Harrowing account from frontline of coronavirus warzone in Brooklyn hospital - where heroic doctors battle the deadly disease with scant regard for themselves... and the sick just keep coming(15 Photos)

Heroic doctors in a Brooklyn hospital have given a harrowing account to the New York Times of how they are desperately battling coronavirus while living in fear for their own lives.   

The intensive care unit at Brooklyn Hospital Center has more than doubled in size as growing numbers of patients of all ages become critically ill from the killer virus.

Medical professionals have been drafted in like 'cavalry' from anywhere that can spare them.

Over a third of the heroic staff are now also sick and those still at work are at risk because they have no choice but to wipe down and reuse old protective clothing and masks designed for single use.

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An exhausted and distraught healthcare worker is seen by the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York this week. Medical professionals have been drafted in like 'cavalry' from all departments to try to tackle the pandemic

New York recorded its worst day on record during the pandemic Saturday, as another 788 New Yorkers died from the virus taking the death toll to 3,565 Saturday.

In total, the city's 2,624 fatalities account for more than a quarter of all coronavirus deaths across the 50 states. 

The worst is yet to come for the US' epicenter with state Governor Andrew Cuomo revealing its 'apex' will likely come this week.

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First responders from The Brooklyn Hospital Center Emergency Medical Services arrived to treat a patient at Greenpark nursing home

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A medical worker approaches a refrigerator truck being used as a morgue outside of Brooklyn Hospital Center

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Medical workers load bodies into the makeshift morgue. Those still at work are at risk because they have no choice but to wipe down and reuse old protective clothing and masks designed for single use, the Times reported 

Cuomo has repeatedly begged for more medical professionals to come to New York and support it in its hours of need. 

About 85,000 medical workers have answered the cry for help, with 22,000 traveling from out of state to work in the epicenter. 

Cuomo has already stressed that hospitals in the city have just a few days left before they will run out of ventilators. 

The city teeters on the brink of collapse with this Sunday, April 5, deemed 'D-Day' for the city when it will reveal whether supplies are going to hold up as the outbreak in the Big Apple reaches its peak.  

At one stretched facility, the Brooklyn Hospital Center, more than five times the number of patients died from coronavirus this week compared with last week.

The toll of patients confirmed with the virus has skyrocketed and the dead are being held for several days in a refrigerated lorry outside the building as the morgue overflows and funeral homes can't keep up with the demand. 

Critical care doctor Dr. Joshua Rosenberg told the New York Times that healthcare workers are facing emergencies every hour. 

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At Brooklyn Hospital Center, more than five times the number of patients died from coronavirus this week compared with last week

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The ICU has doubled in size as people of all ages become critically ill at the hospital

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A patient arrives this week at the hospital. Over a third of the heroic staff are now also sick after risking their lives on the frontline

At one particularly concerning point, three 'codes' — emergency interventions when someone is on the brink of death — happened at the same time during the previous night. 

The number of patients now needing to be placed in ICU and be hooked up to a ventilator is skyrocketing, he said.  

The hospital's ICU has more than doubled in size in the last week, turning the chemotherapy infusion unit into a spillover unit in order to take on the growing number of people in a critical condition.  

People of all ages from their 80s to 30s, with pre-existing conditions and without, pregnant women, homeless people, and nursing home residents are now surviving through ventilators, Rosenberg said.

The hospital has 98 ventilators at the moment and medics are learning how to use each ventilator to treat two patients, something touted as a solution to the shortage but a difficult and risky option. 

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'We're doing this because the alternative is death,' Dr. Gasperino told The Times. 

Doctors had to perform a cesarean on a pregnant woman in her early 30s with coronavirus after she had to be put on a ventilator the previous night, the Times reported. 

Concerns are also mounting around the safety of the lifesavers themselves. 

The hospital temporarily ran out of protective plastic gowns, the main sedative for patients on ventilators and key blood pressure medication, reported the Times. 

Shortages of gowns and PPE are such a concern, there is no chance of changing in between patients. 

The Times reported that blue protective gowns - designed for single use - were seen hanging in the ICU drying after they have been wiped down to be reused and new masks were described as 'gold'.

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Bodies are seen lying in corridors inside the Wyckoff Hospital as the healthcare system is overwhelmed with fatalities 

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New York City hospitals continue to be overwhelmed with the mounting bodies, with shocking images emerging of body bags containing the latest victims of the killer virus spilling out into the corridors at Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn

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New York City alone made up 757 of the state's 788 new deaths, and more than half of the US's daily deaths from coronavirus. The makeshift morgue outside Wyckoff hospital in Brooklyn contains the latest victims of the killer illness

Around a third of the hospital staff are also out of work sick after risking their lives on the frontline. 

Medics have been drafted in from other departments and given fast-track training in the ICU - people Rosenberg called 'the cavlary'. 

'You're working completely differently,' said Judy McLaughlin, senior vice president and chief nursing executive. 

Nurses are caring for a 'crazy' number of five critical patients at a time, compared to the usual two for experienced ICU nurses.

The hospital has called for another 100 volunteer doctors and nurses to come and assist them. 

Rosenberg told The Times 'the biggest threat will be medication shortages.'

He said the hospital was left scrambling for lifesaving drugs when it temporarily ran out of a drug to treat life-threatening low blood pressure in ICU patients and a sedative that relieves the distress of being on a ventilator. 

Doctors have turned to using the 'Covid cocktail' of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, held up by President Trump as a potential cure for the virus. 

Rosenberg called it a 'maybe-maybe-this-will-work cocktail,' because he said not enough studies have been done to prove its effectiveness.

But, he told The Times they had no choice but to try it on some patients as there is no other option to save them.  

The pandemic is also hitting the doctors and nurses closer to home, with the mothers of at least two medics now in ICU because of the killer virus.