«Nobody risks using hospital masks. Everyone supplies themselves with the highest quality equipment. The record holder in the team spent PLN 1500 on his mask, plus he bought a set of filters for PLN 1700. Paula bought one for PLN 200. It will have to replace it soon. Additionally, he pays for filters. After each course, the filter for PLN 100 can be thrown away. Nobody will return this money to them ”. Here is an excerpt from the book “Extraordinary” by Małgorzata Żmudka and Marcin Wyrwał, which will be released on September 16.
- «Paula will quickly learn that the psyche of patients is a real problem during the epidemic. The coronavirus remains in the headlines for months, inevitably creating an atmosphere of fear. People who call an ambulance start to feel worse at the mere sight of rescuers wearing overalls and masks »
- Paula is a doctor, one of the characters in the book by Małgorzata Żmudka and Marcin Wyrwał entitled “Extraordinary. Nobody asked them if they wanted to be heroes »
- The authors tell real stories of doctors, nurses and paramedics who, during the spring pandemic wave, found themselves on the front lines of the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus epidemic.
- Below we publish one of the excerpts from the book. You can read the whole story of Paula (and other medics) in the book «Extraordinary. Nobody asked them if they wanted to be heroes »
The following article is an excerpt from the book «Extraordinary. Nobody asked them if they wanted to be heroes » Marcin Wyrwał and Małgorzata Żmudka. The book also contains the whole story of Paula.
He comes to work on March 28 and immediately realizes how much has changed. She likes most of these changes. Suddenly everyone is more careful. Suddenly the procedures are important.
The start-up on the first day is slow and involves learning the new reality, but a day later, Paula’s team gets a call to a patient with coronavirus. Colleagues already know how to proceed, but for her this is a completely new situation. As for the virus, it’s two weeks behind all of them. Adrenaline is jumping to the ceiling.
Protecting yourself against a patient with the virus takes 10 minutes of precision work. First of all, you need to put on a special insulating suit. Paula pulls him over his pants when a fellow ambulance grabs her by the hand.
– If you do not want to pass out in it, I have a good advice: strip down to your underwear and then put on – he says.
“But it’s cold!”
– Do as I say, you will thank him later.
Paula puts on the jumpsuit over only her underwear. It wraps the ankles and wrists with adhesive tape to completely isolate the inside of the suit. Then two pairs of nitrile gloves. One is permanent and the other will be replaced after each contact with the patient. Plus goggles.
Finally a mask. Nobody risks using hospital masks. Everyone supplies themselves with the highest quality equipment. The record holder in the team spent PLN 1500 on his mask, plus he bought a set of filters for PLN 1700. Paula bought one for PLN 200. It will have to replace it soon. Additionally, he pays for filters. After each course, the filter for PLN 100 can be thrown away. Nobody will pay them back this money.
Sweat starts dripping from her in the ambulance. She can’t imagine what would happen if she stayed fully clothed.
When they go to the patient, the dispatcher provides them with the information collected in the interview: “Man, 57 years old, shortness of breath, cough, weakness after contact with an infected person”. It’s all clear.
His wife opens the door at the address given. She is surprised to see “aliens”. He leads them to the bedroom where a pale man lies tightly wrapped in the duvet. At the sight of people in overalls, his already pale face turns white as a wall.
– Can you get up?
“I don’t think so,” she says weakly.
“Great weakness,” the doctor concludes. – You’ll need a stretcher.
At this point, the wife signals the doctor to follow her into the kitchen.
“Sir,” he says. – By 11 o’clock my husband was as healthy as a fish. At 11, he got a phone call from the Department of Health that he had a positive result and fell like a decapitated man. If I didn’t know him, I would have thought he was dying.
The doctor returns to the bedroom where the paramedics perform a preliminary examination.
– Saturation 98. I’d like to have one myself – Paula informs him. – I don’t know where this weakening is coming from, because the results are great.
The doctor explains her situation on the site. The longer they examine a man, the faster he breathes.
“I’m feeling dizzy, dizzy,” he says weakly.
– This is the effect of hyperventilation – rescuers calm him. – All you need to do is breathe slower.
– Give me some oxygen! The patient insists.
Eventually they give him medicine for shortness of breath and put him on a stretcher. He is brought to the infectious diseases hospital in Radom in perfect physical and psychological condition.
- A Polish reporter was smuggled into the COVID-19 unit. “The loneliness of dying is the worst thing”
Paula will quickly learn that the psyche of patients is a real problem during the epidemic. The coronavirus remains in the headlines for months, inevitably creating an atmosphere of fear. People who call an ambulance start to feel worse at the mere sight of rescuers in coveralls and masks.
Another problem is the patients’ fear of refusing help if they admit symptoms associated with the virus. That is why they constantly lie, which ends up being massively sent to quarantine.
Lifeguards wear T-shirts with the inscription # NieKłamMedyka, put such stickers on ambulances, stick them on the entrance door of the emergency room. But the effect is none.
The ambulance dispatcher carries out an initial interview with the patient calling the ambulance. Once a friend of Paula gets a call. The history shows that the patient complains of shortness of breath, but no temperature or cough. When they arrive, the guy has a dry cough and is inflamed with a fever.
– Why didn’t you confess? One of Paula’s friends asks.
– Because I was afraid that the ambulance would not come.
– It’s our job. We would come anyway, but properly secured.
– But I was scared anyway.
These are these types of conversations. They quickly realize that human fear will not jump over it, and there is no point in fighting it. They are working on a new procedure for such accidents in their team. When an ambulance arrives at the caller’s house, only one person enters. He makes an interview with the patient, checks the temperature. If everything is alright, he calls out to the others. If the patient is at risk, the team member goes outside and shows that he has just been taken out of the game. The crew changes into overalls and enters the house. A disabled crew member calls for transport from the hospital. He is in for two weeks of quarantine.
The virus pushes people to react differently. More and more patients in really serious condition come with their own transport, so as not to overload the health service.
One evening, a car parks in front of the emergency room. A man comes out, swaying on his feet. Lifeguards run outside. Quick interview: shortness of breath, stinging in the chest, pain in the area of the sternum. Any symptoms of a heart attack your doctor will tell you in a moment.
– Why didn’t you call an ambulance? Paula asks him.
“You guys are having more serious problems here now because of this coronavirus,” the man groans.
A few days later, a woman after a stroke will end up in the same way.
Another few days pass. They are carrying a patient with confirmed presence of the virus and severe respiratory failure. The woman contracted the infection during a routine procedure in an ordinary hospital and is now being transported to an unnamed facility of the Ministry of Interior and Administration in Warsaw. The woman’s condition deteriorates: the saturation is 85–87%, which qualifies her to be connected to oxygen. Although the woman can barely speak, she asks the paramedics to check that she has infected people who were in the same room with her.
- “People lie because they don’t want rescuers dressed as aliens to come to them”
But alongside such cases, there are dozens of panic calls for patients who detect coronavirus, which later turns out to be the common cold.
Problems with patients are one thing. However, growing fatigue and working under constant pressure mean that there are completely idiotic situations between the doctors themselves. Not long after their first covid, the Paula crew is dispatched to the patient with all symptoms of the virus. They leave the hospital before 23 o’clock in full security. Half an hour later they have a man in his fifties on board. Paramedics call the dispatcher and confirm the symptoms of the virus infection.
She sends them to a hospital in Radom. For the crew boiling in overalls, this is not the best news.
– Call this dispatcher again and make sure that Radom knows for sure that we are going to them – a colleague asks Paul. – That there would be no hock-blocks with the transfer of the patient.
The road to Radom itself takes an hour, and then you have to return to Warsaw to disinfect the car and people. It is the beginning of April – a period when it is becoming increasingly difficult to find places in the hospital for infected patients. Recently, an acquaintance of a rescuer from Radom gave the patient over only in Otwock, more than 100 kilometers away, and it was the fifth hospital where he tried to leave him. He then traveled 300 kilometers with the patient, excluding the ambulance from the system for seven hours.
– The dispatcher confirms that they know – replies the colleague.
But in Radom a complete surprise.
– How’s that for us? Why? The doctor asks.
“The guy has all the symptoms of a virus,” explains Paula. – And yet your hospital is the same.
– But the patient doesn’t have a confirmed result. If there is no virus, we will infect it!
– We called the control room twice and they confirmed to you twice! You can check, calls are being recorded! Paula is furious.
– I will not accept this patient!
They call the dispatcher again and hand over the handset. Now the dispatcher and the doctor are arguing. Eventually the doctor hangs up and gives them the phone back.
– Okay, I’ll take it.
– We need a stamp that we passed the patient – says Paula.
– Wait, I have to take him.
Usually they get the stamp right away. Now they have to wait, warming themselves up in their overalls.
“He’s got us here for his anger,” Paul says through his teeth.
After all, they can’t stand it.
– Will you give us this stamp or not ?! – Paula’s friend shouts.
– Now I’m seeing a patient.
– No stamp, no party, you get up, we’re going to another hospital.
The confused patient rises from the bed.
– He’s not going anywhere! The doctor shouts.
– Okay, then we call the police, because without a stamp, you took him in illegally!
Finally, the doctor stamps it.
After 40 minutes they are back in the ambulance. Paula feels the sweat trickle down her back. Everything itches, but nothing to scratch. When they started working in overalls, she was afraid there would be peeing problems, but the exudation of water is so bad that you don’t want to. As if someone had wrapped a man in plastic and told him to run. During two months of work in such a suit, Paula will lose seven kilograms.
The fourth hour of work is approaching, wearing a military mask pressed tightly against the face. After an hour in such a mask, it is difficult to withstand because of the hard rubber that cuts into the skin. Now Paula has a headache she has never had in her life. He’s been on paracetamol for two hours. But the painkillers stop working. The pain becomes unbearable.
Even though he is losing his mind, he has to concentrate on driving, which is extremely complicated with the suit and mask. He can’t take his goggles off, so he can’t wipe away the sweat that flows into his eyes. The salt burns in the eyeballs. It is not known what hurts more – whether the mask cuts into the skin or that salt in the eyes. In addition, the goggles fog up, reducing vision. And to look in the rearview mirror, you have to turn your whole body.
- “Yesterday night I went to the infectious ward 12 times”. Paramedics reveal what work in an ambulance looks like now
Around 3 a.m., four hours after putting on the suits, they arrive at the base to disinfect the ambulances and themselves.
Outside, the mercury column on the thermometer is barely above freezing point. Disinfection must take place outdoors. You cannot risk the virus getting inside the building.
Paula is standing in the overalls and her friend sprinkles her with liquid. It’s even fun.
But in a moment you have to take your suit off and it’s no fun anymore. Paula stands barefoot, in only her underwear on a concrete pavement, cursing what the world stands on and shaking with cold. A whole new repertoire of curses comes out of her mouth as disinfectant is poured over her body.
The entire procedure takes half an hour. Only after disinfection can he safely touch other things. She dresses in a flash and staggers over to the drinks table. She’s dizzy from cold and dehydration. He opens a 0,7 liter bottle of water and drinks it gently.
Then he takes the moisturizer out of his pocket. The skin in the suit dries out tragically, and every scratch or small cut becomes a huge problem. She applies a thick layer of cream to the face and hands.
“Okay,” he says. – Now you can give me hot tea.
After a dozen or so patients with coronavirus, he realizes what their specificity is. First of all, they tend to be aggressive more often than others. They blame everyone around for infecting them. They can target aggression both at a family member and at a random rescuer who is at hand.
Feelings of guilt are also common. Have I infected anyone else? Will someone die because of me?
Often, patients with the virus are in a terrible mental state. They are afraid of death, they become apathetic. They’ve read so many bad stories involving the virus that they associate it with an almost imminent death.
***
Marcin Wyrwal – a journalist of the Onet portal, who is the first to discover the shocking facts about the fight against the coronavirus in hospitals or DPS. His articles are quoted by all the news media. He is also the author of a book about the events on the Maidan during the revolution in Ukraine “… and our anger will fall on their heads”.
Małgorzata Żmudka – lawyer and freelance journalist looking at reality and describing it from the legal perspective.
When the disaster of the hospital in Grójec comes to an end, Paula ends a two-week quarantine. Two days before its end, she calls the hospitals where she works and starts setting up the April schedule. This one will fill up instantly within a few hours. She will only have three days off for the entire month. This is the first sign that he will return to a completely different world.
Read also:
- “Three patients on respirators and no nurses”
- «It will be a huge challenge. We expect several dozen thousand patients daily »
- «People hide that they have had contact with the infected. They don’t want to end up in an infectious diseases hospital »