SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
For the last five months, we've called health care workers heroes. Many have seemed unflappable in the face of COVID, but some are beginning to feel the strain, especially Latino physicians who are treating Latino communities hit disproportionately hard by the pandemic. Lesley McClurg from member station KQED has the story of two Los Angeles doctors.
LESLEY MCCLURG, BYLINE: Orange County is a hot spot in California. The emergency department where Victor Cisneros works is often overwhelmed with COVID cases.
VICTOR CISNEROS: The waiting room is just, you know, blowing out of the seams. Sometimes there's people waiting for hours just because there's not enough beds in the hospital, there's not enough providers.
MCCLURG: Most of the patients waiting for care are Latino. The group has been three times as likely to get the virus compared to whites in the U.S. Public health experts credit that to essential jobs, multigenerational homes and higher rates of comorbidities, like diabetes. Cisneros says most of his patients come from families like his.
CISNEROS: I grew up very underserved. I come from a very humble family. And I'm the first physician, the first person to graduate, like, college.
MCCLURG: He's originally from Mexico, but now much of his family lives in LA, though social distancing has made it hard to feel close.
CISNEROS: We're very lovey-dovey. Hugging, kissing the cheek is a normal thing when you, you know, say goodbye or say hi. You know, and it's like - it was hard.
MCCLURG: Made even harder because he lives alone.
CISNEROS: You just feel trapped - right? - because you're in the ER for 10 hours, which are intense, exhausting. It smells. People are vomiting. There's blood.
MCCLURG: So he needs time off to recharge.
CISNEROS: And now all the things that give you satisfaction away from work - family, loved ones, working out, going to dinner - are not there. And now you're like, I'm on a couch in front of a screen by myself.
MCCLURG: He's scared he might give the virus to friends or family.
CISNEROS: I don't know how sustainable this can be. I know for a fact maybe physicians that are already burnt out, this is probably the tipping edge for them.
DEBORAH MARIN: You know, doctors aren't the biggest help-seekers. Suffering is kind of part of the profession to some degree. But people shouldn't be suffering.
MCCLURG: That's Deborah Marin. She's a psychiatrist in New York City. She directs a new program for the Mount Sinai Health System designed to address issues like depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, all of which are up right now in health care workers.
MARIN: The idea is to shore up people's resilience and be supportive of them. They need to feel like they're not in this alone.
MCCLURG: It's a model for other hospitals. There's a hotline, a wellness app and workshops designed to help connect nurses and doctors who are toasted - people like Dinora Chinchilla.
DINORA CHINCHILLA: All I saw was COVID, COVID, COVID. I felt like every day was on repeat.
MCCLURG: Chinchilla is a pulmonologist in Los Angeles County. It's the hardest-hit area of California, with more than 5,000 deaths.
(SOUNDBITE OF VENTILATOR)
MCCLURG: For months, most of her patients have been connected to a ventilator to breathe. The majority are older, overweight, diabetic and Latino.
CHINCHILLA: Seeing how disproportionately COVID has affected the Latino population and being able to be that person for them now is what I always wanted.
MCCLURG: As a child growing up in East LA, Chinchilla dreamed of treating low-income families like hers.
CHINCHILLA: But that comes with a big burden. It's just - it was just so emotional. I can't say that I didn't cry often.
MCCLURG: And the heartache doesn't end at work. When Chinchilla gets home, her two young children run towards her, but she has to run in the opposite direction.
CHINCHILLA: How sad is that - not being able to hug your child when she's so happy that you're home 'cause you've been gone for 14 hours?
MCCLURG: Chinchilla doesn't embrace her kids until she scrubs herself raw in a hot shower. She recently took time off to reconnect with them but still felt the tug of the hospital.
CHINCHILLA: At the same time, I feel that duty of, like, this is my specialty. This is what I signed up for. I have to be there.
MCCLURG: But that conviction does wane when she sees the public ignore simple protocols, like wearing a mask.
CHINCHILLA: If you guys just would step into the ICU for five minutes and just see what I see and experience what I experience, I just have no doubt that people would be more mindful.
MCCLURG: She says it's hard to keep giving if it doesn't feel like we're all in this together.
For NPR News, I'm Lesley McClurg.
(SOUNDBITE OF SKULI SVERRISSON'S "DIVENA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.