“After fighting for twenty days we lost Monica Albornoz, nurse, loved and respected by everyone in the provincial hospital of Tigre. We have 48 members of the health team who leave their lives fighting the coronavirus ”. Yesterday’s tweet from the Vice Minister of Health of the province of Buenos Aires, Nicolás Kreplak, testifies to only one of the losses among health teams. There are already more than 17,000 infected by coronavirus in the health sector in the country, and a similar number of people in isolation, details Rodolfo Arrechea, Health coordinator of ATE. Another alarm and distress number: There are already 60 health workers killed in this sector due to the virus
. It was released by the Trade Union Federation of Health Professionals, and confirmed by ATE. “In the infections, 67% are women. And among the deaths, 63% are men ”, specifies the report, warning that the number is growing exponentially, endangering the attention in the system. No health personnel, no health care.
“We are already dying two people a day”, points out Arrechea, who works as an administrator at the Rivadavia Hospital. He talks about doctors, nurses, orderlies, cleaning personnel, drivers, administrators, physical therapists, instrumentalists. Arrechea expresses its concern with data: “CABA is in the red zone: there are 6,700 infected health workers.”
“We lost almost 30 nurses throughout the country”, adds Héctor Ortiz, a graduate in Nursing and a worker at the Durand Hospital and Casa Cuna. “In the Durand it is the second, this week,” he says. And avoid naming death when talking about Grover Licona, a nurse who had three jobs and was less than 50 years old. “From a Peruvian mother, that’s why the name,” says Ortiz, who is also an ATE delegate at Durand. “We are going to pay him a tribute tomorrow Tuesday at noon, a symbolic hug, as we did for Gutiérrez,” he says. Julio Gutierrez He was a pediatric nurse and died last month.
To one name and another, others are superimposed: Naomi Gomez 32 years old, she had no previous illnesses, but was a nurse at the Sanguinetti Hospital in Pilar. Cristina Lorenzo She was also a nurse, was 62 years old and was fired with applause by her colleagues from the San Isidro Hospital, where a few days ago the pediatrician also died Jorge Quispe, who was born in Oruro, Bolivia. The list grows: Luis Bordon, pulmonologist at Hospital Perrando, in Chaco. Sergio Rey, Head of Nurses at Hospital Evita, in Lanús. Martin Arjona, a nurse at the Posadas.
The health system deteriorates and the situation worsens. “We already have another hospitalized companion, a 61-year-old nurse, and her prognosis is serious, they are getting more and more infected,” says Ortiz. Today there are 280 infected in the Durand Added to that are pre-existing licenses and those with isolation by contact. According to data from the Ministry of Health of the Nation, 6.7% of the infected population is health personnel. The curve progresses as the cases in health centers increase.
“Although we are better than other countries,” Arrechea emphasizes, “because we started the quarantine early, and in Argentina patients can be referred to other hospitals. That is our strength ”. However, you have to take into account the limits of the hospital system, he says. “Because there may be beds, but if the staff is exhausted, they will be virtual beds,” she ironically.
Silvio Cufré He was the first nurse to die from being infected while practicing the profession. He was from the province of Buenos Aires. Before, two doctors had died: Liliana Rios, a pediatrician from La Rioja who contracted dengue and coronavirus at the same time, and Francisco “Paco” Marin, from the Chaco.
At the Rivadavia Hospital, upon the death of Jose Aguirre, also a nurse, joined the Liliana Stagna, a neonatologist who died this week. Her case warned of a recurring symptom: the decompensation that precipitates in death, in a very few days and against all odds, the professionals say. And they confirm a perception detected in hospitals: the virus behaves more damagingly in exposed personnel.
“In health and police personnel, there are almost always pneumonia, the condition lasts a long time, for three or four weeks, and leaves sequelae. In a work space, that recovery time has a great impact, “he explains. Valeria Urena, an emergentologist who was infected with covid, and still has no sense of smell, with tachycardia, stomach pains, headaches and fever, despite having an epidemiological discharge.
In recovery
Ureña is a doctor and speaks from home, but a week ago “she was admitted to the Finochietto.” He was infected in a practice, in his guard of Ramos Mejía. It even has the moment. “To save a patient who ran out of air – he remembers – I did maneuvers that I didn’t have to do, but it was exasperating to see him, and he was 32 years old” counts Valeria, or “la Turca”, as her friends know her, in the interview with Page 12. It is no longer contagious, she explains, but the fever, headache and stomach ache, plus “remnants of pneumonia” remain in her body. And she, who is always “pure adrenaline”, is now “pure fatigue”, she laments. She does not want to worry her colleagues from Ramos, or the people who came to help without knowing her, “my neighbors”, she says excitedly.
Solidarity strategies pierce the fierce trace of the pandemic. “I end the day exhausted, emotionally one falls, but the next day I go out again, because others need me.” This is how he tells it Myriam Nogueira Rocha, medical coordinator of the UPA12 and the Modular Hospital of Cuartel V, in Moreno. In that hospital, between 15 and 20 infections are detected per day.
“We had infections in nursing and doctors. Until 15 days ago they were few, especially administrative ones, without contact with patients ”. They were cases of community circulation, he explains. “But 10 days ago, out of 11 nurses, 10 were positive, this week there are three fewer doctors because they are swabbed and another hospitalized. That means that the rest have to reinforce their work, ”says Rocha.
The virus is getting closer. “We all already know at least one who linked her, a month ago they had no name and surname. Yes today ”, she points out Marina Anido, Argerich doctor, who celebrates with his colleagues that the vaccine “is a priority for health personnel, as the minister (Gines González García) said.”
Protection measures
“If the therapists start to get sick, who attends the therapy?” Anido wonders. “Because the human resource is specific and if it is lacking, the lethality will begin to increase.” “At this rate, the system can collapse”Arrechea agrees. Protecting staff is central, not only with adequate equipment, but also taking care of the emotional conditions of work. Now adds “the difficulty of working with protective equipment for 12 hours,” they note. Also the logical stress due to the situation and the accumulation of fatigue due to “moonlighting.”
“There are to wear a double chinstrap, double boot, double cap, three pairs of gloves, mask. Close contact must be swabbed ”say the protection protocols for health personnel. But it will never be enough in an environment where people continue to circulate, professionals emphasize. They have detected a diagnostic point: on weekends, it is where they most notice the looming problem. “Because it is where there is less human resource, and nursing has no experience. That inexperience is also a cause of death ”, defines Ortiz.
The general perception is that there is equipment in the system. “But if you have 20 beds with two therapists and three nurses, if they go into isolation, you lose the room. And it seems that it does not matter, because the bars are open, people go out, and if this continues, it will be tremendous, we are perceiving it, because in hospitals you see the truth, and they are on the edge “, says Marcela Zerillo, neonatologist SAME and the Trinity.
People who run
“The way of working is tense and more with protective equipment that is difficult to use, twelve hours in a row without stopping, it is exhausting, it affects, plus the stress of thinking that you can be permanently infected” he says Hugo Ginzberg, from the Durand Imaging Diagnosis service. The paradox can occur when leaving, says Ginzberg, like other interviewees whose health centers are near parks or squares. “You take care of yourself all day, in the hospital there are circulation circuits, there are measures. But you go out and the police are taking care that hundreds of people run in groups, without a mask, without distance. Epidemiological planning is impossible if city authorities give in to pressure from people who want to recreate”, He warns. “Running alone, with social distancing, well, it’s pertinent … But they get off topic!” gets angry.
“There is a eugenic issue in antiquarantine militancy -Analyses Amido-. If I’m healthy and I’m not going to die, why do I have to take care of myself? For these people the weak, the sick and the old are disposable. If this disease killed young people and without previous conditions, there would be no anti-quarantine marches ”, he assures. His bet is that people don’t go to the 17A march. “But it’s an illusion,” he concedes.
The affected community
The Argerich, where Amido works as an external guard, “is full,” he says. “They are mild, serious and very serious positives. This is the case in most hospitals, and with the progression of infections, this could be tremendous in the short term”. Nurses and therapists are the ones who get hit. Therapists have more exposure because they instrument the airway of patients, and many have ages of risk. “They have had a bad time, and even in people who have mild symptoms, there are sequelae that are discovered over time, cardiac or pulmonary,” says Valeria Ureña. And she warns: “It is necessary to demystify the speech of the hero or the martyr. We are not, we are workers. And you don’t have to play overexposure just because we choose these professions ”, he also points out.
Among the reasons for the contagion, moonlighting and fatigue stand out. “The therapeutic human resource is very finite” they point out. But you work as a team and you bench your partner: “Many times just by putting your ear, because someone from Fernández comes and tells you: out of five in one guard, four were infected.” The certainty of the finite human resource, in quantity, ends up being defined in quality, by conditions such as the use of protective equipment: “complete, it is exhausting, it gives you a headache, it hurts your face.” But they strive to save lives, even under protective paraphernalia. “And the nurses are proud of their work,” emphasizes Amido. It must be highlighted, cared for and valued, she maintains.
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