A Covid journey - the view from the frontline
Words by Helen Ford, ITV Tyne Tees Health Correspondent
So often it seems the COVID-19 pandemic is measured in statistics. Each day we hear figures for the number of new cases identified, the number of people in hospital and, sadly, the number who have died.
Stepping onto the critical care unit at the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, and the crisis can no longer be quantified in numbers. In these beds are individual patients, each with their own story and with loved ones, willing them to return home.
Among the patients is Gordon Fisher, who has been treated here for the past three weeks. He tells me how he used to walk his dog twice a day. Now, he says, he couldn't tie his shoelace. "If anyone thinks this is a joke," he says, "they should come here." Everything - even breathing - he explains, is now so difficult.
For the staff here, the second COVID wave has brought challenges too. The virus is now better understood and teams have developed ways of treating it. Intensive care consultant, Dr Irene McEleavy explains there is a much greater appreciation of what patients are facing - both physical and psychological.
Despite huge progress, staff say that in some ways, the autumn has been harder than the spring. While patients are still predominantly men of 50+ with pre-existing conditions, far more younger people have been admitted this time. The critical care unit has seen double the numbers of patients compared with the first wave - over a shorter timescale.
With the first COVID patient admitted to this hospital on 11th March, this has been an arduous year for staff. Nurse Daryl Arcillas tells me about the range of emotions he has felt and the frustrations of seeing people still failing to heed the warnings about the dangers of COVID.
"Everyone wants to do their best," he says, and acknowledges that amid the pandemic, it's easy for NHS workers to forget their own wellbeing. Daryl has remedied that with basic, socially distanced activities, such as going for a walk on the beach.
Despite the promise of mass vaccinations, it will be months before the results of that programme are seen here and in other hospitals. Dr McEleavy foresees a third wave of the virus, as restrictions are further relaxed. With Christmas approaching, she has a plea to communities across North Tyneside and Northumberland.
Dr McEleavy says she is taking care of herself and her family - so she can come to work. Her hope is that others can play their part, to help her.