MOTHERS IN MEDICINE
A WORKING MOTHER: ALWAYS ON CALL
AUTHOR Kathryn Vance
Since March 17, Dr. Valerie Briones-Pryor has seen only
a few select days outside of the COVID-19 unit at UofL
Health - Jewish Hospital. Like so many of us, she has
been in the same routine for months: wake up, go to
work, come straight home. Do not pass go, do not collect
$200. Running this unit has become all-encompassing
and allows her one day off at a time, every few weeks.
In those rare days off, she has to balance being there for
her family, while also keeping them healthy. This balance between
motherhood and career may have become more routine, but is
anything but normal.
Dr. Briones-Pryor’s non-intensive care unit (ICU) has seen
anywhere from four to 20 patients at a time, and often that number
can change drastically in an instant. She recounted many times
that she would leave one evening after discharging most patients
and show up the next morning with a packed unit. Luckily, she
said, there have always been more patients on her unit than in the
ICU, which she attributes to good efforts from the state and local
communities early on.
“Here in Kentucky, and especially here in Louisville, we were
fortunate that our ventilator use was very low. Part of that is because
we did the right thing, we socially distanced, we shut things down,
people were very good about washing their hands,” she said. “We
were very fortunate that we didn’t have the utilization needs that
Washington state and New York were seeing and states like Texas
are seeing now.”
Patients on her unit with underlying medical problems like
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or other breathing issues are
normally with her five to seven days, while those who are otherwise
healthy typically only spend a few days. She has seen the majority
of her patients fully recover, but she has also had a few patients that
were not as fortunate.
“I’ve had a total of 10 deaths on my unit since March,” she said.
“It’s tough to do because you’re trying to talk to the family, and they
feel bad because they can’t be there. You kind of act as the surrogate
for the family, holding the patient’s hand and being there for
them. That’s been really tough. I’ve been through the full gamut of
emotions through the whole thing.”
Among those emotions she’s felt, confusion and frustration set
in during the early months of this disease. With the constant influx
of new information, it made it hard to know what to do next and
how to treat the disease.
“At the beginning, back in March and April, I felt like we were
just making things up as we went along. Because it was changing
so much, we didn’t know much about what to expect.” However, as
time has gone on and we know more about the disease progression
and treatment options, she has fallen into a bit of a routine at work.
While she said things aren’t necessarily easier, they are definitely
different than the panic and confusion felt in the very beginning.
“Because we’ve had enough of these patients, we can actually
predict what the hospital course is going to be like. Whereas in the
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