This Morning’s IVF consultant says she will carry the people who died of coronavirus in her ‘heart and mind forever’.
Dr Larisa Corda, 37, from London, usually works as an obstetrician, gynaecologist and fertility expert at an NHS teaching hospital in south London, but volunteered to work in the ICU of a South London hospital at the peak of the coronavirus crisis.
The doctor spoke of an Easter weekend she will ‘never forget’, where she and her colleagues felt ‘overwhelmed’ and ‘helpless in the face of being able to save them.’
She told how she was ‘moved’ by experiencing so much death after sending so much time ‘bringing life into the world’, and finds solace in knowing she helped patients ‘have a dignified end’.
Speaking from the hospital during her last shift, she said: ‘It’s really hard to sugar coat this. We have seen an awful lot of people die and I’m sure I and my colleagues around the country will never forget that Easter weekend.
‘That’s when I spoke to you and found that intensely difficult because we had just lost so many patients within the space of a few days and we were helpless in the face of being able to save them.
‘We were overwhelmed that despite all our best measures we just could not help an awful lot of people, and that’s really hard to take as a doctor or a nurse in this.’
She went on to speak about the stark difference between her usual job creating life and working on the coronavirus front line.
‘Because to some extent you’re used to seeing death, said Larisa, ‘But it doesn’t make it any easier. You’re never desensitized to it.
‘For me personally, coming from the other end of being able to help create life and bring new life into the world to be completely at the other end was something really, really moving for me and I have found it difficult.’
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