UK Hospitals Under Pressure From Covid-19 Pandemic

CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND - JUNE15: Physiotherapist Charlotte Cherry- Downs checks on Foysal Ahmad 50, before the physiotherapy in Royal Papworth Hospital on June 15, 2020 in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Ahmed was among some of the most severe COVID-19 patients in the country, and spent over two months in the Critical Care Unit of Royal Papworth being kept alive with the help of an ECMO machine, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation before being discharged roughly a month later. He continues his recovery at home with routine physical therapy. An ECMO machine pumps and oxygenates a patient's blood outside the body, essentially doing the job of the lungs externally in order to give the body a chance to rest and recover. Royal Papworth is one of only five hospitals in England to provide ECMO machines for respiratory failure, as they require a highly-trained medical staff to operate and monitor the machines. The United Kingdom has suffered one Europe's highest death rates from COVID-19. (Photo by Lynsey Addario/Getty Images)