Hundreds of Illinois veterinarians have answered the call to action and decided to join forces with health workers to assist them in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
With COVID-19 ravaging the States, the University of Illinois has urged veterinarians and clinicians to join the Covid-19 Support Network of Illinois Veterinarians and offer help to frontliners.
As the newly-enlisted vets reassured pet owners, animals will not suffer any consequences because of their decision to make a temporary shift to the treatment of humans.
“We are trained as medical professionals and we triage patients every day, they can’t exactly tell us what’s wrong,” veterinary surgeon Elaine Holmes said in an interview with ABC 7 News.
“But we’re very happy to stand alongside our human health allies and be directed to wherever we need to be.”
The support network was created as a back-up plan to assist medical workers amid the growing number of confirmed infections.
As it was elaborated, the veterinarians won’t be replacing doctors and nurses. Instead, they will provide technical support under the supervision of staff trained to take care of human patients.
In addition, some veterinarians will also provide their own gears and equipment, such as ventilators for example, since certain medical devices can be used both on animals and humans.
“Our ventilator, for instance, is a human ventilator; our high-flow oxygen is for humans; our operating rooms are human-standard operating rooms,” Holmes added.
“The vast majority of the pieces of technology that we use actually initially were made for the human healthcare side.”
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