SARS | 4
12/31/20 • 43 min
On this episode of Global News What Happened To...?, journalist Erica Vella revisits the SARS epidemic that gripped parts of Canada in 2003.
This year has been an unprecedented year as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic, but 17 years ago, parts of the world faced another coronavirus -- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, better known as SARS.
Erica Vella looks back at the SARS epidemic and explains how one super-spreading event brought the virus to Toronto, where health-care workers were among the hardest hit.
Sylvia Gordon was working in the critical care unit at Scarborough Grace Hospital in 2003 and there was one day in early March that she recalls vividly.
“I was doing a day shift -- a 12-hour day shift -- we had trouble staffing and I stayed on for an extra hour or so,” she said.
“Just as I was on my way out the door, I heard deep snoring. I thought, wow somebody is in trouble. I went in the room and sure enough, the patient was having like a cardiac arrest. So I put my bag down and called a code and we began resuscitating him.”
At the time, Gordon had no idea that the patient she was resuscitating had SARS and she was now infected with the virus.
“Initially I thought I was coming down with the flu. It was, you know -- you're coughing and you're feeling lethargic, running the temperature and just body pain, aches and pains all over,” she said.
Gordon called in sick and explained what she was feeling.
“I was told 'gosh, you know, you're not the first one. We've been getting a number of calls from other colleagues that they're not able to make it to work, that they're ill.' And then I started figuring out, well, maybe we contracted something. So I started calling my colleagues and then they described the same symptoms.”
In Canada, there were 438 probable and suspect SARS cases reported and there were 44 deaths that included three health-care workers.
Globally, the virus killed more than 800 people.
Erica Vella finds out what changes were made following the SARS epidemic to protect health-care workers in Ontario and most importantly, if it helped in the battle ahead with COVID-19.
Contact:
Twitter: @ericavella
Email: [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this episode of Global News What Happened To...?, journalist Erica Vella revisits the SARS epidemic that gripped parts of Canada in 2003.
This year has been an unprecedented year as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic, but 17 years ago, parts of the world faced another coronavirus -- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, better known as SARS.
Erica Vella looks back at the SARS epidemic and explains how one super-spreading event brought the virus to Toronto, where health-care workers were among the hardest hit.
Sylvia Gordon was working in the critical care unit at Scarborough Grace Hospital in 2003 and there was one day in early March that she recalls vividly.
“I was doing a day shift -- a 12-hour day shift -- we had trouble staffing and I stayed on for an extra hour or so,” she said.
“Just as I was on my way out the door, I heard deep snoring. I thought, wow somebody is in trouble. I went in the room and sure enough, the patient was having like a cardiac arrest. So I put my bag down and called a code and we began resuscitating him.”
At the time, Gordon had no idea that the patient she was resuscitating had SARS and she was now infected with the virus.
“Initially I thought I was coming down with the flu. It was, you know -- you're coughing and you're feeling lethargic, running the temperature and just body pain, aches and pains all over,” she said.
Gordon called in sick and explained what she was feeling.
“I was told 'gosh, you know, you're not the first one. We've been getting a number of calls from other colleagues that they're not able to make it to work, that they're ill.' And then I started figuring out, well, maybe we contracted something. So I started calling my colleagues and then they described the same symptoms.”
In Canada, there were 438 probable and suspect SARS cases reported and there were 44 deaths that included three health-care workers.
Globally, the virus killed more than 800 people.
Erica Vella finds out what changes were made following the SARS epidemic to protect health-care workers in Ontario and most importantly, if it helped in the battle ahead with COVID-19.
Contact:
Twitter: @ericavella
Email: [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Previous Episode
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge | 3
On this episode of Global News What Happened To...?,, journalist Erica Vella revisits the story of the ice bucket challenge.
In 2014, social media feeds were flooded with videos of people showering themselves in ice cold water; the goal was to raise awareness and money for ALS.
Julie Frates’ husband, Pete Frates, was one of the co-creators.
“Our good friend Pat Quinn, who has ALS and lives in New York, he was challenged and in that challenge, he also named one of Pete's good friends,” she said.
“Pete saw it immediately and thought, okay ... everyone's got to get on this right away and I remember sitting down that night at dinner and he directed all of us to go on Facebook and just continually start challenging people and sharing it.”
The campaign went viral; celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Fallon and Bill Gates joined in on the dare and globally over $220 million dollars was raised.
“It was unfathomable,” she said.
“It was shocking for us and it was shocking for everyone in the medical community. Everyone who had spent their whole career trying to research this disease; it was kind of like such a huge windfall. It was amazing and overwhelming and completely hard to grasp.”
Pete was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 2012. The disease weakens muscles and impairs physical functioning. There is no known cure.
Erica Vella speaks with the family that started the viral campaign to see what has happened since 2014 and endeavors to answer; did it lead to any positive change?
Contact:
Twitter: @ericavella
Email: [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Next Episode
Pulse Nightclub | 5
Brandon Wolf recalls the hours leading up to June 12, 2016 vividly. He said he made plans to go out with his friends Christopher Andrew (Drew) Leinonen and Juan Ramon Guerrero.
They decided to go to Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando.
At 2:02 a.m. a man armed with a semi-automatic rifle and a handgun walked into the tightly packed club and began firing.
The massacre is on record as one of the deadliest mass shootings of LGBTQ2S+ people in the U.S. Forty-nine people were killed and 53 others were injured by gunfire, most of whom were LGBTQ2S+ and many were people of colour.
On this episode, Erica Vella revisits the story of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., on June 12, 2016 and speaks with Brandon Wolf about his experience as a survivor and how witnessing the shooting that night changed the course of his life.
She also finds what happened to the nightclub and the investigation into the mass shooting and if the events led to any changes in the U.S.
Contact:
Twitter: @ericavella
Email: [email protected]
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