Mount Sinai COVID-19 Response Fund
Donation protected
Hi all. It’s my birthday today, and for the next 7 days, I will be hosting a fundraiser to help provide ventilators and masks to the frontline healthcare workers at Mount Sinai, the hospital where I work.
I am a clinical researcher on the thoracic oncology team. My patients, who are already extremely sick with stage III and stage IV metastatic lung cancer, are the most vulnerable demographic of patients in the world because of the nature of COVID-19 as a respiratory illness. Simply put, if my patients get COVID-19, they will likely die. Regardless of what you have heard on the news on or TV, the picture inside the hospital is bleak. We are losing more doctors and nurses every day. Every morning, I walk into the hospital and it feels more and more like a warzone. My direct colleagues are going down sick and there is a strong likelihood that I will as well. I am the lead research coordinator on one of the COVID-19 drug trials and although we are trying to fast-track the trial and get FDA approval as soon as possible, this process takes close to a year and we cannot wait for a vaccine to be produced.
Because of this, we are treating patients with standard medications. Thus, the work of nurses, doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, respiratory therapists, and other frontline providers becomes even more important. Unfortunately, the global shortage of masks and ventilators has increased the price of these materials and made them more and more difficult to get. A box of n95 masks, the highest-grade mask that healthcare workers need when dealing with COVID-19 patients, is normally around $20. The price has spiked 1000% as shortages occur and we are facing a reality where healthcare workers simply will not have the protection they need. Furthermore, ventilators—machines used as a last resort to save patients who are unable to breathe on their own—are in short supply.
Disregarding any talk of politics or actions that the government could be taking to mitigate this shortage, the simple truth is that hospitals need money to be able to purchase supplies at such high costs.
Providing hospitals with masks and ventilators will save the lives of healthcare workers as well as people just like us - suddenly torn away from their normal lives who face the prospect of dying in a hospital bed, unable to see or speak to their family, immediately shipped to a mobile morgue and replaced by another dying patient.
I’ve spoken to many people my age who are looking for ways to help during this crisis and a donation here is the easiest and most effective way of doing so. Please send this to your friends and family. Text me at [phone redacted] or email at [email redacted] if you have anything to add or can think of any other way to help. I have direct access to frontline workers and the hospital administrators of the largest health system in the state and can pass on a message if needed.
STAY INSIDE.
I am a clinical researcher on the thoracic oncology team. My patients, who are already extremely sick with stage III and stage IV metastatic lung cancer, are the most vulnerable demographic of patients in the world because of the nature of COVID-19 as a respiratory illness. Simply put, if my patients get COVID-19, they will likely die. Regardless of what you have heard on the news on or TV, the picture inside the hospital is bleak. We are losing more doctors and nurses every day. Every morning, I walk into the hospital and it feels more and more like a warzone. My direct colleagues are going down sick and there is a strong likelihood that I will as well. I am the lead research coordinator on one of the COVID-19 drug trials and although we are trying to fast-track the trial and get FDA approval as soon as possible, this process takes close to a year and we cannot wait for a vaccine to be produced.
Because of this, we are treating patients with standard medications. Thus, the work of nurses, doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, respiratory therapists, and other frontline providers becomes even more important. Unfortunately, the global shortage of masks and ventilators has increased the price of these materials and made them more and more difficult to get. A box of n95 masks, the highest-grade mask that healthcare workers need when dealing with COVID-19 patients, is normally around $20. The price has spiked 1000% as shortages occur and we are facing a reality where healthcare workers simply will not have the protection they need. Furthermore, ventilators—machines used as a last resort to save patients who are unable to breathe on their own—are in short supply.
Disregarding any talk of politics or actions that the government could be taking to mitigate this shortage, the simple truth is that hospitals need money to be able to purchase supplies at such high costs.
Providing hospitals with masks and ventilators will save the lives of healthcare workers as well as people just like us - suddenly torn away from their normal lives who face the prospect of dying in a hospital bed, unable to see or speak to their family, immediately shipped to a mobile morgue and replaced by another dying patient.
I’ve spoken to many people my age who are looking for ways to help during this crisis and a donation here is the easiest and most effective way of doing so. Please send this to your friends and family. Text me at [phone redacted] or email at [email redacted] if you have anything to add or can think of any other way to help. I have direct access to frontline workers and the hospital administrators of the largest health system in the state and can pass on a message if needed.
STAY INSIDE.
Organizer
Daniel O'Grady
Organizer
New York, NY