PRESIDENT’S PAGE
PANDEMIC: 2-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
I can’t remember the first time I actually
read the DMJ’s President’s Page, but it
may have been in 2006 when Dr. DavidBookout
was president. I recall him
describing a story about a man who
went scuba diving in the Cayman Islands
(I believe), then developed decompression
illness, commonly referred to as “the bends,”
from ascending too quickly on a dive and
having to be transported to a hospital for
treatment in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber,
only to learn that Dr. Bookout was describing
an incident that he himself experienced.
Then, in 2012, my classmate and pathology
laboratory partner, Dr. Rick Snyder, became
president and wrote an essay for his induction
speech article and many in-depth
articles about a variety of topics, but one
stands out, titled “Ich Bin Ein Parklander,”
or “I am a Parklander,” which endorsed the
importance of Parkland Hospital when it was
having some tumultuous times.
But perhaps the President’s Page that I
remember the most was written by Dr. Todd
Pollock: “Can we talk about something serious…
like Bar-B-Que,” an article about his
prowess with his Big Green Egg. The point I’m
trying to make is that sometimes the President’s
Page discussed a personal story, which
I would like to share about the pandemic.
It was 2 years ago that the world was
learning about severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2, the
novel coronavirus responsible for coronavirus
disease initially occurring in 2019, or
COVID-19. I recall discussing the potential for
spread in January 2020 at the TMA Winter
Conference, and while there was concern
about a potential outbreak, there wasn’t any
expectation of what ultimately occurred.
Then on January 31, 2020, the USA initiated
a travel ban from China. In March 2020, we
watched the former governor of New York
warn us that what was happening in New
York City would happen in other cities. Was
there anyone who didn’t feel patriotic when
the US Naval Comfort hospital ship entered
New York Harbor when local hospitals were
at capacity?
Then came Executive Order GA-09, signed
on March 22, 2020, that essentially shut down
elective procedures in Texas, which severely
affected physicians and hospitals economically,
not to mention that restaurants, bars,
gyms, etc., had already been closed (except
for to-go or delivery food). And then we
couldn’t find an N95 mask anywhere; I remember
2 | DALLAS MEDICAL JOURNAL • March 2022
having a single mask that a painter
left at our home from a prior renovation.
My wife had a friend whose husband was
in the reserve (former Seal Team 6) and in
South Korea at the time and having difficulty
sourcing masks; his wife found some
N95 masks at a Home Depot in Oklahoma in
early March and gave us a couple of masks;
she bought them to send to her husband in
South Korea. Then the stories of our colleagues
in the ERs and other services who
were getting diagnosed with COVID-19.
Physician offices, of course, are essential
businesses, and many stayed open with
skeleton crews. We all remember the layoffs,
the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the
public health restrictions, the fear. Many of
our patients were afraid to go to hospitals
for cancer screening, and we later learned
that some of those policies may have been
overly restrictive after reports of delayed
cancer diagnoses or patients dying at home
from an MI because they were afraid to go
to a hospital for chest pain.
Fear, we all remember it. I remember it
well. I felt severe stress navigating the myriad
of recommendations and mandates from
the CDC, the State of Texas by way of Executive
Orders, and local Dallas County orders.
I felt the stress of managing a practice with
decreasing revenues and ongoing expenses.
I felt the stress of applying for the PPP applications
that had not even been developed,
and the difficulty getting through to our
banker, who, like me, was also under severe
stress. I lost over 20 pounds during those 2-3
months and had a couple of people inquire
if I had a bad diagnosis. (When I built our IVF
center, I only lost 15 pounds…another stressful
time of my career. So, with that background,
please remember the zeitgeist at that time.
It was Friday, April 10, 2020, and Texas
and Dallas County were still shut down…no
restaurants, no elective hospital procedures.
One of the few good things that happened
during this time was our availability to spend
more time with our families and getting
caught up on our TV drama series and books.
After dinner, one of my daughters – my twin
daughters were 10 years old at that time
– complained of a stomachache and, a
few hours later, had what would be her first
episode of emesis. She went to bed at ~10:30
that evening and over the course of the next
few hours would continue to have bouts of
emesis, her last occurring at about 2:45 am
before she finally was able to get some sleep.
The next morning, which was Saturday,
April 11 – the Saturday before Easter – I went
to her bedroom to check on her, and she was
more severely ill with stomach pain, and after
a brief abdominal exam, I was concerned
that she may have appendicitis (please remember
that I am a simple reproductive endocrinologist).
I contacted her pediatrician’s
office that Saturday morning – Dr. Jennifer
Wheeler was on call for Dr. Joe Peterman
(in my medical school class) – and she was
seen by Dr. Wheeler within 15 minutes of the
call. After her exam, Dr. Wheeler confirmed
my suspicions that she may have appendicitis
and started calling around. As a fertility
doctor who thought pediatrics was one of
the most difficult rotations in medical school,
I was trying to call friends to see if I could
locate an imaging center that might be
open on a Saturday morning for a CT scan
(thank you, Dr. Drew Dossett), only to later
learn that sonograms were used to diagnose
appendicitis in children, not CT scans. Subsequently,
Dr. Wheeler contacted a pediatric
surgeon named Dr. John Lanoue who was
working (rounds and surgery) at Medical City
Children’s Hospital, where we were referred.
Fear. Having one of your children undergo
surgery is fearful enough, but to have surgery
in April 2020 only added to my anxiety. I did
Samuel J. Chantilis, MD