Video recreates dying patient's view as ICU doctor urges people to take Covid seriously

A St. Louis ICU doctor shared a video showing what Covid-19 patients see as they are being intubated in an attempt to urge people to take the virus seriously.

In the video, Kenneth Remy, a critical care physician at Washington University Medical Center, stares down at a camera as he holds a laryngoscope and an endotracheal tube — tools used in the intubation process.

"I hope 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. When we don't practice social distancing. When we don't wash our hands frequently," he says.

"Because I promise you, this will be what you see. 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."

Remy said he's had over 1,000 Covid-19 patients and has seen "too many of them die" from the disease. He said he wanted to post the video after St. Louis saw a spike in coronavirus cases.

“Over the last week that I’ve been in the intensive care unit, we’ve had a number of deaths," he said in a phone interview with NBC News. "I’ve been forced to call 11 strangers in the middle of the night to let them know that their loved one just died. And so in that vein, if you will, unfortunately, it just was weighing on my shoulders sort of a feeling of defeat."

His video has been viewed more than 71,000 times since it was posted to Twitter on Saturday.

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The doctor said his hope is that he can help "alter some sense of the disease," especially with the holidays approaching.

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“I understand that wearing a mask everywhere when you’re out in public can feel uncomfortable but what also would feel most uncomfortable would be being in the hospital, being in the intensive care unit, struggling to breathe," he said.

"At the end of the day, I want my loved ones to be alive just like I want your loved ones to be alive."

On Saturday, the U.S. topped 12 million cases of Covid-19 as more than 40 states plus Washington D.C. reported a percentage increase in cases from over the past 14 days.