Ricardo Lange, 39, works as a nurse in Berlin intensive care units with a focus on Covid. Here he reports every week about night shifts, makeshift arrangements and glimmers of hope.
Mr. Lange, right after our phone call you will go to the clinic for night shift. What can you expect?
An exhausting shift. At night we always have to look after one more sick person than during the day, three instead of two, because it is supposedly quieter. But that’s not true. Intensive care patient: inside are unstable around the clock. For example, last night we had to reanimate a young person – he was well under 30. He died. Losing a fight like this is bitter for everyone in one shift. We were stunned.
He didn’t have a corona, right?
No. We only have three Covid 19 patients left: long-term residents. You have been with us for between three and eight weeks, two at the heart-lung machine. The rest of the station is mixed again when it comes to diseases. The doors to the rooms are open. They were closed for a long time to protect against infection. Now we can hear what is happening inside from outside. Except in the Covid rooms, we are allowed to walk around with normal surgical masks again. This gives you much better air.
[Weitere Folgen der Kolumne “Außer Atem” mit Ricardo Lange]
Some virologists are warning of the fourth wave in the fall. Can you draw some strength now for a possible next round?
We continue to work at the limit, only with other patients. For a year now we have been promised to improve our working conditions. Nothing has happened. Now the proposal has been made to raise the retirement age to 68 years. So we should work more and not less. There are hardly any nurses who can hold out until they are 65. The body wears out from hard work.
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