Dahlia Larios is a first-year medical resident in Boston.

I switched through different services. My most recent service was in the ICU.

When she says ICU, she means the COVID ICU. And while you might think about being in that type of environment day in, day out,

as pretty brutal, Dahlia thinks about it a little differently. It may sound cheesy and it may

sound silly, but I love, love, love being a doctor. You know, I consider myself incredibly lucky

that I am one of the few providers in her hospital who is bilingual and can speak Spanish as well as English.

You've probably heard about how this coronavirus is impacting communities of color, that black and brown people are more likely to die from an infection.

Dahlia, she's seeing that impact firsthand.

How, what proportion of patients in the ICU are Spanish speaking?

When I was on service, which was just a week ago, I would say about 80%,

which is much, much higher than we have seen at any point before.

And how many of the doctors were Spanish speaking?

I can speak for the night team, which is the team that I was on.

On that team in particular, I was the only physician who spoke Spanish.

Dahlia's hospital has translators and fancy iPads so doctors can understand whatever a patient's saying.

But nothing can replace communicating with your actual doctor.

Sometimes Dalia is able to offer simple comfort and familiarity.

Sometimes, speaking Spanish means she can get a patient healthier faster.

Some of the patients simply cannot speak to you because they are often hooked up to a ventilator.

But as we get closer to, for instance, extubating somebody, we wing their sedation,

and that's where language becomes really important again, because normally we'll ask them if they can follow some basic commands.

We might ask them, can you squeeze my hand, for instance?

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