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David Parrott is only 19 years old and sits isolated with an oxygen mask that helps breathe his lungs devastated by COVID.
Sitting alone on bay 5 gives you too much time to think. And his young head is filled with worrying thoughts about how his health could be permanently damaged.
“I’m only 19 years old, that shows you that anyone can do it. You can see by the seriousness I’m taking to be on oxygen,” the theater student tells me.
David is concerned about his future and the damage that COVID-19 has done to his body
“I’ve been on oxygen since I’ve been here. I haven’t really had any medical conditions and all of a sudden I can be like this in a bed, in the hospital, unable to do anything because of this virus. It’s terrible.”
There is disbelief in his voice. Almost a self-questioning. I can see his eyes moving from side to side. You wonder, “How did I end up here?”
David tells me that he observed all the rules. But what really worries him is the future. Long COVID-19 it is something to fear.
“It turns my head that this could damage my lungs a little bit, this could potentially prevent me from doing the things I want to do.”
David is a patient in a high dependency COVID unit at Royal Surrey County Hospital. It is a specially built pavilion last year after the peak of the spring wave. It is this vision of the future that has probably saved the hospital from being overwhelmed by this wave.
Dr. de Vos says many patients feel guilty about having COVID-19
“It’s relentless, admissions come fast,” Dr. John de Vos tells me. He is a former cancer doctor who is now the hospital’s lead COVID-19 consultant.
He says he is treating an increasing number of patients like David.
“They are sicker now, sicker than the first wave. Sicker and younger. And when you’re sicker, you’re going to be in the hospital for a longer period of time and then you can’t always predict how things will go. We are seeing some tragic situations. “
Dr. John de Vos is a former cancer doctor who is now the lead COVID-19 consultant at Royal Surrey
The hospital is experiencing a relentless rise in admissions, including people who were infected over Christmas. Dr. de Vos says that some of these patients are sick with the virus and sick with guilt.
“We are seeing patients who had meetings over Christmas and New Years, which were allowed, but now we are seeing the aftermath of that and it brings a lot of guilt and excitement.”
Elaine Walsh says there is light at the end of the tunnel; staff still can’t see her
I’ve been in this room for 90 minutes. In that time, there are three patient transfers to other parts of the hospital, one patient is transferred to the ICU and two more patients are admitted. It’s like that all the time, says Elaine Walsh, an older sister in the Guildford COVID-19 neighborhood.
“Since we opened we have been very busy,” he said. “A patient comes out and a patient comes back in. He goes in and out constantly.
“For us, we are seeing it almost as if we are in a tunnel. We know that there is a light there, but we still cannot see it.”
