety and the safety of your colleagues and the safety of the patients?

Yes. Yes. As healthcare workers, we're the biggest carriers. If we're all not wearing masks, if we're moving from mask from patient to patient, if we're reusing, I mean, we're infecting people. I mean, it's like the worst thing you can think of, really. The people who are taking care of you are just as infected. I mean, it's like a nightmare. Have any of your colleagues contracted the virus? Yes, several of them. Are all of the workers being tested in your hospital?

There's the opportunity to test. It's certainly increased. I would still say that there's a strong culture of not testing, fear of that tests are going to run out, concern of hospital bills. I can say in my experience, I went and got myself tested recently and was given an ER bill from another hospital. And hopefully that will get waived. I don't know. It was just like we needed people. And so we needed people to be working, even if you were afraid that you might be sick. It wasn't a place where like, oh, you feel sick, you should get a test.

It was like, oh, you feel sick? Are you that sick? Or I mean, we've all got it, right? Like that was the culture. I mean, we've all got it. Is it Like that was the culture. I mean, we've all got it. Is it scary to find out that your colleagues are testing positive? Yeah, I feel afraid for them because we see the progress of the virus and the disease and what it does to your body. And it is scary because, I mean, we know firsthand what it can do.

And it's really unknown how your body's going to respond. And are the patients coming into your ER, how sick are they? Patients are staying home until they're very, very sick. And then they're presenting quite sick, like get intubated at the front of the ER sick. They're struggling to walk. They're extremely out of breath. Most of them can't really talk that much. It's too much to talk. But the most interesting thing that I've seen with the COVID patients is that there's this sense of calm about them. Most patients that, like, as we all know,

if we get food stuck in our throat or we feel like we can't breathe, there's a sense of panic. The patients that are presenting are so tired that they're not even panicked anymore. They're just tired because they've just been working, like working to breathe. And what have you been telling them? How have you been treating them?

And has that treatment changed? I don't think my treatment has changed. I think what has changed for me, and I'd say a lot of healthcare workers think the same thing, is like if I'm on triage or if I'm in the COVID tent and a patient walks in, the first thing I think is if you've got the symptoms, are you going to live or are you going to die? That's my first thought now. And trying to speak to patients in a way that I really hope that there's hope, but when I talk to them and I don't know, I don't know if they can tell that I feel afraid for them as well, or I'm just trying to do my job.

as well or I'm just trying to do my job. You know, I bring ice water and yeah, I hope that the patient's warm and help them. Well, unfortunately they can't go to the bathroom because it's a public space. So I give them whatever they need to be able to go to the bathroom. I try to connect them to the Wi-Fi and stuff so they can talk to their families. I think I'm haunted by patients dying alone. I think we know as healthcare workers too much that patients are dying alone. And so I'm trying to advocate for them to make sure you call who you need to call and maybe FaceTime with somebody because we can't let visitors in.

And even if they end up on a vent, we still can't have the visitors come in and say goodbye. come in and say goodbye. And what does it feel like to be asking that question to yourself? Will this patient live or die? I think it's really traumatizing. I think there's an element that, yes, it comes with but in your own when I'm home and I'm here and I'm even coming home from a shift like and I see my neighborhood and all the people that I live around me and like I feel like that's how I'm constantly thinking and it's exhausting. But until we flatten the curve or we get to the other side, I don't think that I can think otherwise. How have you been holding up personally? Um, yeah, I think, I guess there's a part of me that's gone into automatic pilot.

I take myself running. I wasn't much of a runner before the crisis, but, um, I found that I need to run and I call it, I just go and run and I cry because I don't know what else to do with that energy or that thinking. You know, I try to eat well. I've got an amazing support network here in New Orleans, not only my partner, but like amazing friends that drop off food. And that truly really helps in a way I never thought it would. It feels like all of those friends are standing right there with me. And I think a lot of healthcare workers think the same thing, like a message, some food, just to check in doesn't make you feel as isolated in your thoughts. I try to sleep, but I've been waking up at like 3 or 4am with this knot in my stomach of anxiety. And I try to understand where that's coming from. And you know, last week I was like, it's because I'm scared mom and dad are going to die.

And then the last few nights, it's because the last two people I saw in the hospital, I know that they're not going to make it. And should I have made it better? Should I have done, should I have spent more time in the room? You know, there's just like the little things that you go through your mind. I mean, I've seen a lot of patients pass in my life and, but this is this like weird unknown. And I think it's because it's such a lonely, lonely virus and people are dying by themselves. You had described this year's Mardi Gras as such a joyous event. Yeah, it was. And looking back, given everything that's happened since then, given everything you've been through, how do you think about Mardi Gras now? For me, Mardi Gras, when I look back, I feel like my thinking was so different. I felt extremely free in my mind, but I do think as a human race

that we will have a fundamental shift. I don't think that the joy of Mardi Gras and like what makes Mardi Gras so magical, which is like community and these magical moments that you have with people and wandering around the streets and in costume. I don't think that will ever go away, but I do think that Mardi Gras is going to be the Mardi Gras before the world changed. And I don't think things will be quite the same. Well, thank you so much, Yanti. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. We'll be right back.

Here's what else you need to know today. The Times reports that a jail in Chicago has become the largest known source of infections in the U.S. At least 353 cases can be linked to the jail, more than have been connected to the USS Theodore Roosevelt, a nursing home in Washington State, or the cluster in New Rochelle, New York. The outbreak confirms fears that jails and prisons, with their cramped quarters and unsanitary conditions, could become a major source of the virus's spread. And, I wish I could give you better news, but I think you know the truth. And that is that we are now some 300 delegates behind Vice President Biden, and the path toward victory is virtually impossible.

Bernie Sanders has dropped out of the presidential race. Ending a progressive campaign that began with financial and organizational might captured a series of major victories across the country, but collapsed by Super Tuesday in the face of a resurgence by Joe Biden. While this campaign is coming to an end, our movement is not. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us that, quote, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice, end quote. The fight for justice is what our campaign has been about.

The fight for justice is what our movement remains about. For more on Sanders' decision and what it means for the race, listen to the newest episode of The Latest. You can hear The Latest for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.