'It was like a tsunami of patients': Suburban native on being a doctor in New York City

Dr. Michael Lamberta works in the emergency department of one of the busiest hospitals at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic - Brooklyn's Maimonides Medical Center.

It's a long way from his hometown of Inverness and St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, where he was a standout student.

But one constant connects his high school years in the suburbs with his work today on the front lines of COVID-19: teammates.

Back in high school, Lamberta traveled with his soccer teammates to Europe the summer before their senior year. The camaraderie and tournament experience they gained led them to win the school's first state championship in fall 2003.

Now in his third year at Maimonides, Lamberta, 33, credits his team - the medical professionals working alongside him - with “humming the quiet poetry of hope amidst a raucous tragedy.”

If that sounds something like poetry, it's not surprising. Lamberta has taken to journaling his experience in the ER during the pandemic. He shared some of his observations earlier this month with family and friends, and updated them in a phone interview this week.

“We were blindsided by (the virus) and not sure what hit us,” Lamberta says of the first few weeks in March. “It was like a tsunami of patients. We're used to being a high-volume ER, but these are sicker patients.”

ABC News reported this week that Maimonides is caring for about 600 coronavirus patients, 173 of them on ventilators and another 75 on standby.

Triage tents are set up outside the hospital to handle overflow patients, while more departments are being converted to COVID-19 units, including the ER.

Hospital officials say they are running low on disposable thermometers and nasal swabs, used for COVID-19 tests.

Lamberta said he and his teammates “aggressively protect themselves” at the start of every shift, donning personal protective equipment from head to toe.

On a typical day before the pandemic, the ER treated between 300 and 400 patients. Today, it's closer to 250, Lamberta says, but nearly all of them are COVID-19 positive - with more than 20% of them needing oxygen.

“We're usually able to identify pretty quickly when to intubate and who needs airway support, but these patients look pretty healthy and are talking to you,” Lamberta said. “They don't look like patients that need to be intubated. Sometimes, we don't know, so it's a feeling of a loss of control.”

As a result, doctors rapidly changed their protocol, Lamberta says, and are getting a better handle on patients. More recently, he said. the ER is seeing a significant reduction in patients. He's not sure whether that means people are too afraid to seek treatment at a hospital or if it's a sign the city is past the worst of the outbreak. Either way, Lamberta said he's aware of a difference in the way he's treating his coronavirus patients.

“You just get closer to patients because they don't have visitors and there's this loss of control when they come to the ER,” Lamberta said. “We're all working on being more compassionate and committing to patients on a different level.”

Lamberta's parents, Dr. Frank Lamberta - a retired orthopedic surgeon who practiced at Northwest Community Hospital - and Laurabeth, credit their son's moral compass to his high school years and the Viatorians, who taught students to serve the marginalized.

“He has a heart to serve,” Laurabeth Lamberta says of her son, the third of her four children, “and show God's life.”

Still, staying mentally strong through this crisis is something Lamberta thinks about. He relies on his teammates, calling them “selfless and supportive,” and knows the hospital has made clinical psychologists available to staff.

Mostly, he chooses to be thankful.

“If there is a silver lining in all of this, it would be an acute reminder of how everything and everyone are related in our world,” Lamberta wrote. “We have a decision at every moment to be grateful, giving and compassionate.”