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Patients who two months ago might have come in with chest pain are now waiting and arriving with permanent heart damage. Opioid users who would normally be getting high with friends may now be overdosing in isolation. “That’s a definite fear of mine,” said Kalla.

For all kinds of vulnerable people — drug users, the mentally ill, the homeless — emergency rooms are a haven of last resort. They are also where most victims of intimate-partner violence — as many as 85 per cent of them, according to Sampsel — first surface into the medical system. And right now, that’s not happening. “We are seeing way lower volumes than we normally would be for both sexual assault and domestic violence,” she said.

Sampsel doesn’t believe that’s because less violence is occurring. “I think (victims) are staying at home and suffering, unfortunately,” she said. “I can’t imagine that the pressures of an abusive relationship are gone because we’re sheltering in place.”

Sampsel wants to get the message out to anyone experiencing violence at home that emergency rooms are still open in Ottawa, and across Canada, and that they’re safe. “It’s really important for people to know that we’re available,” she said. ERs have the tools and the systems in place to connect victims with the supports they’ll need to get a new place to stay, to reach out to the police or even just to get medical care.

“We are that port in the storm for everyone,” Sampsel said. “For patients who are running out of a dangerous situation right now — and that happens at anytime of the day — we’re always open. The lights are always on.” That’s as true now, in a pandemic, as it was before.