Respiratory therapists received little public attention before the pandemic, but they are among the true heroes of the coronavirus crisis. These licensed medical professionals are now at the front lines against COVID-19, trying to help patients fighting to breathe.

Licensed respiratory therapist David Van De Carr at Mount Sinai Morningside Heights in Manhattan shared his experience helping critically ill victims of this disease through a video diary.

“Hashtag recognize respiratory therapists,” he said while sitting in the driver’s seat of his car. He arrives to work before dawn and parks near the hospital. “We’re on all the code teams; we are experts in pulmonary medicine. We help people breathe, simply,” he added..

“You really know when you can’t breathe, you really know. And it’s a desperate, desperate feeling. And that’s what this disease is all about,” he explained. “Everybody is COVID and I see the worst of it,” he said. “My job is to go into the COVID patients' rooms and put them on ventilators. Get them off ventilators, put them on noninvasive ventilation.”

His diary offers a tour of the hospital’s respiratory department. Ventilators ready for use line the walls.

“In the beginning we just, we had a lot of days we just put out fires all day. Overhead medical code, medical code, go to that. If somebody gets intubated, they get put on a ventilator, they go to the ICU. It happens again and again and again,” he said. “It’s surreal, really. It’s been hard”

Van De Carr uses his elbow to open the interior hospital doors.

“When I come in the room, I tell them my name, what I do, and I tell them what I’m going to do, even if the patient is sedated on a ventilator, I do it anyways,” he said.

Walking down a hallway, Van De Carr peers into patient rooms, explaining some are on ventilators and one he says is receiving nitric oxide. He says the Cardiovascular Surgery Intensive Care Unit has been converted into a COVID unit.

“Before all of this whole thing I was generally a cheerful guy and I think a big part of my job is to be happy to see my patients and engage with them - and this has changed,” he said.

“I haven’t really broken down and cried but yeah, I get, it’s rough, it’s been rough. It’s rough for everybody,” Van De Carr added.

“You just are scared a lot. I was anxious. Can’t sleep. It affects everybody differently. I come here every day, I’m neck deep in COVID for like seven weeks. And I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I gotta do it,” he said. Van De Carr became a respiratory therapist roughly seven years ago after a career as a contractor.

“Even though the numbers have gotten better, we are discharging some patients, our work is very important,” he said. “I’m still alive, I’m still here.”