Vancouver anesthesiologist creates portraits of colleagues on the front line, and away from it
A collection of about 15 portraits created by a Vancouver anesthesiologist shows his colleagues on the front lines of fighting COVID-19, plus who they are away from it.
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Dr Cyrus McEachern has been creating portraits of his anesthesiology colleagues, a project that has made him feel closer to them and taught him that no one is alone in their fears and anxieties in the pandemic.
He’s an anesthesiologist at Vancouver General Hospital, thrust into the daily struggle to save people from COVID-19.
The photographic images are “a bit of beauty to come out of a really, ugly nasty time in the hospital right now,” he said. “I’ve learned so much about everyone.”
He has also learned something valuable about the worries and anxiety he had been dealing with as a relatively new anesthesiologist. “I have only been in practice for two years now. And the stresses I was feeling, I am not alone in it at all.”
He blends pictures of colleagues on the COVID-19 front line with pictures of their life outside work — the family members, hobbies and interests that also define these doctors — especially things they can’t enjoy now in a period of pandemic lockdown.
“We have to wear many layers of personal protective equipment,” said McEachern. “It’s physically uncomfortable and it’s also kind of dehumanizing. Like we don’t recognize each other, so you feel more isolated.”
His initial goal was to artistically explore how workplace stress affects personal lives.
“I got the idea for the photos from an artist I follow on Instagram, he said, referring to Turkish artist Uger Gallenkus, “who kind of splices different photos together that are very dichotomous, so images of a young girl in war-torn Syria contrasted with a photo of a young, privileged girl in the United States. It’s like a photo that kind of fits, but is also very contrasting.”
This weekend, he worked another shift on the “COVID intubating team.” That means minimizing pain and distress for patients who need a tube inserted down their throat because they can’t breathe without a ventilator.
Pre-COVID, a regular day could be “pretty gory and it’s really traumatic,” said McEachern.
“Then COVID has been like a pressure cooker,” he said. “The baseline stressors we deal with are really sick, unstable patients. And now these patients could potentially have a very contagious deadly disease that kills even young people … and the medical professionals that deal with them.”
Admittedly, in these times, “stresses and conflicts are true for a lot of people in society,” he said. “By no means am I saying we have it the worst.”
Half of each image shows anesthesiologists in masks, visors and extra gowns with medical equipment in the background. He merges these with photos of them in their backyards, holding their kids, next to their pets, on a surfboard, dressed to do traditional Indian dancing, often things they think about or miss doing because of COVID-19.
The first image he created was of Dr. Andrea Brovender. It shows her “physically carrying a bunch of IV pumps” and wearing “dirty, contaminated personal protective equipment,” said McEachern.
He went to her house the next day and took a photo of her carrying her two-year old.
“She’s an intensely emotional person. She has a husband and children. And she’s kind of going on at length to me about how the intensity of emotion she feels when she’s at work, dealing with this intense stress, and she goes home and she’s scared to be around her young children, like she’s going to make (them) get sick,” said McEachern. “And are they going to pass it grandma? And now it weighs on her heavily so we’re talking about how to convey that.”
When other doctors agreed to participate, he asked some to think about parts of their life they miss, who else they are aside from being doctors.
Dr. Steven Moore said he misses having the time to ride his bike home after work. He’s been cutting that out to faster relieve his wife who is taking care of their young kids.
Dr. Amber Galbraith loves to hike with her dogs. Dr. Shruri Chitnis, who is from Australia, is a competitive, traditional Indian dancer.
“My friend Jason has to cancel a trip to Costa Rica. He wanted to go surfing,” said McEachern. “Cindy is a world traveller … She has been everywhere. She must do anesthesia to fund her plane tickets,” he joked.
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