By Debbie Moore-Black, RN
By: Debbie Moore-Black, RN
I enter the hospital to work again. I must work as I have 3 small children and a husband presently out of work d/t Covid. He is “non-essential.”
There’s a violinist playing at the employee entrance. I know they do this to lift our spirits. But it’s a slow sad string that reminds me of the titanic. And yes every day I clock in, I feel as if it’s a sinking ship.
By now we should have plenty of N-95’s, plenty of face shields and gloves and disposable gowns to enter that covid room, that Covid patient that never goes away. That continues to multiply.
It’s a painful job. I thought I would be saving lives as a nurse, but instead we are prolonging death.
This ICU is 24 beds. All Covid patients. 24 strong. I gown and glove and put my N95 mask on and face shield to enter that patient’s room. That patient with Covid… he’s 40 something, and he refused to wear a mask anywhere. Said it was a hoax. Said it wouldn’t happen to him. Spread his infection to his mom and grandmother and anyone else that potentially came in contact.
He had come gasping for air to the ED. It didn’t help that he was an everyday 2 pack of cigarettes smoker. That everyday he downed several cheeseburgers with fries and a milkshake. That every night he drank many cans of beer.
He said it was against his rights of freedom to wear a mask. He said it was a muzzle. He said he wasn’t going to be one of those sheep that follow a ridiculous rule of social distancing, washing hands and wearing a mask.
The muzzle he said suppressed his right to speak.
And now he contacted Covid. His O2 sats were in the low 80’s, he had co-morbidities like being over weight, high cholesterol, cigarette smoker and now his lungs were failing him. As Covid easily attached and infected his lungs.
It was only a matter of time for Johnny to earn dialysis, multi-system organ failure crept in. Kidneys failing, blood clots to his brain. And no matter what we did with those miraculous drugs of remdesivir and steroids, it wasn’t working. His breathing became asynchronous with the ventilator. We called it “guppy” breathing. Like a fish without water. He couldn’t follow commands. Family held tight for hope. For a miracle.
The MRI showed no activity to his brain. Anoxic injury with blood clots.
Covid rapidly ate through his body.
I pulled my work phone out, heavily encased in a protective plastic, so I could face time his family.
No holding hands. No final kiss on the cheek.
Just a final vision of Johnny.
We pronounced him dead at 0515. Notified the family. The morgue was notified. Make room for one more dead person to be stacked on top of another like multiple bunk beds.
Gave him his final bath. Toe tied him for his identity. Wrapped him up in his morgue plastic zip up bag. And we sent him off.
Clocking out we all face local police and administrators and firemen and medics cheering us on. Congratulating us. Calling us heroes.
Free pizza and ice cream for us.
And we bow our heads low.
Because we don’t want the cheering and balloons and the violinist and the pizza and ice cream and clapping hands.
We don’t want to be called heroes.
What we want is respect for each other.
What we want is for you to wear a simple mask.
What we want is for you to social distance and wash your hands.
What we want is for you to allow us to clock out and go home to our families safely without feeling that we potentially could infect our loved ones because of you being so incredibly careless.
Pay attention to science and medicine or else you may be the next careless victim.
Wear your mask.
Deal with the truth and get over your ego.
Do Not Resuscitate 
It’s important to pay attention to “the science” – all of it.
Humanity is currently dealing with a fast-acting, cold virus pandemic superimposed upon a slow-acting obesity/chronic inflammatory disease epidemic that apparently kills people at an acceptable rate. Nobody get’s excited about the fact that heart disease has become the number 1 killer in the World. How did that happen?
“We now know that major changes have taken place in the food supply over the last 100 years, when food technology and modern agriculture led to enormous production of vegetable oils high in ω-6 fatty acids, and changed animal feeds from grass to grains, thus increasing the amount of ω-6 fatty acids at the level of LA (from oils) and arachidonic acid (AA) (from meat, eggs, dairy). This led to very high amounts of ω-6 fatty acids in the food supply for the first time in the history of human beings.” Web search – David Brown Kassam
That shift in omega-6 intake has been largely ignored by medicine and the field of nutrition. As far as I can tell, there is not a science writer in the World who routinely reports on linoleic acid and arachidonic acid research findings. That’s why you’ve not seen this: “Separately, on analyzing global COVID-19 mortality data and comparing it with 12 risk factors for mortality, they found unsaturated fat intake to be associated with increased mortality. This was based on the dietary fat patterns of 61 countries in the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization database. Surprisingly, they found saturated fats to be protective.” Web search – Vijay P. Singh COVID-19
Why the surprise that saturated fats are protective? Because this is what has been going on for 6 decades: “Worldwide guidelines have promoted the replacement of saturated fatty acids (SFA) with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). Web search – Substantial Increase in Compliance with Saturated Fatty Acid Intake
Ever wonder why no country on Earth has been able to reverse the obesity epidemic? Here’s why. “Obesity already is associated with numerous underlying risk factors for COVID-19, including hypertension, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and chronic kidney and liver disease. Metabolic changes caused by obesity — such as insulin resistance and inflammation — make it difficult for individuals with obesity to fight some infections, a trend that can be seen in other infectious diseases, such as influenza and hepatitis.” Web search – Barry Popkin COVID-19 complications
Obesity causes metabolic changes such as insulin resistance and inflammation? Talk about confusion. Insulin resistance has to do with damage to mitochondrial function. On YouTube – Omega-6 Apocalypse.
Inflammation develops when the endocannabinoid system gets disrupted because of excessive omega-6 linoleic acid and or arachidonic acid intake. Web search – Fatty acid modulation of the endocannabinoid system
Scientists who pay attention to the “the science” are few and far between. They are not the ones informing public nutrition policy else the anti-saturated fat campaign would have lost traction decades ago and humanity would not be in this COVID-19 mess. Web search – anti-saturated fat campaign.
Here is a short list of informed sources you can access with web searches:
Anna Haug arachidonic acid
Olav Christophersen animal products
Annadie Krygsman arachidonic acid
Olaf Adam arachidonic acid
J. Bruce German arachidonic acid 1996
Olesia Makhutova fatty acids in fodder crops
This is just a cursory discussion of the subject matter. To gage the extent of the body of science that is currently being ignored, do web searches using arachidonic acid or linoleic acid in conjunction with whatever mental or physical maladies come to mind.
LikeLike
Thank you for this.
As one of those at “high risk,” I know all too well that there is something terribly wrong with our nutritional guidelines. A lifelong sufferer from thyroid disease, (diagnosed at 10), and now enduring a wide range of symptoms- most consistent of those being chronic inflammation, I know that my diet is a major catalyst. I can’t put my finger on what I’m doing wrong because I’m eating far “healthier” than anyone I know.
I’ll be reviewing your aforementioned sources. I have one question- WHY is this information not being pushed forward? I just don’t understand.
LikeLiked by 1 person