yanti turang

I’m half Australian, half Indonesian. I grew up in just outside Melbourne. And I’ve been living in New Orleans permanently since 2009. There was just something about New Orleans that really just got under my skin. It’s addictive. And you can be whoever you want to be. And there’s always going to be somebody who says, you know that’s OK. And that especially happens during Mardi Gras.

[crowds cheering]

You never want to miss Mardi Gras. It’s sort of like that’s when our year begins in New Orleans.

[band playing]

There’s lots of different versions of Mardi Gras. And I feel like this year, I’ve really perfected it. I was like, great. My four or five days started with these smaller parades. I have like different costume changes — four different costume changes. And then my ultimate costume change happens on Mardi Gras day. And that costume, it’s themed around cats. I probably worked on it for about two weeks. And I marched in Krewe du Viuex, which is one of my favorite parades. It’s a very tongue-in-cheek parade. It’s a very sexy parade. And it’s always full of locals. The streets were filled with people. And we already for, like, what we love to say is just the party of our lives. And then you run into everyone you know, people that you haven’t seen in years. Or sometimes I say to people, I’ll see you next Mardi Gras. It’s just an amazing time for community and for people to just spend time together. And the weather was beautiful. And it’s just truly this magical time. It’s when time stops. Just the idea that there is a virus in the world at that time — I mean, I think it’s the last thing from many of our minds. Well, it was for many of us.

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro.

archived recording People are drinking and sharing glasses. They’re throwing beads off of floats. And unfortunately, people weren’t only catching beads who were here for Mardi Gras. They were catching coronavirus.

michael barbaro

This is “The Daily.”

archived recording New Orleans in danger of becoming the next epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak.

michael barbaro

Louisiana has become a hotspot in the pandemic —

archived recording Confirmed cases tripling since Friday to roughly 1,400.

michael barbaro

— with one of the fastest rates of new cases in the world.

archived recording 1 3,500 cases of coronavirus. archived recording 2 10,000 confirmed cases. archived recording 3 12,000 confirmed cases. archived recording 4 16,284 cases of the coronavirus in Louisiana and 582 deaths.

michael barbaro

Today: My colleague Megan Twohey speaks with a nurse on the front lines of the virus in New Orleans.

[music]

It’s Thursday, April 9.

megan twohey

Hi, Megan, here.

yanti turang

Oh, hey, Megan. This is Yanti.

megan twohey

Hi, Yanti. How are you doing?

yanti turang

I’m pretty good. I’m a little tired, but I’m all right.

megan twohey

Well, we’re so grateful that you’re staying up to talk to us.

yanti turang

Oh, of course.

megan twohey

I really, really appreciate it. I know you must be completely exhausted.

yanti turang

It’s all right. It comes with the job, right?

megan twohey

Yeah. So can you start by saying your full name and tell me what you do for a living?

yanti turang

My name’s Yanti Turang. I started nursing around 2009. And from there, I worked in hospitals in Australia. And I’ve transitioned to working in the States. I’ve also worked for the Ebola crisis in 2015 in Sierra Leone.

megan twohey

And do you remember the first patient who was treated as a potential Covid case in your hospital?

yanti turang

Yes. So the E.R. had had a call that a patient was coming from New York that had had a fever. The patient had traveled through South Korea. They’d been in Thailand. And then they had come back via New York. And the reason why we thought that this was a Covid patient was because they’d come from Southeast Asia. So all of our assumptions were based on travel. And so, you know, I spoke to my charge nurse about it. And I said, look, I actually have had experience with the P.P.E. and all of that kind of stuff. I’m happy to take this patient if they present. Not even concerned about it, I was like, oh my goodness, this isn’t Ebola. We’ll be fine, you know? And yeah, I went out. And I greeted the patient. I was in full P.P.E.

megan twohey

So P.P.E. — you’re talking about personal protective equipment?

yanti turang

Correct. And the personal protective equipment we had was gloves, a gown, two masks. But the thing is, it was interesting, like, I didn’t know enough about the disease. I didn’t know enough about the virus. And I even think that I was quite nonchalant about it. I will be the first to say that I said it’s just like a really bad flu.

megan twohey

So what ended up happening with that particular patient?

yanti turang

We isolated them. The first thing we did was a flu test. And the most interesting twist of this is that patient came back flu positive, which was a relief. She didn’t have Covid-19. However, the interesting side, which I think a lot of health care workers in New Orleans post-Mardi Gras could talk about, were all the patients that showed up, even the same day that I saw that patient, that had flu-like symptoms — a fever, body aches, a little short of breath. And they were flu negative. And we would say, you’ve just got a really bad virus. And you have to just take care of yourself. It’s really hard to kind of diagnose what specifically the virus is, because it just sounds like you have some upper respiratory issues going on.

megan twohey

So the people from the community who are showing up with those symptoms — you’re not giving that much thought to them. Meanwhile, the patient who had traveled to South Korea, you are having to put on your personal protective equipment and determining whether or not they have Covid-19.

yanti turang

Right.

megan twohey

Are you telling me that even at that point, that it’s still not sinking in for you that this virus could be landing on the doorstep of your hospital?

yanti turang

To be honest, I really didn’t. The key here is that our thinking was so external. As health care workers, the disease process or what was happening with the virus — it was getting flown into our country. The concept that it could already be here just really didn’t cross my mind at that point.

archived recording (charisse gibson) Well, good evening, everyone. I’m Charisse Gibson. archived recording (katie moore) And I’m Katy Moore. The state has confirmed a presumptive positive test for coronavirus in Orleans Parish. archived recording (charisse gibson) Now, we are told this person had not traveled anywhere. The Louisiana Department of Health are also investigating those who the person actually came into contact with.

yanti turang

March 9th was when we had our first confirmed case. And it was at the VA hospital. I think the profile of that patient was an Uber driver who’s from New Orleans. A very good friend of mine who lives next door is a physician as well. And I feel like it was over those two days that it all started clicking into place. And we were like, oh my goodness. I think it’s here already.

[music]

I can remember it so clearly. I remember running up and down, in and out of P.P.E., health care workers looking panicked because we’re just not really sure what to do. And then us saying to patients that you have to isolate. And not being able to say, here’s a prescription that will make you better. Or, this is the true course of the disease and this is what’s going to happen. I think that that’s when I felt kind of helpless and then overwhelmed by the ramifications of how this city could manage it.

archived recording 1 All public schools across the state of Louisiana will be closed starting Monday, March 16. archived recording 2 The mayor has also ordered all bars, restaurants, gyms and shopping centers to shut down to prevent the spread. archived recording 3 The City of New Orleans is trying to stop any crowds from congregating throughout the entire city. And N.O.P.D. will be enforcing this.

yanti turang

And then it just felt like we were in the E.R. And it was just patient after patient coming through, short of breath, with a fever, struggling to breathe. In that first week, I mean, I felt panicked. I felt afraid that I wasn’t going to be able to take care of the patients the way that I should be able to take care of them. I know my patients so well. And some of our patients in New Orleans, they even find it hard to fill a prescription, to be able to secure food. I mean, how are my patients in New Orleans going to be able to navigate social distancing? How am I going to be able to say to them, you can’t see your grandmother? I feel like there was just so many different factors of pain and trauma associated with this onslaught of the virus, that I think within the E.R., we felt terrified. I remember leaving a shift and just bursting into tears. Because in my heart, I felt like I’d hurt the community because I discharged patients who had symptoms, but we didn’t know enough. And then they were back out in New Orleans.

michael barbaro

We’ll be right back.

archived recording 1 As the number of coronavirus cases continue to rise around the country, there are certain areas with large numbers of cases of growing concern. And now Louisiana has more cases per capita than every other state except for New York and Washington. archived recording 2 Streets typically vibrant with music and tourists — empty tonight. Meantime, the hospitals are filled and rapidly running out of supplies. 15 years after Hurricane Katrina, residents are hunkered down once again in their homes, weathering a radically different storm.

megan twohey

So what changed at your hospital to accommodate for the influx of cases? And what did those changes look like as the reality of this set in?

yanti turang

I would say the screening started to be different. We started to isolate. I think that internally, we made changes to be able to take on this type of patient. However, I don’t think we had the P.P.E. to be able to support those changes.

megan twohey

Can you explain that a little bit more?

yanti turang

So technically, when you go to see an infectious patient, say with Ebola, and say now, Covid-19, you should be able to don all your equipment, go into the patient’s room, and do whatever you have to do, take your gown off in the room, walk out of the room, and discard every piece of equipment that you’re wearing. Because technically, it’s infected. However, based on the shortage of equipment, we have to think about: Where’s our next gown? How many N95s do we have? I’ve got to go to the next room. Should I just wear the same gown? Am I wearing one pair of gloves? I think that that, across America, has created its own critical problem in terms of health care workers managing what’s going on with the infectious disease itself. The fact that they have to question their safety when they leave the room, before they go into another room to be able to take care of someone, is asking so much. That’s basically asking them to put their family and their loved ones all on the line. And I just think that it takes its toll. And I think all health care workers across America are going to feel this.

megan twohey

So you are saying that there is a rationing of personal protective equipment happening that creates concerns for your safety and the safety of your colleagues and the safety of the patients?

yanti turang

Yes. Yes. As health care workers, we’re the biggest carriers. If we’re all not wearing masks, if we’re moving from mask from patient to patient, if we’re reusing, I mean, we’re infecting people. I mean, it’s like the worst thing you can think of, really. The people who are taking care of you are just as infected. I mean, it’s like a nightmare.

megan twohey

Have any of your colleagues contracted the virus?

yanti turang

Yes, several of them.

megan twohey

Are all of the workers being tested in your hospital?

yanti turang

There’s the opportunity to test. It’s certainly increased. I would still say that there is a strong culture of not testing — fear of that tests are going to run out, concern of hospital bills. I can say in my experience, I went and got myself tested recently and was given an E.R. bill from another hospital. And hopefully, that will get waived. I don’t know, it was just like we needed people. And so we needed people to be working, even if you were afraid that you might be sick. It wasn’t a place where, like, oh, you feel sick? You should get a test. It was like, oh, you feel sick? Are you that sick? I mean, we’ve all got it, right? Like, that was the culture. I mean, we’ve all got it.

megan twohey

Is it scary to find out that your colleagues are testing positive?

yanti turang

Yeah. I feel afraid for them because we see the progress of the virus and the disease and what it does to your body. And it is scary because we know firsthand what it can do. And it’s really unknown how your body’s going to respond.

megan twohey

And are the patients coming into your ER — how sick are they?

yanti turang

Patients are staying home until they’re very, very sick. And then they’re presenting quite sick — like, get intubated at the front of the E.R. sick. They’re struggling to walk. They’re extremely out of breath. Most of them can’t really talk that much. It’s too much to talk. But the most interesting thing that I’ve seen with the Covid patients is that there’s this sense of calm about them. Most patients that — as we all know, if we get food stuck in our throat or we feel like we can’t breathe, there is a sense of panic. The patients that are presenting are so tired that they’re not even panicked anymore. They’re just tired because they’ve just been working — like, working to breathe.

megan twohey

And what have you been telling them? How have you been treating them? And has that treatment changed?

yanti turang

I don’t think my treatment has changed. I think what has changed for me — and I’d say a lot of health care workers think the same thing — is if I’m on triage or I’m in the Covid tent and a patient walks in, the first thing I think is, if you’ve got the symptoms, are you going to live or are you going to die?

[music]

That’s my first thought now. And trying to speak to patients in a way that I really hope that there’s hope. But when I talk to them, and I don’t know — I don’t know. I don’t know if they can tell that I feel afraid for them as well, or I’m just trying to do my job. You know, I bring ice water. And yeah, I hope that the patient’s warm. And help them — well, unfortunately they can’t go to the bathroom because it’s a public space, so I give them whatever they need to be able to go to the bathroom. I try to connect them to the Wi-Fi and stuff, so they can talk to their families. I think I’m haunted by patients dying alone. I think we know, as health care workers, too much that patients are dying alone. And so I’m trying to advocate for them to make sure you call who you need to call and maybe FaceTime with somebody, because we can’t let visitors in. And even if they end up on a vent, we still can’t have the visitors come in and say goodbye.

megan twohey

And what does it feel like to be asking that question to yourself, will this patient live or die?

yanti turang

I think it’s really traumatizing. I think there’s an element that, yes, it comes with the job. But when I’m home and I’m here, and I’m even coming home from a shift, and I see my neighborhood and all the people that live around me, I feel like that’s how I’m constantly thinking. And it’s exhausting. But until we flatten the curve or we get to the other side, I don’t think that I can think otherwise.

megan twohey

How have you been holding up personally?

yanti turang

Yeah. I guess there’s a part of me that’s gone into automatic pilot. I take myself running. I wasn’t much of a runner before the crisis. But I’ve found that I need to run. And I just go and run. And I cry, because I don’t know what else to do with that energy or that thinking. You know, I try to eat well. I’ve got an amazing support network here in New Orleans — not only my partner, but amazing friends that drop off food. And that truly, really helps in a way I never thought it would. It feels like all of those friends are standing right there with me. And I think a lot of health care workers think the same thing. Like a message, some food, just to check in doesn’t make you feel as isolated in your thoughts. I try to sleep. But I’ve been waking up at like 3:00 or 4:00 a.m with this knot in my stomach of anxiety. And I try to understand where that’s coming from. And last week, I was like, it’s because I’m scared mom and dad are going to die. And then the last few nights, it’s because the last two people I saw in the hospital, I know that they’re not going to make it. And should I have made it better? Should I have spent more time in the room? You know, there’s just like the little things that go through your mind. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of patients pass in my life. But this is this weird unknown. And I think it’s because it’s such a lonely, lonely virus. And people are dying by themselves.

[music]

megan twohey

You had described this year’s Mardi Gras as such a joyous event.

yanti turang

Yeah. It was.

megan twohey

And looking back, given everything that’s happened since then, given everything you’ve been through, how do you think about Mardi Gras now?

yanti turang

For me, Mardi Gras, when I look back, I feel like my thinking was so different. I felt extremely free in my mind. But I do think, as a human race, that we will have a fundamental shift. I don’t think that the joy of Mardi Gras, and what makes Mardi Gras so magical — which is community and these magical moments that you have with people, and wandering around the streets in costume — I don’t think that will ever go away. But I do think that Mardi Gras is going to be the Mardi Gras before the world changed. And I don’t think things will be quite the same.

[music]

megan twohey

Well, thank you so much, Yanti. I really appreciate it.

yanti turang

Thank you so much.

michael barbaro

We’ll be right back. Here’s what else you need to know today. The Times reports that a jail in Chicago has become the largest known source of infections in the U.S. At least 353 cases can be linked to the jail — more than have been connected to the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, a nursing home in Washington State or the cluster in New Rochelle, New York. The outbreak confirms fears that jails and prisons, with their cramped quarters and unsanitary conditions, could become a major source of the virus’s spread. And —

archived recording (bernie sanders) I wish I could give you better news. But I think you know the truth. And that is that we are now some 300 delegates behind Vice President Biden. And the path toward victory is virtually impossible.

michael barbaro

Bernie Sanders has dropped out of the presidential race, ending a progressive campaign that began with financial and organizational might, captured a series of major victories across the country, but collapsed by Super Tuesday in the face of a resurgence by Joe Biden.

archived recording (bernie sanders) While this campaign is coming to an end, our movement is not. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us that, quote, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” End quote. The fight for justice is what our campaign has been about. The fight for justice is what our movement remains about.

michael barbaro

For more on Sanders’s decision and what it means for the race, listen to the newest episode of “The Latest.” You can hear “The Latest” on “The Daily” feed, or wherever you listen.

[music]