Covid Photo Project

About three years ago, I willingly moved to another country (Canada) and four months later, unwillingly to another city (Hamilton). Having secured a part time job at a hospital, I was told to hold on to anything that came my way, especially if it was aligned with my professional field. And so i did.

Although a bit uninteresting at first, I spent the first couple of weeks wandering around the two major campuses, observing how the hospital worked with strict restrictions in place. This was of course, the first wave of the pandemic, where nobody really knew what has going to happen in the long run.

Spending a rather unhealthy amount of time thinking why no hospital is lit up properly, I would walk around aimlessly with an old trusted friend (Canon 5D Mk iv), photographing how the staff and the hospital functioned around this evolving pandemic. And so for the the next six months, along with a fantastic group of colleagues and photographers, I photographed the response of the Hospital to the impact of Covid-19. The same disease which a couple of months later, would take the life of my own mother.

Over the next two years, with a tangible set of intimate and raw photos, that captured the the toll and response to Covid-19, we found it easy to convince the decision makers to ‘do something about it’. This is a selected collection of that project.

Ashley acts as a first line of defense at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, where she screens a visitor at the main entrance of the Charlton Campus. While a necessary precaution to help slow the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Ashley understands that not everyone is happy about standing in line or answering a series of questions before gaining entry in to the Hospital. “The days are intense. At the end of the shift, you really feel like you have worked the day.”

Ashley Houghton, COVID-19 Screener
Charlton Campus

In the clinic, there are five nurses and two doctors who work from 4pm to 10pm. Every patient who comes in gets swabbed. People que-up outside as per their appointment. They are then offered a mask and hand sanitizer to clean their hands. They are then screened at the entrance and then led on to the registration. They submit their health card here and are provided with details as to how to get their results. Then, they line up again. The nurse here assesses the situation. If the people are really sick, they are taken to the Doctor for an emergency, else they get swabbed. The test results can take anywhere from one to ten days depending upon the volume of patients.

In Picture: Linda Plant and other nurses,
COVID-19 Assessment Centre, King Campus

Abhay takes a small break from delivering medicines to wipe his brow. He remembers a time pre-pandemic when pharmacy shifts were still eight hours long. Currently, they are 12. When shown this photo, Abhay concludes, “I am happy that you cannot see my face. I was under a lot of pressure at that moment.”

Abhay K. Jagotra, Pharmacy Technician
Charlton Campus

“I was probably calling out to the nurse for medication,” says Hafza when she looks at this photo.

Hafza calls out to one of her colleagues from the COVID-19 simulation room. Simulations are helpful. When a real code happens, you are prepared and you know exactly what to do to help each patient. It’s practice in a safe environment.

Hafza Farah, Registered Nurse,
Emergency Department, Charlton Campus

The tunnel that connects the Fontbonne Building to the Bishop Dowling Wing of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s Charlton Campus (which can be seen crossing over St. Joseph’s Drive) is eerily quiet and empty when foot traffic was reduced due to visitor restrictions and clinics being moved online during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic

Walkway over St. Joseph’s Drive connecting Fontbonne building to Bishop Dowling Wing at the Charlton Campus

Paramedics fill out the necessary details on their tablet while waiting for the hospital staff to admit the patient they have just brought in. I remember this particular Monday afternoon as there were patients coming in every few minutes. At the time of post-production, I go back to the emergency department, foolishly hoping, to run into the paramedic on the right to talk to him about the stress of his job. I remember him from this time as a kind and gentle person who patiently let me photograph from different points of views. But of course, he isn’t there. I instead speak to another paramedic on the scene and ask him about the tablet while showing him this photograph on my phone. “We have about 20-30 minutes to fill in the basic details about the patient we have brought in. That’s we what we do with the tab.” I ask him about COVID-19 to which he replies, that there was a lot of waiting. A lot of waiting.”

Emergency Department, Charlton Campus

You kind of feel like you are astronaut,” says Anthony Parungao, an RPN in Surgery. Here, Anthony and a few colleagues are donning a surgical hood called a papper for extra protection from airborne droplets during surgery. While healthcare providers always wore some form of PPE pre-pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 virus necessitated a whole new level of PPE precautions and procedures.

“Initially, I was hesitant. There is a lot of noise, which makes it hard to hear and communicate. I however prefer these to the N-95s now. The N-95’s cause bruising, whereas the pappers are actually comfortable once you get used to them.”

Anthony Parungao, RPN, Surgery
Operating Room, Charlton Campus

A room on the 9th floor of the Juravinski Innovation Tower is emptied of all furniture in order to make room for more patient care beds as the hospital prepared for a surge in COVID-19 patients during ‘wave one.’ All that was left were two chairs and a stunning Hamilton skyline.

9th Floor Juravinski Innovation Tower,
Charlton Campus

A person of the community undergoes a nasopharyngeal swab to be tested for SARS-CoV-2. During peak times, the COVID-19 assessment centres at St. Joe’s performed more than XXXX tests per day.

COVID-19 Assessment Centre, King Campus

Two surgeons work closely as they operate on a patient in the operating room at St. Joe’s. During the peak of the pandemic, non-urgent surgeries were placed on hold to free up more bed space for COVID-19 patients. But now St. Joe’s is running 13 ORs each day, and an additional three rooms on weekends as they work to clear the backlog of surgeries and return to pre-pandemic care volumes.

Surgical Centre, Charlton Campus

“It was a stressful time. A lot of the time I was coordinating with patients on the phone and letting them know that there was a possible change in their appointment schedule. Even though we were cancelling non-essential procedures during the peak of the pandemic, I wouldn’t say that the workload had reduced, rather it had transformed into something else.”

Ashley Worron, Administrative Support,
Gastrointestinal Unit, Charlton Campus

Lucy De Silva, a porter who helps to transfer patients between units at the Hospital, speaks to one of her patients. During the first wave of COVID admissions, patients were moved in order to create space for a dedicated COVID-19 unit to keep other patients safe and separate, free from potential cross-contamination or infection.

Lucy De Silva, Porter
Juravinski Tower, Charlton Campus

“The emergency department is the front line of patient care.“

The staff in the emergency room perform a simulation on a life-sized mannequin. The mannequin was treated as a patient suspected of having COVID-19, and has just arrived at the emergency room. The idea behind these simulations is to help staff to become familiar with new practices and protocols during the pandemic. Their simulation is followed by a debriefing for quality improvement.

Emergency Department, Charlton Campus

“This was the most important meeting of the day”

Tracina attends the daily bed meeting on Zoom in her office on the 6th floor of the Mary Grace wing of the Hospital, otherwise known as the Surgery Department. “The bed meeting is held daily with the entire surgical department to get a realistic picture of how many people we have scheduled for surgery or recovery. This outcome of this meeting dictates the rest of our day. I really don’t see why we would go back to regular meetings when zoom calls are so effective.”

Tracina Pearce, Nurse Manager
6 Surgical, Charlton Campus

“To date, we have reprocessed about 3000 masks for the Hospital”

Mark Halyk pulls an MDR Technician, pulls a cart of reprocessed respirators towards his desk for a secondary inspection. Milan Kanlic, the Manager of MDR department explains “during the reprocessing process, some anomalies are made visible when the masks come in contact with chemicals. For this purpose, there is a secondary inspection as well. There is a failure rate of about 40% in the first stage of inspection and of about 5-10% in the secondary phase of inspection.” He adds, “through this process, not only have we supported St. Joes but another health facility in the city of Guelph. The boxes at the back are packed with re-processed masks. Each box has an image of the kind of mask, quantity and the date of reprocessing.”

In photo: Mark Halyk, Medical Device Reprocessing Technician – Charlton Campus
Description by: Milan Kanlic, Manager, MDR

Sarah browses through the list of scheduled surgeries for the day behind the nursing station on the Day Surgery Unit. She says “During the pandemic, since visitors and family members are not being allowed to accompany our patients, nurses like me were required to step in and perform a lot of additional tasks.” She adds “We were portering, translating and assisting the patients in getting changed. Offering not just care…but compassion, too.”

Sarah Dowell, RPN (Day Surgery Unit),
Charlton Campus

Sheila explains to a patient how to use the monitor and document their day. “Earlier we would see about 5-8 patients in a day. Now, that number is down to 2-3 because of COVID-19 distancing protocols.” It’s hard on our patients as they have to wait a little longer. But it’s safer and that’s what matters most right now. We’re protecting their health and wellbeing.”

Sheila Van Der Mark, Motility Technician
Charlton Campus

Steve Sari is photographed in the middle of a cleaning procedure on the 9th floor of the Juravinski Innovation Tower. “This space was being cleaned in preparation for it to host patients with COVID-19. “I take my time to do a thorough clean. No matter how long it takes. What’s most important right now is that it’s clean. Not speed.”

Steve Sari, Environmental Services
Charlton Campus

Scott, a porter at St. Joe’s, is pictured transporting a patient with COVID-19 from his isolation unit to the diagnostic imaging unit for a routine CT scan. When asked how he clears the hallways to make room to transport his patients, Scott says, “I don’t shout out as it might cause people to panic. Since I am pushing the bed from behind the patient, I use hand signals to ask people to move one way or another. It’s really important to maintain awareness about your surroundings. It’s all about safety and compassion for the patients, and for those around around you.

Scott Urquhart, Porter
(pictured: Ian, patient)
Charlton Campus

Positions, marked by tape, indicating the appropriate 6 feet distance to be maintained by visitors while queuing up as photographed through a small window in the door of a room a the West 5th Campus.

West 5th Campus

A person of the community undergoes a nasopharyngeal swab to be tested for SARS-CoV-2. During peak times, the COVID-19 assessment centres at St. Joe’s performed more than XXXX tests per day.

COVID-19 Assessment Centre, King Campus

“Patients come here every day. This department runs 24 - 7”
Jeff Wilson, a medical radiation technologist examines the four screens that show different angles of the area being scanned. “If a patient is positive for SARS-CoV-2, we leave the room for 15 minutes after the scan has been completed, for the air to change. We’re fortunate the Hospital has high-tech air filtration systems that help to prevent contamination.”

In picture: Jeff Wilson
Medical Radiation Technologist, Charlton Campus
Description by: Anna Sacchini, Senior Technologist

Lunch times look a lot different during the pandemic. Instead of lively groups of healthcare workers taking a moment to fuel up on food or friendship, lunches are now quiet, solitary and socially distant. But on the second floor of the Juravinski Innovation Tower, they are at least filled with sunlight.

Juravinski Tower, Charlton Campus

“If a person is coughing, it could be a cold, the flu or it could it COVID-19. We therefore have to be extra cautious.”

“There is a lot of mental fatigue because this isn’t a normal routine and these aren’t normal conditions. You are exhausted by the end of the day. Earlier we were careful, now we are extra careful. We pay attention to the smallest of the details.” She adds- “wearing a mask is stressful but I am smiling behind my mask right now. I hope that my patients can see my smile, even when they can’t see my face.”

Marda Carmona, Clinical Technologist, Dialysis
Charlton Campus