A portrait of how the COVID-19 pandemic has heavily affected healthcare workers involved in the emergency medical services, causing both psychological and material difficulties: isolation, alienation but also burnout syndrome and occupational stress (caused e.g. by the need to work for long hours, wearing full personal protective equipment even in the most complex situations). There have been moments when hope was lost: while so many of these patients were transferred to Intensive Care Units, or when there weren't enough ambulances to help everyone. But there also have been times when hope for the future has allowed them to move forward.
Image1: A nurse moving within the COVID-area of the ER during a night shift, alone like in a "bubble of light".
Image2: A nurse drives the medical car to the home of a COVID patient
Image3: A rapidly deteriorating patient is transferred to the ICU in the middle of the night.
Image4: A moment of discouragement for a dispatcher of the Emergency Operations Center: ambulances are almost running out!
Image5: A doctor playing with a child, left alone with the hospital staff because his mother is in isolation: a way to exorcise for a moment a pandemic that feels endless.
