Sarah, Regina, Sonia and Ereni ... Four Spaniards find themselves on the front lines of fighting the new Corona virus, which is sweeping hospitals in a country that has recorded the second largest death toll from the "Covid 19" epidemic in Europe, and they tell their struggle to AFP.

Whose priority?

Sarah Chinchilla, 32, is a pediatrician at a hospital in Mostoles, near Madrid, the area hardest hit by the emerging Corona virus in Spain.

The hospital receives huge numbers of patients who must choose who will be transferred to the intensive care department, giving priority to those with the highest chances of survival and survival, who are younger and who do not suffer from previous diseases.

"There are five patients per bed, and I have to choose," the doctor said. There are people we can save who die because they cannot be put in extreme care. ”

Sarah criticizes the lack of equipment in the hospital, noting that in recent days "there are no longer protective masks", but "what we need are artificial respirators", stressing: "We can save more lives if we have artificial respirators."

She added that the medical teams are exhausted, especially since many of their members became infected: "We lose more of them every day." However, she pointed out that the hospital has reorganized its work to receive the maximum number of patients with the emerging "corona", and therefore "there is no longer a floor for gynecology and pediatrics." Today the whole hospital is being treated (Covid 19). ”

A "tremendous" feeling of isolation

Regina Dalmao, 48, is a cardiologist at the La Bath hospital in Madrid. For weeks, she has been treating patients with new Coronavirus. "When you leave the hospital, you get out of sadness," she says. Patients are all alone. When they die, they die alone. When you get to your home, you have to live with it, and you feel the urge to cry. None of us would ever have imagined this. ”

The doctor is witnessing "very tragic situations", so you see sick people who struggle and when they die, their farewell will be tragically shortened and rapid.

She tells "to call a relative to them until he comes and bid them farewell" on the condition that he does not show any symptoms and that he has not communicated with the patient during the past five days. "He can stay 10 minutes, but she can't get close" to the dear person who lost it, "and there is a tremendous mutual feeling of isolation."

Regina describes the situation as an "all-out war", and she is convinced that the "worst" is coming with the consequences of "the infection that occurred two or three weeks ago" and which have not yet emerged.

The doctor criticizes the authorities that "mismanaged the (crisis)" in her opinion, allowing shortly before the announcement of home stone at the national level on March 14 this year, with gatherings of hundreds of thousands of people such as football matches and women's demonstrations on the eighth of this month.

"The mask is not eternal"

Sonia Bacho, a 48-year-old nurse, works at Galdacano Hospital near Bilbao in the Basque Country, the hospital where she was working as the first nurse who died in Spain from a virus and was 52 years old.

Sonia recounts, "It was a severe blow." In such circumstances, "you feel powerless."

Sonia visits patients who have mild symptoms in their homes: “I sometimes travel more than 100 km” to see a patient, and she checks people of all ages, equipped with gloves, headgear, medical mask, safety goggles, shirt, and a plastic shoe cover, which she then must remove carefully.

Sonia suffers from a lack of protective equipment in the hospital: "I have colleagues who constantly reuse their masks" even though "the mask is not eternal."

And she adds about the conditions inside the hospital, “there is a severe tension that can be touched,” but there is also a lot of solidarity among colleagues who are willing to take turns or work for additional days. "If I am called in a department that needs to reinforce its staff, I will, of course, respond," she says.

Sick leave

Irene Sanz is a pediatrician at a hospital in Valladolid, northern Spain, but she is currently on sick leave at her home with her two young children after the examination on March 13 showed that she had a new Corona virus.

"My temperature remained high to 39 degrees for several days, 10 days in total, with severe muscle pain, fatigue, and a slight cough," she says. Her condition has now improved, and she hopes that the next test result will be negative.

"I feel like going back to work, because with this number of workers injured, the workforce shrinks every day," says the 35-year-old doctor. But I'm also afraid of what I'm going to face. ”

The hospital where you work has been forced to install intensive care beds outside the unit designated for those infected with the emerging coronavirus, and "according to the evolving situation, we have emergency plans" that require doctors with different specialties to treat those infected with the virus.

Injuries

Thousands of medical personnel in Spain were infected with the Coruna virus, and at least three of them were killed. Spain also recorded a large number of deaths due to the virus, in recent days.

Irene Sans:

"My situation has now improved, and I hope that the next examination result will be negative to return to work."

Regina Dalmao:

"When you get home after work you have to live together, you feel the urge to cry."

Sarah Chinchilla:

“We can save more

Of souls if it were

We have artificial respiration. ”