PodcastFM: Mutua's health workers in the COVID trenches
Not only patients have suffered the ravages of Covid-19. At this point it is obvious to state that the entire society has been affected by the pandemic and that the calls for attention to reduce hospital pressure were continuous given the great problem that patient saturation entailed for everyone. For this reason, the health authorities decided that the hospitals managed by the Mutual Collaborators with Social Security would also collaborate in the treatment of these patients, in a scenario full of uncertainties. And that is why PodcastFM wanted to know their testimonies first-hand.
Fraternidad-Muprespa prepared everything in the month of April to receive and begin caring for the 21 patients referred to the Fraternidad-Muprespa Havana Hospital, a center that had been open for a year and specialized in traumatology, for the treatment of work accidents.
What happened inside its doors is not far from what was told by thousands of health workers to whom we have already repeatedly heard their messages of caution, to avoid contagion, because hospital care has at times become something between privilege and war medicine. These messages are similar to those sent to us by four health workers from Fraternidad-Muprespa, who told PodcastFM about the hard experience they had.
This is the case of Covadonga Ezquerra, a family doctor who left his practice at the Fraternidad-Muprespa center in Tres Cantos for a few weeks, to reinforce the medical service at the Hospital. "I faced it with a certain fear because the responsibility was very great. We had to adapt to an unknown illness and the fear of not doing them more harm weighed down, because their condition was very serious."
“We thought we knew everything,” says José Ramón Domínguez, a flying nurse at the Mutua, with more than fifteen years of experience in the house and involved in a thousand battles, always with the vocation of public service very present. "I have had influenza A, bird flu, I had to wear these PPE a long time ago... but this cannot be compared, and I want to highlight two things: camaraderie and confusion. And for us, when all this passes we will see what we have left to live. We continue treating patients and well... sometimes it is a little difficult for me to sleep," he says.
“This is not going to be forgotten. Never.” The one who speaks in this very categorical way is Mariu Arias, emergency nurse at the Fraternidad-Muprespa Havana Hospital who highlights "the ability to have turned the team into a family. We were looking forward to putting on the PPE so we could hug each other. It was the hug that you couldn't give your family, the kiss that you couldn't give your children."
Erika Velázquez, assistant at the Fraternidad-Muprespa Havana Hospital, established an interesting parallel between the shortage of consumables that was experienced in many health centers, especially in the public sphere, and that fortunately was not experienced in her workplace, and the ability of health workers to look for alternatives. “That's what healthcare workers do every day: provide solutions to problems.”
Everyone agrees that what impressed them most was seeing patients die alone. “We had never faced the fact that either you were there or no one was there,” says José Ramón. Covadonga continues with a similar discourse that arises from the need to tell what he experienced. "What I am going to tell you, I need to tell it. Not only have we faced the loneliness of the patients, we have cushioned it as much as we could, I have touched them, I have spoken to them, I have put on several pairs of gloves to touch their faces... but also, how the families have sustained that uncertainty, how they waited for our calls, sometimes with bad news or to notify them of the death. They have had heroic behavior."
Our protagonists have also highlighted the important role of the Hospital management, ensuring that they work protected to the maximum and have the necessary material. And given that this protection has not been experienced in many centers, they send an important message to the political authorities."They are responsible for ensuring that there are material and also human resources. They must do their work responsibly, which is the same thing they ask of us."
In unison their answer was a resounding “no” to the question of whether they would choose another profession if they were born again. Your commitment is as necessary as your response is reassuring for all of us.
