I never lost my strength

service from the beginning, and patients get it as soon as they stabilise. Instead of one session a day, they get two. There is a morning and an afternoon team. I think this speeds recovery. We had a case where we had to amputate a patient’s leg, but they already had problems with that leg, and they ended up dying. We have had a lot of cases of blockages in the trachea and we have had to ask the pneumologist to come in to treat them and unblock it. All the heads of intensive care in Madrid are working together, both public and private. Whatever a large hospital All the heads of intensive tried and that worked would be passed on to all care in Madrid are working the hospitals. So if someone finds a successful together, both public and treatment, all the procedures change everywhere. Every day was a new world. private. Whatever a large I think Madrid is expected to reach its peak hospital tried and that in mid-September, before the winter. How people have reacted or behaved has depended on different worked would be passed on areas. I think young people and a lot of adults too to all the hospitals. are afraid when someone we don’t know sits beside us on the metro. We protect ourselves with masks. But if we are with a friend, we seem not to worry, and get confident and throw caution to the wind because we are with someone we know. But it shouldn’t be like that. I think it’s very hard for young people to understand. So what I would do was that when I finished at the icu on the surgical floor I would go up and sit with my colleagues and tell them about my morning. The hospital also provided us with a psychologist and we have had group therapy every week. I find out then how my colleagues are. Some are very affected, others are better. We are a very stable team and have been together a long time. We always talk to each other so that hasn’t been hard. I am very thankful at how lucky I have been, firstly because I have never caught Covid. My whole family is well and I have been able to give myself totally to my work, knowing everything else is under control. Except for my daughter’s return, my husband has dealt with everything else at home.�

VALENCIA — SPAIN

Valuing the simple things

PAMPLONA — SPAIN

begoña inchaurraga Nurse El Mirador Care Home

«With Covid, you couldn’t do a lot really. For those who believed in God you would pray the Lord’s Prayer. For those who aren’t so religious, you would tell them: Look, your wife is there, your parents… waiting for you. You needed to transmit to them the peace they needed to keep going. Today, my life revolves round work and home because of the Covid restrictions. At the end of July, I felt overwhelmed. Work had never affected my lifestyle before. My relaxation these days is to go up into the hills with my son. That’s all».

Make the most of every moment

laura visansay Nurse Santa Provença Care Home

BARCELONA — SPAIN

In the first days, perhaps the first fifteen or twenty, I slept in another room. I live with my husband and a daughter of 5 years old. I started to isolate when I saw how bad it was.

To begin with, it felt like we were making sure the bug didn’t get into our care home and we were happy. Then one case arose and then we had an outbreak. We couldn’t understand how it could have got in when we had been preparing for a week but of course just the weekend before we had had families over and they had been in contact with the residents and auxillaries. A week earlier, we weren’t using ppe equipment and of course, that was when the infections started.

What the press were saying about the Care Homes was hard to accept, because from the inside, we knew all the effort and the dedication of all the staff. Once I remember saying: I don’t watch the news any more, or read the newspapers, because it just gets me down.

Now, in August, after months of it, everything is more complicated. I’ve had holidays, but I found that I didn’t want to come back, because I didn’t know if I was ready to go through it all again. But then you think about the residents again and know you have to be strong and keep going, and then you do, so that you can be on top of things.

I think everything we have been through makes you value life and make the most of every moment. All of us have tended to live very rushed lives.

After this, I think we will have to put in certain protection and hygiene measures. We know the nature of the beast now, and there may be others, so we need to protect life.�