PHOTOS: Md. doctor deemed COVID risk for hospital work uses robot to help treat patients
BALTIMORE (ABC7) — They're a new kind of medical team...a robot named Fast Freddie and critical care doctor H. Neal Reynolds. Reynolds is in his home office and Fast Freddie is 22 miles away with COVID-19 patients at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
Reynolds speaks into his computer and at the hospital, nurses hear him say, "Let me take a peek at the ventilator way over here. I'm going to cruise around the other side of the bed." The robot with Reynold's disembodied face then rolls over to take a look at the medical device.
Reynolds says, "With this system, it's just like being there. It's very real-time. It's comfortable. Patients can see my face, my emotions, my eye contact, and I can see the same on them."
And in this case, it allows patients to see a veteran doctor with years of experience. A doctor who otherwise would not be able to help. "I'm 72," Reynolds says, "Allegedly I'm in the high-risk category for getting this disease and doing poorly. It's real and it's dangerous to some."
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now begun tracking COVID among health care providers. The numbers are significant. Even with partial data, they say nearly 100,000 have tested positive and 531 have died. So, in March, Reynolds' boss sent him home. He hasn't been to the hospital since. And yet thanks to fast Freddie he says he hasn't missed a shift, "I do my full job. I round in the ICU every day."
Reynolds says the hospital is no longer packed with patients but he says now is the time to prepare for a possible second surge and he thinks Fast Freddie and more like him will be key to protecting him and other health care providers. Reynolds says, "Not only does it protect us but it allows us, I believe, to deliver better care until we get back to the bedside."
