A Nurse's Story by Louise Curtis

A Nurse's Story by Louise Curtis

Author:Louise Curtis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK


8

She’s Alive!

I had come in early, as usual, to check the status of every patient I had seen. Those seconds while I sat and watched the computer whir into life were a vacuum in time, hope and dread suspended for a brief moment before the reality of their outcome hit me and I was brought back to earth with a bump. My thoughts turned to Shirley, the woman with Covid-19 who had deteriorated in fifteen minutes and who I had sent to intensive care, wishing her luck and not knowing what the future held. As far as I knew, she was still on the unit. Would today be the day I found out she had become another victim to the virus? I waited with bated breath as her hospital records loaded. I saw a discharge letter. I couldn’t believe it. She had survived Covid-19 and was alive! I was so relieved, and happy. What a great start to the day this was. It was a miracle that she had not become one of the figures on the trust’s daily emails stating how many people had been admitted as well as those who had died.

I wanted to celebrate, but of course it wasn’t appropriate, so did a mini jig in my chair. I then thought that we should mark the positives in this crisis more. All anyone seemed to hear about was death. I’d seen one video of someone being clapped off the ward, but I craved more.

At the same time, however, I was more than aware of how coronavirus was sweeping the UK’s care homes. I work with them quite a bit in my job and saw variations in how they set themselves up to protect residents and staff from becoming ill. My godmother had been stuck in her room for weeks after testing positive for the virus. She was fed up with not being able to see anyone, but had not deteriorated with any of the symptoms. This was a miracle in itself. Mum told me she had finally been allowed to sit in the garden after testing negative. There had been stories of care workers who had left their families and moved in with residents to shield everyone. Others had isolated all their residents in their rooms and this had its consequences.

One elderly man had come into A&E feeling suicidal after staying in his room for weeks. He had been separated from his wife next door and the impact on his mental health had been detrimental. I was scared more generally that the older generations were being forgotten and I worried that people didn’t seem to care. A patient told me: ‘Ah well, you know this coronavirus is only going to affect one part of the population from now on. The rest of us should just carry on as normal.’ I seethed with inner rage. It felt like he was saying that we should let coronavirus wipe a segment of the population out.

Every life matters, and I was dismayed that not everyone seemed to see that.



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