City paramedic compares coronavirus crisis to ‘war zone’ — and he should know

A city paramedic says the Big Apple’s fight against the coronavirus is like being in a “war zone” — and he should know.

“I’ve actually been in a war zone. It is a pretty good analogy,” said EMT Phil Suarez, also a humanitarian aid worker who has provided trauma care in Mosul in northern Iraq for the US’ war against ISIS.

Suarez, who spoke to Reuters in a video interview aired Monday, is among the city’s many medical professionals in the fight against the potentially deadly COVID-19.

He said the work has been exhausting.

“It just wears you down,” the paramedic said. “You know, I really, I’ve welled up in tears at times, you know, when we take somebody, a loved one, out of their home.”

Suarez noted that because of the coronavirus crisis, loved ones can’t accompany the patients or visit them in the hospital.

“You can’t go to the waiting room and wait,” he said. “So we literally just take their loved ones, and often times, we know that they will never see them again alive. And these people will most likely die in a bed alone. It’s profound sadness.”

Last week, Suarez said, he got home from a 16-hour shift that mostly all involved coronavirus patients.

The paramedic said an “all-time record” for city EMTs was recently hit when there were more than 7,100 emergencies in the Big Apple in a 24-hour period.

“That’s almost double of what we normally do, which is profound for New York City — 7,100 emergencies in a 24-hour period. It’s overwhelming,” he said.

According to Suarez, the only other time the emergency calls reached that level in a 24-hour period was during the 9/11 terror attacks.

The paramedic said that he, along with his other colleagues, fear that they’ll be exposed to virus while on the job.

“We’re just mortified that we’re going to come down with it and we’re going to be that 2 percent” who dies, he said.

As of Tuesday, New York City tallied more than 40,900 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 932 fatalities, according to officials.