7:07 pm UTC Mar. 15, 2021
His chest rises and falls rhythmically as the machine pumps in oxygen and releases carbon dioxide with a hissing sound.
The patient in Room 2106 is ventilated, intubated, sedated.
Julie Medeiros, a respiratory therapist, pauses at the glass doorway. “His family came to say goodbye this morning. He’s doing really poorly, she says. He’ll probably pass today.”
Her words are a mix of melancholy and matter-of-factness. Medeiros has seen so much death, she knows the signs. They all do.
A few hours later, the man in Room 2106 will become another data point among more than 535,000 people killed by the coronavirus in the USA.