A Missouri doctor has shared a harrowing video acting out what the final moments of life look like for a patient dying from COVID-19.
Dr. Kenneth E. Remy, a critical care physician in Missouri Baptist Medical Center in St. Louis, shared the 78-second clip to Twitter on Saturday in which he mimed the first-person view of what the patient would see as they receive treatment.
An emotional Remy, who also serves as a city councilman in Wildwood, Missouri, said he made the video to encourage more people to wear masks and to keep social distancing as coronavirus cases in the state rise.
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Dr. Kenneth E. Remy, a critical care physician in Missouri Baptist Medical Center in St. Louis, shared the sobering 78-second clip to Twitter on Saturday after he finished a night shift
The video begins with Remy moving the camera forward and back to mimic what the patient would see while hooked up to a ventilator.
‘This is what it looks like when you breathe 40 times a minute, have an oxygen level that’s dipping well below 80,’ says Remy, who is dressed in his medical scrubs, a mask and an eye shield.
‘This is what it’s going to look like,’ he adds as he places the phone down and acts out how he would insert a breathing tube into the patient.
‘I hope that the last moments of your life don’t look like this. Because this is what you’ll see at the end of your life if we don’t start wearing masks when we’re out in public.
‘When we don’t practice social distancing. When we don’t wash our hands frequently.
‘Because I promise you, this will be what you see,’ the physician continues.
‘I promise you, this is what your mother, or your father, or your children when they get COVID disease, will see at the end of their lives. This is serious.’
‘I beg you, please practice the precautions to reduce transmission of covid disease so we can effectively prevent disease for you and your loved ones,’ Remy finally implores.
He places the phone down and acts out how he would insert a breathing tube into the patient
‘Please listen as this is dire. I don’t want to be the last person that looks in your frightened eyes,’ he added in a tweet as he shared the video.
According to state data, there have been 282,792 cases of coronavirus confirmed in Missouri and 3,776 deaths.
New daily cases have risen dramatically since the start of November, hitting a record on November 9 with 7,414 new daily cases.
In the past seven days, new daily cases have risen to an average of 3,741 and deaths to 77 a day.
The state also has a troubling 20 percent positivity rate and is doubling its coronavirus cases each month.
According to the St. Louis Dispatch, Missouri Baptist Medical Center where Remy works has experienced record highs in coronavirus cases, hospital stays and deaths in the past ten days.
Remy made the video on Saturday after finishing up an exhausting night shift where he was caring for some of the sickest COVID-19 patients.
He told CNN that he has so far treated over 1,000 Covid patients and has intubated well over 100 of them.
He is also often the person to tell families that their loved one has died and said he had the conversation eleven times in the past week.
New daily cases in Missouri have risen dramatically since the start of November, hitting a record on November 9 with 7,414 new daily cases and remaining high
Daily coronavirus deaths Missouri have now reached an average of 77
Remy, pictured bottom center, said he made the video after a tiring night shift and after a week in which he have to tell 11 families their loved one had died of COVID-19
The Missouri Baptist Medical Center, pictured, where Remy works has experienced record highs in coronavirus cases, hospital stays and deaths in the past ten days
He revealed he felt desperate at the lack of mask-wearing as he made the video and hoped to reach those who believe that not wearing one is a statement of their freedom.
‘We can’t build any more capacity,’ Remy warned. ‘You can’t grow medical staff if they’re getting sick.’
‘Wearing a mask and not getting the disease is the best way for you to protect your personal liberties,’ the councilman added. ‘Your personal liberty won’t matter to you when I put a breathing tube in you, and then you die.’
He added that he feels frustrated that some people are telling him they believe a mask to be ineffective against protecting from the spread of covid or that they don’t want to wear one because the likelihood of dying from the disease is low.
‘If I had to win the lotto with those chances, I’d play it every single day,’ he said of the chances.
‘Many of these patients will die unexpectedly and at the end of the day, as an ICU doctor, I’m the one that’s got to call,’ he added. ‘I think that, that was weighing on me.’
As of Wednesday evening, there were more than 12.6million coronavirus cases reported in the United States and 260,000 deaths.
