Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
DR. CHRISTOPHER VOSCOPOULOS
ICU DOCTOR
“YOU CAN IMAGINE JUST THE SENSE OF RELIEF AMONGST THE STAFF, TO SEE THAT WE HAD FOUND A TREATMENT THAT WAS SUCCESSFUL, AND THEN TO SEE PATIENTS SUCH AS ALFRED RECOVER AND GO HOME,” VOSCOPOULOS SAID, REFERENCING A PATIENT WHO WAS NEAR DEATH BEFORE THE DISEASE REVERSED ITS COURSE. HIS DISCHARGE IN APRIL WAS FILMED BY THE STAFF, WHO WILDLY APPLAUDED AS HE WAS WHEELED OUT OF THE HOSPITAL.
The early days of treating COVID-19 were the worst, recalls Voscopoulos, medical director of the intensive care unit at Southern Hills Hospital in Las Vegas. Despite receiving the best known treatments for pneumonia, patients were dying.
In that time of great uncertainty, one thing was clear: New treatments would need to be found. He saw a steep learning curve ahead, where “every day it took me to learn would mean that possibly another patient might not make it.”
But soon Voscopoulos, 44, started to see that certain techniques helped patients, some as simple as positioning them on their stomachs instead of their backs, a technique called “proning.”
“You can imagine just the sense of relief amongst the staff, to see that we had found a treatment that was successful, and then to see patients such as Alfred recover and go home,” he said, referencing a patient who was near death before the disease reversed its course.
His discharge in April was filmed by the staff, who wildly applauded as he was wheeled out of the hospital.
“We wanted to share that not just within the hospital but … with the nation and the world, and let people know that we are not helpless here,” Voscopoulos said. “There are things that we can immediately learn to do. And let’s build upon them.”
The message to staff became that “it was OK to be fearful, but it was not OK to think that that fear was going to conquer us.”
Despite the grueling pace of work as the virus spread throughout Nevada, Voscopoulos said he felt invigorated.
“I felt fortunate to be in the position that I was, and I actually gained energy through the whole thing, through the gratitude of being able to play the part that I did,” he said.
Voscopoulos joined the hospital staff in December 2019, just three months before the first case of coronavirus was detected in Las Vegas. When the pandemic struck, his family delayed their move from New Hampshire before finally relocating in December. He has two young daughters, one born during the pandemic.
He believes that the end of the crisis may be in sight. For him, it will be over when the national outlook is one of “no matter what happens with the future of COVID, we have the confidence that we will be able to adapt and to ultimately win.”
He sees signs of this in the growing optimism of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. “They don’t think this is going to get the better of them,” he said.
Despite his upbeat outlook, Voscopoulos said his memories of the past year are sober ones:
“I’ll never forget the ones we couldn’t save.”