A New York Paramedic — Part Two.
by Ben Duckworth
Back in early April, when I was bed-bound in my London flat with suspected COVID-19 — I still feel profoundly lucky to have escaped with as mild a dose as I did — the catastrophic seriousness of this virus was beginning to hit home. As the worldwide death toll grew to levels we could never have imagined when we first heard of this illness at the beginning of 2020, a new solemnity pervaded every conversation.
People who’ve recovered from COVID are increasingly talking about the tough emotional side of the illness, and it’s true that this, combined with the all-encompassing 24/7 news coverage, was a mental examination that sometimes felt overpowering.
In amongst all of this, though, there was one report that really stood out. It was on the BBC website, and concerned a man called Anthony Almojera. Anthony is a senior paramedic of 17 years in New York City, which at that point was the epicentre of the global COVID outbreak. Scarcely believable mortality figures were being reported, in stark contrast to the upbeat, often boastful tone of President Trump.
Anthony spoke of the previous Sunday being “the toughest of his career”. One line stood out for me:
“You can have a busy day sometimes. But never this…”
The whole piece is available here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52196815
When I had recovered from my own illness, I thought of Anthony and wondered how he was doing. I subsequently found him on Twitter, gladly discovered that unlike many of his peers across the globe he was physically healthy, and decided to get in touch. I opened with the following statement, which is absolutely true:
“I have been to NYC once in my life, in October 2017, and I’d never experienced anything like it. I immediately fell in love with the city. I own a brewery in London, and a lot of the reason for coming was to visit the city’s vibrant brewing scene. It ended up being the least interesting part of our trip. NYC, to me, is the city that London wants to be. Its sense of community and togetherness blew my mind, and I can’t wait for the time when I get to to see it again.”
I asked Anthony if I could ask him a few questions, as it had been six weeks since that life-altering piece that hit many people so hard, and I also thought it might be interesting to contrast his experiences with those of front-line staff in the UK currently being reported. He graciously agreed, and here they are:
In the piece with the BBC, you speak of working multiple sixteen-hour days in succession. Are you still having to maintain this intense level of work? And how much time off do you get in an average week?
During the height of this we kept the schedule like this for a long time. Thankfully the call volume has slowed down but during its peak, I was maybe getting one day off.
One of the biggest tragedies in the UK has been the number of front-line medical staff who’ve passed away, which is widely considered to be as a result of a lack of adequate PPE to do their jobs safely. Is this something you and your colleagues have experienced?
We experienced the same shortage of PPE. The hospitals were critically short. Unfortunately we have had 4 EMTs pass away from COVID and at one time 25% of the workforce was out sick with it. It’s a constant concern for many of us.
When he was still doing them, I made a point of watching Donald Trump’s press conferences every night. His refusal to acknowledge that everything was anything other than fantastic has been a source of great surprise to us, given the horrific numbers coming out of the US — even if our government take a similar, if less extreme line over here. Do you agree with his painting of the pandemic, and how do you feel it affects your work on a day to day basis? And finally on Trump, if you could say one thing to him with a guarantee of him listening, what would it be?
I don’t know what to say about Trump. His comments lead to people getting sick and dying. I’d say to him quit. There’s no redeeming nothing with his presidency.
How do you switch off when you’re not working?
Lately this has been extremely difficult. It’s hard as everything is COVID and my brain is so wired when I get home. Trying to work on this currently, most of my co workers are saying the same thing.
Again referring to the BBC article, you referred to your day as a “tour”. Does it feel like you’re at war? Does it help you in your darkest moments to frame it as such?
It feels like a war with no clear enemy. Everything is potentially infected. This leads to a lot of anxiety. Hyper vigilance is what wears us out. It doesn’t help me. I try and think of it as a virus and that it’s not personal. There’s no political objective with it. If I think of it as “war” all the time then it gets to me emotionally. I describe it as a war in the interviews as it helps frame it for people who aren’t directly impacted by this.
You seem like an incredibly positive person, and this no doubt radiates to your colleagues. Have you managed to maintain this outlook of always looking to the next case, and hoping for the best, in the month since your “darkest day”?
I’m trying to stay upbeat. It gets hard as I am human but yes if I try it does provide hope for others hopefully and that kind of keeps me going. Keeps me in the game so to speak.
As mentioned earlier, one of my favourite things about NYC was the phenomenal sense of community. Has this prevailed, and is it helping the city though in a way that perhaps other places can’t manage? I’ve seen stories such as Jewish funerals causing huge tensions between different groups, but are these isolated incidents?
Some are isolated, and yes the city has shown tremendous support but I was hoping this would galvanize the country as a whole to come together. I don’t feel it has, as you see people calling it fake news, conspiracy, protests etc. This makes me feel that we may not learn lessons from this. It also creates tremendous worry this may all come back again.
When was the last time you laughed? Like, properly head back belly laughed?
I watched Blazing Saddles the other day and it always makes me laugh. Some movies I go to cause it takes me out of my head for a bit. (I fully agree with this selection)
Where do you hope New York will be, in relation to the pandemic, in a year’s time?
I hope it’s all over. I don’t feel it will be.
Thank you so much to Anthony for taking the time to answer my questions, somehow remaining upbeat, and of course for all the amazing work he and his colleagues perform day in, day out. The astonishing selflessness of our healthcare professionals continues to humble me, and we should never forget the value of every single one of them. People should not be measured by their economic standing, and never again should we take so-called “key workers” for granted. They are at the beating heart of every single community on earth.
My own personal take is that we will only survive this pandemic as one species. Ill-informed confrontation and nationalism have no place in this new world, and I hope and pray that the American people will do the right thing in November. However perfect Joe Biden isn’t, he’s a whole lot fitter for office than the current incumbent.
I can’t wait to revisit NYC, hopefully meet up with Anthony, and buy him several of the largest beers he’ll have had in some time.
Cheers Anthony; stay well, sir.
