Alumni spotlight on Dr. Darren Bodkin

Dr. Darren Bodkin is a healthcare worker serving on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic as he finishes his pediatric residency at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn. Bodkin, who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology in 2008, attended the University of the West Indies for medical school. As the pandemic has raged on, Bodkin’s work with patients during his residency has led him to reflect on his strong connection to Christ and his passion to provide comfort and solace to patients during a time like no other.

Bodkin explains, “The COVID deployment was a harrowing experience. Just the term ‘deployment’ is a subtle acknowledgement of the war-type environmental transformation that occurred for many hospitals around the country. In sharing my experience, I think it’s important to re-state the foundation of my clinical background and expectations prior to COVID deployment. As a pediatric resident, I get to hold babies, run with toddlers and cry with adolescents who do not know how to handle stressful friendships. The ship of death and agony does not make regular port calls to my bubbly pediatric island. With this in mind, the closing of pediatric inpatient units to facilitate bed space for adults affected by COVID, who would then be taken care of by resident pediatric physicians is a mutually dreadful reality. As part of medical training we would run ‘code’ drills or rapid response training scenarios. This training concept is prevalent in many industries. It is essentially a mock drill of scenarios and the best practice approach to resolve them. The communication of a code is made by overhead public address announcement so that it can be heard anywhere in the hospital. The arrival code, or how a patient arrived to the hospital, created an exponential increase in codes and rapid response calls. Let’s put this in context: pre-COVID we averaged one code per week, with COVID we averaged 20 plus a day. We clinicians experienced a onslaught of unwell patients who were too sick to make it from the Emergency Department to the inpatient unit.

“The light in the midst of all of this darkness was seeing how various COVID rapid response scenarios brought Christ into the hospital rooms. One night, one of my patients, a 70-year-old female with pre-existing medical conditions and now compromised respiratory effort was on a ventilation assist device. She was one of the many codes called that night because of a sudden decline in her oxygen levels. She was medically assessed and stabilized. Later during the shift I checked in on her and she was very shaken up, left anxious by the experience. It was at that moment I knew that I had to offer the opportunity to pray. She was more at ease after prayer. The next day, she had passed on and so my only success was a prayer, not oxygen. After responding to a rapid response to another patient, given the pseudonym YZ, Christ in my professional life was revealed.”

Bodkin shares this experience with YZ with us in an excerpt from his Experiences on the Frontlines journal:

‘Most physician-patient encounters are not the perfect script. There is an expectation of professionalism which can protect both the patient and physician. I do not think it was meant to shield us from the bedside bonding moments. However, I suppose that as we strive to balance our emotional involvement and clinical responsibilities it is safer to lean more to the physical problems we have been trained to address. The pandemic has put that ‘safe & professional approach’ on the witness box under cross examination by many friends and family members who cannot be there at the moment to meet the emotional needs of admitted family members. So, Ms. YZ started to talk, and I listened. Interestingly she reminisced on her routine Sunday morning church services and looked forward to being there or any church post lockdown. She looked out the window which had a beautiful view of south Brooklyn all the way down to Coney Island. She said, ‘I saw Jesus knocking at my window last night’. Ms. YZ looked at me, possibly expecting a response, but I was certainly not forthcoming. Eventually I asked what did she do when she saw him? Ms. YZ again looking out the window, said ‘I smiled and waved at him to come in’.’