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Greek Doctor at the Frontline of Coronavirus Battle in New York

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Leonidas Palaiodimos, a Greek physician who works at Montefiore Medical Center in the New York City borough of the Bronx, is serving on the front lines of the battle against the coronavirus.

Palaiodimos, an Assistant Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, graduated from the School of Medicine of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He now finds himself working in the American city which has been by far the hardest hit by the global pandemic.

As of Monday afternoon, there were more than 130,689 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the state of New York, including more than 72,181 in New York City alone. At least 4,758 people with COVID-19 have died in the state, which has by far the largest number — around 40 percent — of all the confirmed cases in the entire country.

For Palaiodimos, as well as the rest of the hospital staff, this is an unprecedented situation. “I will not describe it as chaos, but this is a very difficult situation,” he admits while speaking to Greek Reporter.

“On Monday alone we had 600 coronavirus patients. About 100 of these cases were under intensive care treatment. No hospital in the world can sustain such pressures for a long time,” he explains.

Palaiodimos describes the agonizing moments when the rapid response alarm sounds in the hospital, signifying that a patient is in urgent need of a doctor. “In ordinary times, the alarm was heard maybe once or twice a day. Now it is buzzed very half an hour or so,” he says.

Most of the coronavirus patients, however, do not need to be transferred into intensive care. “I would say about 80 percent may just need some oxygen supply, and after four to five days they are released to go home. The rest of the patients in intensive care are intubated and, sadly, some of them will die,” Palaiodimos states.

Doctors agonize over ethical decisions all the time, he adds. “The truth is that we have to make heartbreaking decisions. Sometimes we have to choose which patient will get a bed in intensive care depending on the probability of his or her recovery.”

The Greek physician says that the hospital has stopped performing surgery for non-urgent cases, so that the maximum amount of resources can be directed in the fight against COVID-19. It has also restricted access to outpatients, mobilized doctors of many different specialties and placed hospital beds in converted office space in order to meet the extraordinary demand.

“The hospital is at the breaking point, but thankfully indications are that the spread of the disease is at its highest point,” says Palaiodimos, who admits that he feels the stress. However, he adds, he is not frightened, telling Greek Reporter, “I simply do not have the time to feel scared.” 

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