Bearing witness to a pandemic BUPA | SANITAS
When you are caring for people you don’t feel any fear
natalia sáez Nurse Sanitas Hospital La Moraleja
The operating room stopped functioning and within a week we had converted it into an intensive care unit and from then on we had intensive care nurses. The work was completely different. We had to change the way we worked and learn to move about in all that protective clothing that slowed us down. At the beginning, they said it was older people who were more affected, but then patients of my age started to come in and that made us really worried. We felt really sorry for them, because young people were coming in who had children, and they were really unwell. We were used to seeing patients for one or two hours at a time. We were spending eight hours a day with these patients. It was strange how aggressive the virus was. It would come in quietly and within a few days the person was really ill and didn’t seem to recover. They would be ill for weeks and not get better. We had never seen that before. I told my family that although I had never been in a war, I could imagine that this was a bit like nursing in a war zone. When you left your house you would get to the hospital and think: My God, I am scared to go in! But once you went in you would forget your fear. When you are looking after people you are not afraid, you are just giving your best. Then you would come out of there and start to think again about how you could pass it to those who were waiting for you at home.
62
63
