“Someone must do this”: as the owner of an antique salon left the business and went to work as a volunteer in Kommunarka

Yana Kuznetsova - from a family of hereditary doctors. Her grandfather, grandmother, uncle, father worked as surgeons. Yana herself graduated from MMA named after Sechenov, specializing in medical business, and then residency in psychiatry. After graduation, she worked by profession. 13 years ago, Kuznetsova left medicine and opened a small antique salon in Moscow. However, when the coronavirus epidemic began, Yana left her business and volunteered for a hospital in Kommunarka.

- Yana, what kind of antique business did you have?

- Mostly I was engaged in painting. Mostly European, mostly Dutch, 19th century, oil. I had a segment quite popular, inexpensive. Not Rembrandt and not Van Gogh. I went to Europe, I chose it myself. Basically it was interior work. It sold well, because the cost was low. There were regular customers, connoisseurs of such art. Accordingly, a good permanent income.

- And then the coronavirus hit the world ...

- When it all started, I began to analyze what is happening in the world and with us. There was no talk about any isolation. But I realized that my salon should be closed, and not drag people there. In Europe at that time, empty counters were already shown, and I realized that we were going behind them for about a month.

I called my residency manager, with whom we have been friends for many years. She is a lonely, already very elderly man. Brought her groceries. It very quickly dawned on me that there were a lot of people like her, and they needed help.

I googled the “volunteers” on the Internet and went to the site dobro.ru. I applied, and there the girl saw that I had a higher medical education, and offered to go to the hospital in Kommunarka, although initially I didn’t even think about it. But, by and large, children can carry pasta, and knowledgeable people are needed in the hospital. I agreed. I was given the phone number of medical volunteers. I called, entered my details in the corresponding chat, and the next day I arrived in Kommunarka.

• © Photo from the personal archive of Yana Kuznetsova

- How did your relatives and friends react to this step?

- My friends did not understand me, they said that I was crazy. Parents were also very worried. At first I even wanted to tell my mom something, but then I said how to eat it. Now they have come to terms. The daughter says that I am well done and proud of me. And I don’t like any pathos at all, but there is such a thing as civic duty. No one excluded him. And to the question "why did you decide to help people?", My answer is very simple: "I was brought up like that." Is it different for you? And then, 8 years of study just can not be thrown out.

- What did your day consist of?

I came, put on a surgical uniform, which I bought with my own money, underwent appropriate instruction, dressed in this “anti-plague” suit and did what I was told. There was a ton of work that needed to be done. Starting with what to take out the vessel for someone, and ending with the transfer of boxes of medicine and supplies. Pick up, sort, smash. And this is really real help. And in general, you don’t have to choose in such a situation: you need to do what they ask, and that's it.

Now I have already transferred to the state since April 2. I don’t have any income now, the salon is closed, but there is something necessary. And got a job as a nurse in the new intensive care unit. Actually, this is what I started at 17 years old. Not life, but the way of the samurai (laughs).

- Who else were among the volunteers with you?

- Mostly students of the last courses of the institute. Enough guys, by the way.

- What can you tell about the hospital itself and those who go there?

“The hospital is new, and really very good.” When I saw it for the first time, I even felt a sense of pride: the same thing in my time I saw only in Holland. One can’t even talk about the doctors themselves - this is such dedication that is hard to imagine. People who can work 36 hours and not complain. And this is not a story about money and preferences. No one even thinks about it. There is only one word - it is necessary. Like in a war. All nurses, superiors - they work for days, actually live there. And you can imagine what a day is just to be in shape? This is a suit, shoe covers to the knees, a respirator. There is nothing special to breathe. Beanie, hood, glasses. And in this 24 hours you need to somehow live. For example, I smoke 2 packs a day. But she didn’t smoke at the hospital at all - there’s simply no time to go out into the safe zone. For the most part, people are still elderly. All statistics are publicly available.

- However, some do not trust these statistics ...

- Because of all the insinuations around these numbers and the talk that everyone around is lying, I already quarreled with half of my friends. Because the official statistics simply do not include people who have not yet been “sown”: a person is already sick, but the first time it is not clear. So a friend of mine wrote to me that her whole family had been ill, but only from the third “sowing” they determined that it was a coronavirus.

- And in your opinion, coronavirus - what is it?

- This is a completely incomprehensible kind of muck that mutates. Probably. I, like everyone else, read a lot of information on the Internet too. And most of all, frankly, it annoys us that every lifter now has a great epidemiologist, economist and virologist. And everyone has their own theory. Although now, this is my personal position, the situation is such that there is no need to rant - you must do what you are told to observe quarantine, and not stagger around underground restaurants and beauty salons that someone else has the arrogance to open.

- How did you react to the news that a coronavirus was found at the head physician of Kommunarka Denis Protsenko?

- Calm down. He feels fine, continues to work. I think many more doctors will get sick.

- And you yourself are not afraid to get infected?

“Well, what do you think?” If, for example, I need to change the patient’s bedding or feed him with a spoon, how far away am I from him? I am generally a fatalist. Someone must do this.

- When do you think you can count on the end of the epidemic?

“I'm just a nurse, I don't know.” But I think that in May the epidemic will not end, because the peak has not yet been passed. Everyone is talking about this - and Rospotrebnadzor, that's all. And I don’t know how much longer we will sit if people continue to sabotage quarantine. So it can even come to domestic killings, because few people have such a rich spiritual world that during isolation they can read books or learn a foreign language.

- When the epidemic ends, what will you do next?

- I do not plan anything longer than a month. I think that we will wake up in another world. Of course, I will have to solve some problems with the salon, but I can say for sure that I will try to return to psychiatry. To do this, you will have to get another certificate, of course. But all this later. Now the main thing is that the epidemic is over.