Abstract
[Extract]
“This is all I have! For 30 days!” These were the words spoken to me as an exasperated health care worker pulled a used N95 facemask from his backpack. I am a transplant ethicist who has lived in Italy for the past several years as an ethics consultant but have experience in training physicians and medical students to deal with ethical decision-making. The vision of one N95 facemask in use for 30 days with potentially hundreds of patients sent a flood of goose bumps across my body. I could foresee coronavirus particles transferring from the outside of masks to hands, to surfaces, to patients, and to other health care workers. It was the first week of March 2020 and already there was inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers in Lombardy, Italy.
“This is all I have! For 30 days!” These were the words spoken to me as an exasperated health care worker pulled a used N95 facemask from his backpack. I am a transplant ethicist who has lived in Italy for the past several years as an ethics consultant but have experience in training physicians and medical students to deal with ethical decision-making. The vision of one N95 facemask in use for 30 days with potentially hundreds of patients sent a flood of goose bumps across my body. I could foresee coronavirus particles transferring from the outside of masks to hands, to surfaces, to patients, and to other health care workers. It was the first week of March 2020 and already there was inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers in Lombardy, Italy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 290-291 |
| Number of pages | 2 |
| Journal | Progress in Transplantation |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 2 Jul 2020 |
| DOIs |
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| Publication status | Published - 1 Sept 2020 |