Disembarkation in Tenerife due to severe corona disease
The Niehausens had to disembark in Spain on March 15, 2020, because Rainer’s condition deteriorated almost every hour. But Spain had closed everything. Even the original destination of the trip – Italy – no longer allowed tourists to enter the country. But the two didn’t get that far. During the refueling stop in Tenerife, Rainer was doing so badly that they were told they had to be disembarked. But that was difficult, says Monika, because Spain was overwhelmed by the situation: “It was a very bad atmosphere. It took four or five hours before we could get off the boat.”
–
Monika sits waiting, with a heavy cough, on the stairs of the ship, Rainer already in a wheelchair. When they are off board, the crew calls out a corona alarm, from then on nobody was allowed to leave the cabin. Monika and Rainer Niehaus come to the Park Hospital on Tenerife – separately, each in an ambulance. She photographs the car signs on the way to know where she is. Shortly afterwards, her husband is transferred to the university hospital and put into an artificial coma.
–
Life on the brink
Days later, a nurse slips her a note. So she learns that her husband is now artificially ventilated. The 72-year-old’s life is on the brink. She’s sick too, but nowhere near as bad. Only a severe cough and weakness plague her and the terrible uncertainty of what will happen next. She stayed in the clinic for five weeks, then found quarters with the pastor of the German-speaking Catholic community.
–
I remember suddenly getting really tired. Then I woke up on the tarmac six weeks later.
–
–
Rainer is still in a coma, not aware of the doctors’ fight for his life. “I remember suddenly getting really tired. Then I woke up again six weeks later on the tarmac,” says the 72-year-old. An ADAC plane brings the people of Weimar home. Rainer is packed into the oxygen tent and falls asleep again – so he ultimately doesn’t notice anything about the flight to Erfurt.
–
Awakening in Bad Berka
He only wakes up briefly on the drive from the airport to the clinic in Bad Berka. “The battle raged around me, but I don’t know anything.” The way back to life begins after three months. “Bad Berka got me back on my feet. The doctors, the nurses and nurses all looked after me with loving care.” At first he could neither speak nor walk. A long rehab follows. The therapies have not yet been completed.
–
Fight with the long-term corona consequences
Rainer fights, he wants to run again, he wants to speak again. The weeks of laryngeal ventilation destroyed one of his vocal cords. It won’t be all right. While running you can see that he is still struggling hard with the consequences of Covid. A year in speech therapy, however, loosened the tongue and brought back his pun. Breathing is difficult for him and with it every little effort. Without his “protected workshop”, by which he means his wife, he would not be able to get by.
–
And yet, he smiles. Yes, he is grateful that he survived the virus. The lungs, however, were badly damaged. “I’m actually very satisfied, and so many people stayed with us during the difficult time, looked after us, helped us get home through the ADAC. In Spain it was complicated because of the language difficulties.
–
– .
