Jewish doctor who treated patient with Nazi tattoos says pandemic has tested compassion

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The patient’s skin was covered with Nazi tattoos, including a large swastika on his chest. Gravely ill by the time he arrived in the ambulance, the patient asked Nichols not to let him die.

Nichols and his team, which included a black nurse and an Asian respiratory therapist, prepared to intubate, which is at high risk during the Covid-19 pandemic as it can expose healthcare workers to infectious droplets. And when he wondered if the man with the Nazi tattoos would have cared about his life if the tables had been turned, he hesitated.
“The pandemic has wore on me, and my mantra does not have the same impact at the moment,” Nichols tweeted earlier this week. “All this time fighting the headwinds, the gladiators in the pit. And I realize that maybe I’m not doing well.”

The compassion and commitment to his patients that Nichols needs to do his job has waned during the pandemic, he told CNN’s John Berman in an appearance Friday on “New Day.”

While he is grateful for receiving the wake-up call, he worries about the mental health of his frontline colleagues who may not have been faced with the stress of the pandemic.

“I was struck by the impact this had on me, that I’ve never really faced that kind of hesitation before in my career,” he told CNN.

Work in one of the hardest hit states

When previous ethical dilemmas with patients arose, Nichols said he reserved judgment and focused on treating the patient to the best of his ability.

“With this patient, I really didn’t have a chance to talk to them,” he said. “All I had left was the impact that symbol had on me. It’s a symbol of hate. It challenged me a bit.”

Pandemic frontline medical workers use outdoor adventures to recharge and connect with each other

He said he had reacted ambivalently in part due to the stress of the pandemic, which has put enormous pressure on health workers and facilities. PPE shortages and low capacity in intensive care units have made the challenge of keeping patients – and themselves – safe even more difficult for doctors like Nichols.

Nichols works in California, which leads the country in Covid-19 cases with nearly 1.29 million. Part of what makes his job extremely difficult, he said, is the fact that the vaccines are almost ready for the first round of distribution. Every death and disease between now and the widespread distribution of vaccines is “all the more heartbreaking,” he said.

Although his interaction with the patient rocked him, Nichols said he was committed to providing the best care to any patient who needed it. His well of compassion has not dried up. But he hopes other healthcare workers will examine the extreme stress they have been under since the pandemic began in March, like him.



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