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TIFU by breathing COVID fumes

I'm a doctor working in the ER and there are a lot of COVID patients every day. I know the routine of putting on all the protective gear, the masks, the treatment- this wasn't my first rodeo with COVID.

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The patient is older, and is currently hypoxic (not getting enough oxygen), and I am suspecting a super infection with bacterial pneumonia on top. At first the patient is on 3 liters of O2, but the nurse calls me in because she can't get an arterial blood sample and it needs to be done with ultrasound to find the artery. Get into all the gear, go in with scanner, get the sample, evaluate the person, increase oxygen, get out and confer with my attending, get all the COVID regiment going.

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The patient desaturates again- oxygen saturation needs to be above 95% in people with no lung diseases- above 92% can be acceptable in COVID cases. The patient is at 84%. On goes the gear, new arterial blood sample, increase oxygen, stabilize the patient.

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Rinse and repeat until I've been into the room six times to stabilize the patient, who is quickly getting worse. I know the protective gear, it's like a reflex to put it all on correctly by now.

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But the patient is still getting worse, so I put them on high flow oxygen treatment, 35 liters of flow and 35% oxygen levels. I talk to the ICU, because this patient is rapidly deteriorating and there is ONE spot free so I nab that like a greedy little gremlin.

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Just before the patient is getting transferred, the O2 levels drops again to 68% and the nurse calls me in a panic to tell me that the patient is crashing. I rush into the protective gear, get in there and crank the high flow to the max. Eventually I manage to stabilize the patient enough for transport and they go to the ICU- an hour later they're on a respirator.

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Yay me, right? The next day however, my attending pulls me over and asks me what sort of mask I was wearing when I went into the patients room on that 7th time and my heart just fucking plummets. I stutter out "I was wearing the wrong mask."

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On a high flow air treatment, you have to wear an FFP3 mask. I only wore a regular surgical mask because that was the only mask at the gear station.

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I think back on how I leaned over the patient to get the arterial blood sample with the ultrasound scanner. I remember how I held the patients hand, telling the patient we were doing everything we could and we were going to transfer to ICU. I remember the patient coughing, me standing right next to the bed, just breathing in the COVID fumes.

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All the times I've seen COVID patients, all the times I've put on the correct gear and this one time I managed to screw up. Currently at home in isolation, waiting for the COVID tests, while all my colleagues are working their butts off at the ER.

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TL;DR I am a dumb doctor at work, forgot to wear the right protective gear and got coughed in the face by a COVID patient. COVID sucks, wear your masks.

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