7 Q's with Dr. Kevin Chung

The following is a series of questions I asked my dad, Dr. Kevin Chung, who has been working with COVID patients for the last 9 months.

1. About how many COVID patients do you see a day on average?

The last time I was in a 20 bed ICU, there were on average 10-12 COVID patients mixed in with other patients.

2. How has your life changed as both a doctor and as a father during this pandemic?

First of all, as a physician, it’s changed the way we practice medicine because we have to assume everyone has COVID. Even patients that don’t come in with classic COVID symptoms end up getting COVID, so it’s really easy to get exposed if you let your guard down. Also, as an academic physician, I am used to traveling to conferences up to twice a month and having in person conferences/seminars with other doctors. Now, everything is virtual. In terms of my family, things have actually temporarily gotten better because I get to be home more. Because when I’m not working in the hospital, I get to be home. I think that has been one of the silver linings of this pandemic.

3. What has been the hardest thing for you while working with COVID patients?

The hardest thing has been watching patients go through this critical illness by themselves. Most times when people are in the hospital, their families are always visiting. Because of the nature of covid and restrictive family visitation policies, however, families can’t do that anymore. Patients are alone in their bed, surrounded by strangers, sometimes during their last moments. Something that I remember most are the looks in people's eyes when I go see them: they’re just scared. It's really tough to process, even as a seasoned doctor, and I've seen a lot of bad things, especially during wartime.

4. What do you think are some common misconceptions about COVID and what are your responses to those misconceptions?

Some people think that COVID is overblown, and that it’s closer to the flu that we have every year. What they don’t realize is that it is 10 times worse and more contagious than the flu. That has really created a problem because hospitals are much more full than they were every year because of the flu. The worst flu outbreak in the last 20 years that I’ve personally experienced, for example, was the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. A lot of people died during that year. This one just blows that out of the water in comparison. I wish everyone knew how serious this was. If they have any doubt and think it’s not that big of a deal, I wish I could take them to the hospital with me to show them, but we can’t do that unfortunately.

5. What is the protocol you follow when you step into the hospital?

First of all, there’s a difference between a hospital that takes care of COVID patients, and a hospital designated only for COVID patients. Because of how widespread COVID has been, it's become a necessity to create these COVID hospitals and designate them to covid patients only otherwise it would overwhelm the other hospitals. The protocol I follow has changed overtime, but in general, the first thing is that when you enter a COVID hospital you do it wearing a surgical mask, similar to everywhere else. But when I go into the COVID ward, I have to wear an N95 mask that is perfectly fit to my face. Then I wear a surgical mask over that, a face shield, a head cover, gloves, and a gown. While in the COVID ward and ICU, I can’t take off any of that until I leave. One thing that is unique is that the nurses and other doctors don’t know what we all look like. I’ve seen people a dozen times and I still don’t know what they look like.

6. What is the protocol you follow when you leave the hospital?

Again, this has evolved over time. I used to be really careful when I perceived this to be a disease spread by contact. But it turns out it's mostly spread through the air, through aerosols. I used to come home, take off my shoes in the garage, run to a designated isolation room, put all my clothes into a bag or dump them in a washer, and then shower before I even talked to anyone in the family. Now I realize that it is not necessary as much, and I just try my best to wear a mask for at least 10 days around the house and sleep in a different room after I have worked in a COVID ICU.

7. What is a message you would like to share with people about COVID-19?

The message I would like to share is that I know that it has been really tough for everyone. This is probably one of the toughest things anybody has had to go through during their lifetime. It’s stressful and isolation is lonely. Not being able to socialize with friends and family is tough. It was really tough during the summer because there was no end in sight, but now there is really hope because, today in fact (December 14, 2020), the first vaccines were administered to healthcare workers and at risk patients all around the country. That gives me hope because this marks the beginning of the end of our collective nightmare. I’m really looking forward to watching and tracking charts of vaccinations going up and COVID infections and deaths going down. We should really be hopeful that although this Christmas is going to be really tough, next Christmas we’ll be back to normal. The end is in sight.

If you would like to know more information about Dr. Chung, please refer to his twitter page: https://twitter.com/chungk1031