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medical investigation
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2021-02-15
One of my COVID-19 Case Investigations Experiences
I work as a medical investigator for my county, and I'm primarily tasked with asking detailed medical interviews and surveys of local patients (cases) who have recently tested positive for COVID-19. The second call I wanted to share regards an elderly case who had been admitted to the ICU shortly before I spoke with her. Her COVID-19 infection began approximately six weeks before our call, and she had long since recovered. Her husband, however, had not. He passed away in a local hospital, and she had only recently begun adjusting to her new life without him. She described him as the kindest man she had ever known, and stopped the interview several times to share heartbreaking stories of the wonderful things he had done for her and their family over more than six decades of marriage. She explained she had fallen in her backyard, broken her hip, and laid in the cold rain for about two hours before anyone found her. That's what landed her in ICU, NOT a COVID infection. She cried several times during our two-hour call, and I occasionally joined her. She explained that she had no COVID-19 symptoms, but still tested positive when the hospital administered their required test. I explained shedding and what that meant for her circumstances, which was the first time she remembered having been told that information. As she had not been contacted before to complete the survey, she graciously agreed to speak with me long enough to do so, all the while laid-up in ICU with a broken hip and awaiting a very unknown future. Among her greatest hopes that day was to make it through surgery well enough to go home to her son's gourmet cooking. She hadn't seen anyone but medical staff since her admit as the hospital disallowed visitors at that time. After we disconnected, I sent a Get Well gift to her hospital. She spoke several times of her Christian faith and belief in her husband's salvation, so I had a carved wood angel sent to her room from the hospital gift shop. We never spoke again, but I hope she understands how much she helped me that day by letting me help her in some small way. -
2021-02-15
One of my COVID-19 Case Investigations Experiences
I work as a COVID-19 medical investigator for the Arizona county in which I live. I recently called on a monolingual Spanish speaker who turned out to be a retirement-age mother of adult children and infant grandchildren. The first time we spoke, she very politely agreed to complete our medical interview by phone, and I began working through the initial demographics section. As she answered my questions, she began asking questions of her own regarding her potential experience and that of her family, all of whom were ill by that time or presumed to be positive due to extended close contact. The pace and tone of her speech evolved as her volume increased, and her intense emotional distress required no common language to comprehend. The primary source of her concern was her adult daughter who lived at another location with her two children. Our case feared her daughter had to have immediate help to even dial a phone, much less to care for herself and her children. The case wanted to break isolation at her home to travel to her daughter' home to aid her child and grandchildren, but, with the interpreter's help, we worked through her fears, established an action plan that allowed the case and her husband to stay home, and connected her daughter with medcal professionals to evaluate her circumstances and need for urgent intervention. The case and I agreed those needs superseded the interview as she was both aware and isolated, and we agreed to speak the following day. On callback, her emotions had completely turned around in that day, her daughter had been evaluated over the phone, acquired the information and guidance she needed, and the case believed her child and grandchildren were now safe and well. Throughout the roughly 90-minute translated interview, she repeatedly expressed her gratitude for our having called and helped her family and information and guidance. Despite the number of times our patients/cases have expressed anger, outrage, suspicion, or worse at our medical investigation and contact tracing efforts, this series of calls made them worthwhile.