Pregnant doctor navigates COVID-19 battle in low-income Los Angeles

Christina Cook and Lucy Nicholson

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -After applying a coronavirus patient to a ventilator to help breathe, doctor Zafia Anklesaria said her baby did not kick during emergency procedures.

It was only when she returned to her office to inform him of her presence that she removed most of her protective equipment.

The ankle is 7 months pregnant with the first child. For 35 years, he has been the co-director of the intensive care unit at Common Spirit’s Dignity Health California Hospital Medical Center and serves mainly low-income Hispanic and African Americans at a hospital in downtown Los Angeles.

The hospital’s 22-bed COVID-19 intensive care unit has been close to or nearly full since the end of March. Due to the large number of patients in crisis, some nurses work 24-hour shifts, she said.

“The socio-economic class we offer is that people tend to live in neighborhoods and they don’t really have the privilege of keeping a good social distance. As a result, they tend to be more infected. There is, “said Ancresaria.

According to county public health data, people living in the poorest areas of Los Angeles County die from COVID-19 more than twice as fast as those living in the richest areas.

The 12-hour shift in Uncle Saria begins at 7am. She spends an average of 4 days a week at the ICU and seeing her lungs with her for 1-2 days.

After receiving the night shift updates, she began her round and put on her personal protective equipment and undressed when she entered and left the patient’s room. The nurse will check her regularly to make sure she is hydrated, properly protected and takes breaks to eat.

“I don’t think I can get this job pregnant without their help,” said Ancresaria. She was lucky to get pregnant easily and her baby “behaved very well.”

“I made my mom do my job well,” angry.

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But all day long, she worries that her baby may hear stress and frustration.

“So I try to reassure him if I take time for myself, I look down and say it’s all good, we got this,” she said.

Still, there are physical limitations. She finds it difficult to stay on her legs slowly and for a long time, and often comes home with backache.

Worried husband

One morning in May she had good news. One of the first patients with COVID-19 in the hospital, an employee who spent almost four weeks on the ventilator, was ready to remove the tracheostomy tube.

“Yes, you did it, you are officially released!” She told Vicente Arredondo, 65, as she removed the tube.

Her husband, thirty-year-old Aryan Jafari, was in a hurry to take her shower when she was exhausted and came home to hold the dog. She initially offered the possibility of isolating herself from him, but he did not hear it.

He is worried about her and her baby, but “fortunately he understands that I want to work and want to work,” she said. “This is the job we signed up for. If you don’t do it, who will do it?”

Jafari is an engineer and most convinced of the data, so he sent him a study suggesting that pregnant women and babies are not at high risk for coronaviruses. If evidence of the opposite emerges, she promises to her family and leaves the ICU.

Originally from a family of Indian doctors, Unclesalia has been in the United States since college. Her parents still live in Kolkata and are worried that she may not be able to give birth.

Because of this virus, her husband is joining an ultrasound appointment via FaceTime, but she only needs to go for a prenatal consultation.

He gives her a written question for her obstetrician to answer: she can do this, can she do it?

“The answer is always yes. “

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(Report by Christina Cook and Lucini Colson, edited by Ross Corbin and Diane Craft)