"I Have COVID-19. Here's All the Gear the Doctors Needed to See Me"

This is an anonymous first-hand account of a patient in Santa Clara County Area, California, who was diagnosed with COVID-19. Here they document the amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) they noticed the healthcare workers needed to treat them.

Date: March 24, 2020

The purpose of this blog post is to draw awareness to the amount of PPE that can be consumed during one COVID-19-positive patient visit. Note that I do not have a medical background and that these are my observations and opinions only.

It had been 10 days since I first tested positive for COVID-19, which worried me because I'm in one of the at-risk groups due to my history of asthma.  I was still experiencing shortness of breath, coughing (with fluid production at times), wheezing, and light-headedness. My condition hadn't been improving over the past several days, so I contacted my Primary Care Physician to discuss my symptoms and concerns.  My PCP recommended I contact the ER Nurse so I could be further evaluated.

After speaking on the phone with the ER Nurse, I arrived at the ER facility and they had an outdoor waiting area set up to check-in patients that were COVID-19 positive or potentially COVID-19 positive. The person checking me in had full PPE on including a full gown, eye shield, face mask, and gloves.  A nurse technician then came outside to the check-in area and had the same PPE equipment including a double layer of gloves.

When I finished check-in and vitals were taken, the nurse technician directed and accompanied me to a repurposed side entrance (it was normally just an emergency exit door, but now served a dual purpose). Just inside, there was another door that opened to my room.  After the nurse technician finished their work, they removed and discarded their gown and gloves in a bio-hazard bin, then exited the room.

Next, I had an X-ray technician come into my room with a portable X-ray machine, which was going to be used to see if I had any pneumonia.  The X-ray technician was also donning the full PPE set of a gown, eye shield, face mask, and gloves.  They discarded their gown upon leaving my room.

The doctor visited me next, also wearing the full PPE set.  Thankfully, the chest X-ray did not display signs of pneumonia.  We talked about my symptoms and concerns and the doctor said, due to my asthma, that my recovery could be 4-6 weeks from when I tested positive for COVID-19 (instead of the 2 weeks average for people not in an at-risk health category).  They prescribed me with a certain type of inhaler to help ease my symptoms.  Upon the doctor's exit from my room, they discarded their gown.  A nurse with full PPE then came in to give me my discharge papers.

In total, I was in close proximity with 5 medical professionals, each with a full PPE set.  From my own observation, I saw three gowns discarded in the bio-hazard bin in my room along with several sets of gloves.  If each of these 5 people discarded the other pieces of PPE once they were out of my line of sight, that leaves the total PPE discarded numbers below:

Set of gloves: 5-10 (some were wearing two layers of gloves)

Eye shields: 5

Full gowns: 5

Face masks: 5

Note that the numbers above do not include the PPE required for the people cleaning my room after I left.  Also be aware of the cleaning liquids, wipes, or other material that are used for cleaning and disinfecting.  

It's clear that there can be a significant amount PPE required to reduce and/or eliminate spreading the infection to medical professionals and other patients or visitors.  I'm thankful that these medical professionals took very good precautions when working with me.  Medical facilities across the world currently may not have (or soon will not have) the option to use sufficient quantities of PPE.  Let's do our part to help flatten the curve by helping those facilities in need with PPE donations.