Doctor films viral warning: ‘This is what you’ll see at the end of your life’

On Saturday a critical care physician and city councilman made an impassioned plea on Twitter for people to wear masks writing, “I don’t want to be the last person that looks in your frightened eyes.”

Kenneth E. Remy, an adult and pediatric critical care physician and city councilman for Wildwood, Mo., posted a video on Twitter bringing the camera toward and away from his face repeatedly, simulating what patients will see when they are being intubated for oxygen.

“This is what it looks like when you breathe 40 times a minute, have an oxygen level that’s dipping well below 80. This is what it’s gonna look like,” said Remy. “I hope that the last moments of your life don’t look like this. Because this is what you’ll see at the end of your life, if we don’t start wearing masks when we’re out in public.”

Please listen as this is dire. I don’t want to be the last person that looks in your frightened eyes. #MaskUp ⁦@DrKenRemy1⁩ ⁦@WUSTLmed⁩ pic.twitter.com/qwb4eERlfE

— Kenneth E. Remy, MD, MHSc, FCCM (@DrKenRemy1) November 21, 2020

Remy’s voice quavers as he begs people to adhere to COVID-19 guidelines. In the video, it appears he is wearing personal protective equipment that most physicians treating COVID-19 are wearing, which includes head covering, goggles and a mask.

“I promise you, this is what your mother or your father or your children, when they get COVID disease, will see at the end of their life. This is serious. I beg you, please practice the precautions to reduce transmission of COVID disease, so that we can effectively prevent disease for you and your loved ones,” said Remy.

Speaking to CNN, Remy said he made the video after having to inform a patient’s family member of their loved one’s death due to COVID-19.

According to Remy, he has increasingly heard patients say they are not worried about the virus because the chances of dying are low.

Remy rebutted by saying, “If I had to win the lotto with those chances, I’d play it every single day.” CNN reported Remy also runs the COVID-19 laboratory at Washington University where new, potential coronavirus treatments are being tested.

“Many of these patients will die unexpectedly and at the end of the day, as an ICU doctor, I’m the one that’s got to call,” said Remy. “I think that, that was weighing on me.”

Missouri has reported more than 278,000 coronavirus cases and more than 3,700 deaths so far. Like much of the U.S., Missouri is seeing a sharp increase in the number of daily coronavirus cases reported and as CNN notes, the state is averaging more than 4,000 new cases a day.

Missouri’s state government has not issued any new restrictions since the uptick of new cases and has not issued a mask mandate. Gov. Mike Parson (R) has said he is not anti-mask but anti-mandate. In September, Parson and his wife, Teresa, tested positive for the coronavirus.