Fighting on the frontlines of the pandemic

CALGARY (CityNews) – A powerful image of a doctor in Alberta went viral on social media over the weekend, as COVID-19 numbers continued to spike across the province and pandemic fatigue sets in.

“I think sometimes we do feel despair.”

The doctor in that photo is Dr. Simon Dermers-Marcil, a respirologist in Calgary.

“Sometimes we only give the last phone call, the phone call to say things didn’t turn out right,” he said, as he described his feelings the day he notified a patient’s family member they had died.

“And that’s hard.”

That somber moment was captured in a powerful photo posted on Alberta Health Services’ Twitter account on Friday.

It’s garnered more than 4,000 likes and 2,000 retweets since it was published on Friday, showing a glimpse of the toll the pandemic has taken on health care workers.

Demers-Marcil said he doesn’t remember the photo being taken.

“I had two phone calls the same day, both bad news,” he said. “When you’re giving bad news to a family and the conversation turns emotional you kind of lose sight of what you were doing sometimes.”

He says those phone calls are often part of the routine in the intensive care, especially now with COVID-19 restrictions in place. He also says everyone is feeling the weight and the strain of the pandemic.

This feeling comes at a time where Alberta has seen over 1,000 new cases daily in the last four days and a total of 471 COVID-19 related deaths as of Sunday.

“When you have people that are suffering that need your help, you can often forget you’re tired and you’re stressed,” he said.

While some days are more challenging than others, the doctor is grateful for the supportive comments he’s seen on social media.

“The nature of our work enables us to keep going and if we need to keep going many more months, I’m sure everyone will keep going. We need to protect ourselves but we are going to be there.”