Death haunts hospitals, anxiety over homes, as well as loneliness and the desire to participate or change … infected with the emerging coronavirus in the world telling AFP their pain and fears, and some of them preferred not to reveal their full names:
Death hangs over the hospital
ROME – Fabio Peveralli, a 65-year-old Italian cardiologist from Rome: He spent eight days “cut off from the world” in the intensive care and recovery department of the Polyclinico Umberto Uno Hospital in Rome, a dental clinic that had been transferred to a hospital to cope with the crisis.
“I was feeling strange pain (…) as if there was a monkey on my back,” Fabio said. “This is how one of my patients described the symptoms he felt.”
“Oxygen therapy is painful and searching for the radial artery is difficult. Medical staff used to do this twice a day. The fact that I am a doctor helped me with the pain.
The other patients were desperate screaming (enough, enough).
He said, “The most difficult time was during the night. I could not sleep and anxiety was sweeping the room (…) Nightmares begin and death hangs over.” “I was afraid that I would die without being able to hold the hands of my family members. Despair was sweeping me,” he said.
The medical staff ‘bodies were completely covered, feet, hands and head. I could only see their eyes behind the glass masks. Eyes with a lot of emotion. I could only hear their voices. Many of them were very young, doctors in the front rows. It was a moment of hope “.
Change after illness
Wuhan (China) – Wan Shunhu, a 44-year-old Chinese man with high blood pressure, is a married investor with a nine-year-old girl: He was transferred on January 30 to a field hospital in Wuhan (center) where the epidemic first appeared. He recovered after 17 days in hospital. He spent 14 days in quarantine, waiting to receive on his phone a symbol confirming that he was in good health.
The first time he went to the hospital and his body temperature was high, he was diagnosed with Covid-19, but he was taken home with antibiotics because he had no room, and he said, “I was terrified.”
His condition worsened and he started coughing. He was admitted to the first hospital on January 30, he received hormone therapy to reduce his body temperature, but he was still suffering from breathing difficulties. There was a shortage of medicine while health workers used bags of garbage to cover their shoes.
On February 4, he was transferred to one of the field hospitals, which was specially built for people with new episodes in Wuhan. “I was not afraid, but there was fear among the patients,” he said.
“Today I see things differently. I feel calm about everything, really calm. (…) I reached the door of hell and came back. I saw those who did not recover and those who died. This affected me a lot. I no longer take anything seriously.” Grandpa”.
Irregular symptoms
Johannesburg-Christine, a 28-year-old South African analyst with SCI, was diagnosed with a new corona on March 20: Her friend Dowey, a 30-year-old South African lawyer and well-established, was unable to perform the examination because “the (medical) system is under stress” But it has the same symptoms. They isolate themselves at home in Johannesburg, where they work remotely.
Christine felt the first symptoms after two days of contact with an infected colleague, and the examination came to confirm the matter. Three days later, Dawei was in the same position. “The symptoms fluctuate from one hour to the next. They go back and forth, as if they are waves. It is different from the common cold: There is fatigue, difficulty breathing, chest pressure. The best way to describe this is as if you are at high altitude and have difficulty breathing,” she said.
Sometimes, Dawi wonders if they “exaggerate,” because “there are days when we feel at best. On the same day, we tremble (due to the heat) and then we feel better. The worst (…) is during the weekend when I had trouble getting Breathing and I asked myself whether or not to go to the hospital … My doctor explained to me how to find out if I am short of oxygen, saying: “See if the color of your nails turns blue.”
Worried at home
Mulhouse (France) – Jamila Kirosh, a 47-year-old French housewife who was previously a cleaner, is married and has three children aged 6, 11 and 19: She was infected with a newborn Corona on March 17 and isolated herself at her home in Mulhouse in eastern France where the disease is very common.
“I had a coughing. The next day, it got worse, I lost my voice and my sense of taste and smell. When I was coughing, I was weak, very weak. I did the examination but the doctor diagnosed me with the virus,” she told France Press.
“I begged my husband to take a week’s leave, but he works in an epic, and he said to me: Imagine if everyone did this? There would be no food.”
“At home, I wear gloves and a protective mask. I do not touch food. But two of my children are walking.”
“The worst of everything is homework. My children put a lot of pressure on themselves, they want to succeed in school. Their teachers give them homework as if it is normal. My 19-year-old daughter is preparing for the professional baccalaureate diploma and seeing her cry when she cannot (focus) nor I can hold it in my arms, my sympathy and my help. “
“My psyche is completely uncomfortable,” she said. “I stop crying, no rest, and this situation exceeds my capabilities.”
“Social awakening”
Buenos Aires – Marisol San Roman, 25-year-old Argentine sociologist and student: She was infected with Covid-19 on March 10 during a farewell dinner in Madrid after the closure of the “Empresa” institute, where she was learning, before returning home. She is subject to quarantine in her home.
On March 12, she returned to Buenos Aires and started a compulsory quarantine imposed on all returnees from countries where the epidemic had occurred. The next day, the first symptoms appeared. “My body temperature was 40 degrees Celsius, my throat almost exploded, and I felt like I was tearing inside.” “As soon as the doctor saw me, I realized that I was in contact with a patient, because there were people in my classroom in the university who had an emerging SK.”
Marisol said she was shocked. “It does not happen. I am 25 years old. I am a young woman. My health is good. This is crazy.”
Her 65-year-old father avoids contact with her, leaving her food in front of her room door. She should alone cure pneumonia caused by her cough and measure the rate of oxygen in the blood. She said that the period of illness is “unity, complete unity”.
Her story spread and she gave many interviews with the media. She said that she had received many insults on social media because she returned to the country while she was HIV positive, but said, “I tried (on my part) … to break the stigma associated with the developing coronary”.
She wrote on her account on the “Instagram” application that her role today is to be a person with “social awakening”, “he tells people to become vigilant because it is not a joke and that being young does not give you immunity against something and that the new corona is not a cold.”
“The first patient”
PAPAHOYO (Ecuador) – Lorena is a 33-year-old Ecuadorian teacher: she is the daughter of the sister of the “first injured” in Ecuador who was returning from a vacation in Spain and was greeted with a family celebration that gathered about thirty people in late February in the southwestern city.
“My aunt did not go anywhere. She had no time. When she arrived, she was not doing well (…) She told us that she feels that her fever is high during the flight and that many people were coughing” on the plane, Lorena said.
On February 22, the 71-year-old aunt was transferred to a hospital in Guayaquil, the epidemic in Ecuador. A week later, she was confirmed to have been diagnosed, her relatives isolated, and examined. On March 1, they saw on TV that Health Minister Catalina Andramono – who had since been sacked – announced five injuries at a press conference. “They are we!” Lorena said, referring to these five injuries, adding, “We knew about it on TV without informing us” in advance. “
On March 13, the aunt died. About a dozen family members were injured, including Lorena, who subsequently recovered. No one really knows how to treat isolated patients in their homes. Doctors tell me: “Check your blood pressure for them, on your own + and refuse to touch my family.”
