The typical mortality rate in the ICU was far lower than for Covid, so even critical-care staff, like Uppal, who see death all the time, were taken aback by the pace. Such doctors knew instinctively how to click into emergency mode. Before Covid, that might last thirty or forty minutes—say, with a patient who has a heart attack. If there is a bus wreck or a mass casualty event, emergency mode could last all day. But with Covid, it was day after day for weeks on end. Emotions were deferred, but they clawed deep scars.
