NEW ORLEANS — Dr. Sonia Malhotra is the Director of Palliative Medicine Service at University Medical Center. She treats people with severe cancer or lung, heart and liver diseases. Malhotra also treats the most serious of Covid-19 patients.

Malhotra and her team often have difficult conversations with family members about the next step in a loved one’s treatment.

“Or whether we’re talking about the fact that we’ve maximized everything that we can and that we don’t have anything to offer,” she says, regarding worst case scenarios.

Malhotra says that end of life procedures for people with Covid-19 are different than other patients. There are no pats on the shoulder or hugs to console. But the coronavirus did bring other changes.

“We have created a police that allows for up to 3 family members in full PPE at the end of life to visit with their loved ones,” Malhotra says.

Malhotra says she works with a great team that is also in the process of creating a program that delivers groceries to family members who have lost a loved one to the coronavirus as well as a bereavement program for them.

As Louisiana’s Covid-19 curve flattens, more people are working to resume their normal lives, at least as much as they can. Also, people are looking for ways to thank our front line medical workers.

Malhotra has a suggestion for people who are looking for ways to thank our doctors and nurses. For more on that, click on the video at the top of this story.

For her work with the sickest of coronavirus patients, Dr. Sonia Malhotra is our Health Care Hero of the Day, sponsored by Schonberg Care.