Begoña, doctor in a residence: "There are more than 19,000 dead who were treated as plagued by Covid and now it is not necessary to say that they were not confirmed"

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In her almost four decades as a doctor, Begoña Delclaux had never experienced anything like the coronavirus pandemic. After almost three months of multiplying to treat Covid-19 patients, this collegiate who works in a nursing home in the Community of Madrid raises her voice to denounce the oblivion in which "the untold dead" lie .

He cites as an example what happened in his own residence: "They had Covid serology, Covid symptoms and Covid treatment, and many even went well, but since we did not have PCRs in the residences , our death certificates were all of 'suspected Covid '. Our elders never counted and will not count. " A situation that extends to more than 19,000 patients.

Where does that figure come from? From the sum of the data collected and published by the autonomous communities . An order issued by the Ministry of Health on March 23 specifies that since April 8 the autonomous governments are obliged to send information to the central executive every Tuesday and Friday before 9:00 p.m. information on existing residential social service centers in its territory. But the central government has not yet released the death toll in residences.

Although not all the documentation is homogeneous and cases of users of residences that have been admitted and subjected to tests may overlap , the regional data do provide a provisional photograph. Of those almost 20,000 estimated deaths of the elderly who lived in these centers, most have occurred in the Community of Madrid (4,739, according to their latest data), Catalonia (3,964) and Castilla y León (2,568). Numbers that include the deceased who underwent the test and those who were not tested but had "compatible symptoms". In this last situation, as Begoña denounces, precisely all the elderly who died in residences were found because they were not hospitalized in the worst moments of the pandemic.

For the Community of Madrid, for example, the Ministry's statistics this Friday registered a total of 8,691 deaths from coronaviruses confirmed by tests. But the data from the regional government included 9,049 deaths only in hospitals with positive tests or compatible symptoms and another 4,739 in social health centers (residences), 878 in homes and 27 in other places.

As an example, Begoña offers the details of the residence where he provides his services. About 30 of the 120 residents have died since March 1. "20 of them have been from Covid, and of the other 10, the disease hastened the death of five; the other five would have died from age." He is pleased that around twenty infected people were cured and that when the test could be done, everyone discovered that there were another twenty asymptomatic positive cases.

Begoña's discomfort at this statistical hole is exacerbated when she remembers the dismay of some family members due to funeral protocols for those infected without tests. In pain, they received requests that they could not meet. "There were families who asked us not to write about the Covid-19 because they wanted to bury their mother with their father," he recalls bitterly over the phone.

"The treatments we had were incomplete," he maintains, taking stock of the drama experienced these months. Faced with the initial lack of coordination, he was able to appreciate the solidarity of individuals who brought medications - especially antibiotics - or collected money to supply residences. Begoña believes that more resources could have been used : "There were empty hospital wings and I cannot understand that they have not opened services for older people, that they have not recruited more colleagues, there were many willing to work." Regrets deaths that could have been avoided. "Many of the elderly that we could not send to the hospitals would have survived because they were frankly well, they had a life, a family, some activities, some hobbies ..."

Insulation hardness

Begoña Delclaux describes as "very hard" her professional experience with elderly people who were "each in his room, locked up for two and a half months ." He recounts "the fear" of the inmates with cognitive deterioration when seeing them enter with the protective suit and "the loneliness" of those who, despite everything, were not feeling bad and wanted more information about what was happening.

Although employees sometimes tried to get older people to communicate with their families by bringing them mobile devices, she feels that they have felt "outcast" after a lifetime's work. A sensation that they tried to alleviate "touching their hands or neck even if it was with the glove".

Beyond the data, the doctor does not spare criticism of the government's management. "I feel ashamed. We all make mistakes, and more in such an extraordinary situation, but you have access to be told from anywhere in the world," he says, complaining that Spain did not learn from the response of South Korea, Germany or Portugal.

The pandemic leaves Begoña the consolation of "the many patients who have been cured thanks to continuous care and constant dedication." And the indignation that the dead without test in the residences, "more than 19,000", do not appear in the figures of Health. "There is no right to forget them, for them and for their families, it is very hard for them to remember. It does not seem to me a respectful or human act. It is like considering them marginal when they have been treated like Covid patients, they have been treated like they were plagued by Covid and have been cremated like people with Covid. Now, it goes without saying that they were not confirmed, they were confirmed by the doctors, "he concludes.

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

• Madrid's community
• Castilla y León
• Catalonia
• South Korea
• Spain
• Germany
• Portugal
• Coronavirus
• Covid 19

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