WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - The COVID ward of a hospital is a place no one from the public wants to end up right now.
Day in and day out, doctors, nurses and hospital staff make their way from room to room to care for patients fighting for their lives.
Now, a local doctor is working to capture a portrait of what his colleagues are going through when they show up to work.
Dr. Daniel DeJong is capturing a moment.
“When they see their own picture, there’s a little bit more hesitancy just in kind of seeing their own fatigue or just being worn down from everything, but overall, it’s been well received,” said Dr. Daniel DeJong, M.D. “Hopefully, it gives a little bit of a spotlight to the many people who are working so hard and offer, for what it’s worth, my gratitude to them.”
A hospitalist through Sound Physicians working in the COVID ward at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis, Dr. DeJong lives first hand the impact of this pandemic.
Dr. DeJong said, “As a hospitalist, we kind of serve almost as a primary care doctor for patients while they’re here in the hospital. We take care of a variety of issues that come up, and I kind of help rope in different specialists as needed.”
Although he’s also been bringing his hobby of photography into the hospital for the last few weeks.
“It’s kind of turned into a creative outlet and a way to just spend some time away from medicine and, in this case, a little bit of overlap with medicine.” Dr. DeJong said, “For me, it’s a great way to get my mind off of work.”
Dr. DeJong has been snapping a shot of his coworkers before or after working on the COVID floor to help document what those on the frontlines are going through.
The photos are taken outside of areas where patients are receiving care.
“I kind of started taking pictures of just people who were in the office on a particular day with me and have them, kind of, wear their masks or face shields of whatever they’d like just to document that,” said Dr. DeJong. “Over time, that’s kind of grown and snowballed a little bit to try to include other specialists who involved. Taking care of the COVID patients has really involved every single person in the hospital. From the nursing team to the pharmacists and even people in the kitchen bringing food and people with housekeeping.”
Dr. DeJong said he provides little input to his colleagues before taking the shot, wanting them to choose what people see.
“Some of the people wanted pictures with everything involved to kind of remember that process. Some of them did not,” said Dr. DeJong.
One of the sticking elements about these photos is that in most, the only visible facial features are the eyes.
“One of the interesting things with the photos, especially when you can only see people’s eyes, is there’s quite a bit more variance in expression than maybe you would think with just seeing eyes. I think certainly you can see some people who are smiling, even though their mask is covering their face, and you can see a lot of intensity and determination in the eyes as well.” He said, “I think it can be very powerful even without the mouth or the other pieces we normally associate with being able to tell emotions, just seeing the look in people’s eyes.”
The black and white pictures, while they freeze a moment of emotional highs or lows, Dr. DeJong said what he wants people to see is the care and dedication they’re putting into treating patients.
“We all want them to get better. We all want them to be healthy, and it certainly is challenging with we had so many people who don’t do well. Who are sick and even if they are able to leave the hospital, who’s lives will never be the same. So, we hurt with patients. We hurt with their families,” he said.
“It might be just a five or ten-minute conversation about things [with a patient’s family], but these are life-changing events.” Dr. DeJong said, “It very hard to put into words and to simplify it down to just a phone call to the family or with a short visit with the patient, but I think that’s been one of the hardest is wanting to do more for the patients. Wanting to improve in [how they’re] feeling, even with the best we can do, it’s not enough, and that challenging.”
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