Disciplines

African American Studies

Abstract

Summary by Eliza Anderson.

Chris Grantham, M.D., is a critical care attending and director of the ICU at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx.

He grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. He returned to the area after medical school to complete his residency in internal medicine at St. Barnabas and his fellowship in critical care at Montefiore. After years of working as an attending at St. Barnabas, Grantham began his position as the Critical Care Director in December 2019, mere months before the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

In the weeks and months after the virus was first discovered in China, St. Barnabas prepared for the arrival of COVID-19 patients by developing disaster plans for extending the ICU. Grantham recalls, however, that the number of staff and supplies needed to care for the record-high number of patients was underestimated. Within a few weeks of the disease’s spread to the U.S., the ICU had reached maximum capacity, and the ratio of nurses to patients stretched up to 1 to 6. Key issues for Grantham’s ICU at the height of the pandemic included the number of available ventilators, limited hospital staff, and limited space to extend the ICU. For himself and his staff, overworking was an everyday reality. When asked about the hardest days, Grantham recalls that “those days where the volume is so high and the acuity is so high, and there is no – you're not able to stop. Those are the worst in the pandemic.” The most rewarding days for Grantham were when patients were successfully weaned off the ventilator.

Grantham notes that the statistics for COVID patients in the Bronx were especially dire, and that a lack of preventative care for conditions such as diabetes and obesity raised the risk factor for many patients who may have been uninsured or on Medicaid. Speaking on St. Barnabas’ relationship to the Bronx community during the pandemic, he says, “We're a small hospital, but I think we showed how important we are to the community here during that time.”

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