It is a quiet place. With much less transfer than any other place in the hospital . Just a family member comes out to talk on the phone in the hallway. Hardly any woman takes a short walk to numb her legs. It is old but clean. With the walls painted a light blue and a very bright window at the end. In the 11 rooms of this pavilion of the Virgen del Rocío in Seville are Sara, Rocío, Jenifer, Zahara, Dolores, Concepción, Verónica and thus up to 15 women living the agonizing nightmare of not knowing if their pregnancy will end well, victims of the outbreak of more alarming listeriosis than has occurred in Europe.
We visited them within a few hours (Tuesday, day 20) that the health authorities have decided to open facilities exclusively for them. There are two other plants, the sixth and third, prepared just in case. Each room is a world and a reality bathroom. They keep carefree stories and also true tragedies. And all of them, even those who can't help crying in a very timely manner - only two - resist, brave, with surprising serenity. Suddenly, it gives the impression, in this very concentrated place, that these women shelter the future of a generation that could have been absurdly severed by a cursed bacterium .
That morning they have breakfast with the statements of Teresa, a young woman who on August 2 aborted 18 weeks in this health center after eating the meat of the brand Mecha, which is the cause of the outbreak. And they struggle with the news that the first was a seven-month pregnant girl whose fetus died at the Virgen Macarena Hospital. All those consulted with a positive result to the bacteria have decided to take legal action - well by taking advantage of the Facua platform, either on their own - against the causes of their nightmare. At that time, the Magrudis company.
On Wednesday, one day after the visit, it will transpire that the Andalusian Board knew that there was an increase in listeriosis in mid-July, that on August 5 it began to suspect that the origin was in the meatloaf but that it was ruled out spread it out - health centers were also notified - because the technicians considered that, since the brand was not known, the damage could be greater . Until the 15th, the authorities, at least three days late, as they have acknowledged, communicated the name of the brand that had spread the bacteria. In the discussion, dates are important. Some of these women would not have been contaminated if the authorities had not been delayed in launching the alert.
Sara, in room 425, is Lola's mother . She is almost seven months pregnant and is a force of nature. She is a housewife, she is barely 29 years old and two children aged 10 and 5 whose names have been tattooed on the wrist, between the flowers and the leaves of an indelible bracelet. It is the one that has been in the most time, almost two weeks. At this point, he handles medical terminology like a healthcare professional.
On the way to the beach, on Saturday, August 3, they stopped to eat at a restaurant in Bormujos and enjoyed a bread from the house with meatloaf. Sara felt bad the next day but at Lepe's hospital she was recommended, after doing a urine test, that if she remained unwell, she would go to a hospital with a gynecology service. Abandoned the holidays, they returned to Seville and Sara held on with paracetamol until Thursday. «But the morning came on the 9th, and although I only had a fever of 37.5, I thought I might have something. They took my blood, performed a blood culture and gave me two antibiotics . On Saturday they told us that they had suspicions of listeriosis but that until they were certain they preferred not to speculate ». The bacterium takes four or five days to appear.
«They informed me of everything, directly. That there was a danger of fetal death, that there could be a placental abruption, that I could have a premature delivery and that, if that was the case, the girl could become infected with my blood. These two weeks, for me they remain ».
«And I didn't know if it was my fault. I thought, would it have been in my house, would I have done something wrong ? And that I have the unpolluted kitchen, I clean the knives frequently and spend for each product a table and use them of plastic because the wooden ones are porous ... ».
«When it was reported that the bacteria were in the shredded meat, my husband asked at the restaurant and they sent me the picture of the brand and immediately removed it from consumption. That same afternoon officially came out that it was La Mechá , the same one that I had consumed »
«As much as I want to avoid it, psychologically I go with the nightmare of the girl being born at the wrong time . And even if I am born when I should, until I see her and see that she is well, I will not remain calm. Those two months are going to be very long. For that reason and because I am not going to know what to eat, for the fear of catching another bacteria ».
«And I don't explain it, because if we were in Africa, if we were in the war eating on the ground, well, okay. But we are supposed to be in a place where everything goes through super thorough sanitary controls. Something has failed and I want to know where .
The treatment lasts two weeks. After the conversation, comes the result of one of the tests that shows that Sara's infection is remitting and that Lola has gained 300 grams in the first week of admission. The mother keeps a picture of her in 4 D, an ultrasound, with her hands on her face playing with the umbilical cord. Things seem to be going well. « From danger of fetal death to fetal well-being. I do not deny that we are a little calmer, ”say Sara and Jesus, her partner, totally aware of her. Sara starts thinking about the place where Lola's name will be recorded. "A beautiful tattoo, you'll see."
Paula's family - room 402 - organized a meal on Thursday 15, party, to be all together. A photo shows the 24 around the pool on a great August day. Paula, an employee of a cleaning company, and who has been pregnant for 14 weeks with her second child, explains that they fell short of food and, as everything was closed, bought meat at a gas station to make sandwiches. "Just after dinner," she explains softly, "they sent the typical Twitter chain warning that we shouldn't eat a certain meat and we get scared. We looked in the garbage and took pictures of everything, the brand, the lots. Paula's uncle told the gas station because no one had warned them and they were still selling the product.
«The next day (August 16), the attending physician sent me by protocol to the Virgen del Rocío but, since I had no symptoms and on ultrasound everything went well, they sent me home. On Saturday I began to feel bad and on Sunday I returned. At this point in my family we began to cross messages because several were hospitalized. Of 24 relatives, 20 we consume the meat; 4 have entered, three of them children, and the 9 year old has been positive in listeria. I am a little worried, but, as they have not yet given me the results, I want to think they will be negative. I want to think ... »Three days later, however, he will have to accept with resignation, which, unfortunately, has the bacteria.
In the next bed, Rocío, 25, awaits his first child. On Wednesday the 14th he ate a meat toast in a bar, that night he began to shiver and he was immediately admitted to the hospital, even without knowing what he had. The test has been negative, it goes away, but it is still quiet and bleak . «It was all over my mind. I am in the final stretch. It's a nightmare and I will continue feeling distressed until I have it.
In room 409. "Mmmm, it smells good!" Jénifer, 24, wanted to try a slice of the meat they had just bought at the cut and did not repress it. It was Thursday 15. She, her spectacular gray eyes and the Disney princesses and castles that cover her entire arm of colors left the next day to Cádiz. She and Rome, who has been traveling with her for 29 weeks in the gut .
"I'm a Pharmacy technician, I'm superinformed," he says, "and when I started throwing up, I knew it could be nothing or something serious." So when he began to feel bad and at the Hospital de Villamartín de Cádiz he was ignored on Saturday 17, he turned to Seville. "That I have eaten the meat and that I ate it in Seville, and in Seville there are cases of listeria," he had warned. "They responded that the health alert had not reached them and they sent me antibiotics for the urine infection," he recalls. He returned and now awaits the results in the pavilion. "I am thinking about my girl all day, I already put on my face, I even have a picture," she says, apparently serene. But her mother sees her depressed: "Although she grows up ... As she has just learned that a lady of the same thing has just died in the hospital ... even if she was 90 years old ... "
Beside him, Dolores, 38 years old, 31 weeks pregnant, seems upset. «But why do I have to stay here if I haven't eaten that meat? He was in the Algarve, began to vomit and preferred to return to Seville. He arrived on Saturday 17, in full alert, they applied the admission protocol because he had an infection. "They answer that they are orders from the Junta de Andalucía and here I am waiting for the result of the crop," he laments, resisting the argument that listeriosis can not only arise from meat and that it is better to prevent.
The beautiful Maria, in room 407, puts her eyes wide as she responds. "We understand that, as the results take so long, they are negative," she says convinced . Thirty years and 11 weeks of pregnancy. It is dependent.
«Do we understand? If you don't know the results until you get the results, ”his father Manuel mutters.
Maria took the meat in a bar on August 10, the following Saturday she began to feel bad and her father who had heard the news and was getting very nervous, called her alarmed to enter that same morning. But no. She preferred to wait for daylight. «And, great, they directly entered me and without problems. The truth is that nothing strange happened to me because I was convinced that I would not have it.
- But if you still do not know! - insists the father.
- I don't have it! And also in this pavilion with the rest of the pregnant women, not only am I not overwhelmed but I am calmer. If they took me to the burn area I would be a little uncomfortable. I'm going to put mine if it's a girl. Its nice is not it?.
- Mine? Well, pretty. Mine, yours ...
- And if it's a boy, Manué. Finished in é and in Andalusian.
- «Manué! Manué, they won't let you put it on the record ».
In that 407 another young woman just entered with her husband. They just told him that he has tested positive. They are very sad, dejected, unwilling to speak.
"You have to bring children into the world," says Concepcion with a trickle of voice on 410. Hides, behind his contained smile, a huge frustration and a very hard situation in which that phrase acquires a special meaning. She is a lawyer of the Administration of Justice, is 40 years old and a one-year-old boy is waiting for her at home . It is eight months. On Wednesday, the 14th he entered due to a threat of premature delivery. He was discharged six days later, Monday, and Tuesday is again admitted. During the morning its temperature has exceeded 38 degrees and has had to return.
«I consumed the meat on day 8. I bought it in the supermarket. I had never eaten it but we went to the Cazorla hostel and prepared some sandwiches for the road . I entered on the 14th due to contractions. I have been told that they have nothing to do. The truth is that I, in my previous income, did not even think about telling them about meat. First because the problem was not known and second because I was more worried about the contractions, ”he says.
Concepción's situation seems like a "desperate bad dream" because she has had a pregnancy with complications and now she is facing an infection with a somewhat depressed mood. «I'm dusty. Since week 14 I am fighting for the life of my girl Carmen because the Social Security protocol, in my circumstances, leads you to abortion and I do not want to. I am Catholic, I defend life from conception. What reassures me is that she, within her difficulty, seems to be fine.
Concepción and Sarai are barely separated by a meter and a half, but both in their self-absorption are about a thousand light years away. Sarai, 17, a housewife, is also in the eighth month of pregnancy, waiting for Indira, who has come by surprise. She has transparent skin and wears two earrings that encourage her even more . He is simply afraid. He barely speaks. «I came last week with the tremors. They didn't ask me about meat and I didn't say more. Yesterday they asked me and they admitted me, and they tested me. I have eaten it three times: a month, a month and a half ago, and three weeks ago. Warm snacks, ”he explains.
Sarai is named after her tiny niece tattooed on her forearm. Albite, put. It is the mother who, enjuta, dressed in rigorous but lively black, engages in conversation. «He loves children. Sarai was a twin with another who died two months after a stroke, ”he explains. She has hung a medallion around her neck with a picture of a man: "It's Isidro, my husband, has died this year."
In 405, Zahara, a 27-year-old commercial, fights for Victor, who has been in his belly for more than four months and "will be a footballer." She already knows she has the bacteria because she took the meat on day 3 and, when her mother saw it deteriorated, she encouraged her to get tested. Know the risks. «But I am calm in quotes because I feel it well. I have been reporting on the outside and I know that the medications have no side effects on the fetus. If something happens, I am in the best place to be. You have to be positive ».
Zahara shows the same attitude that Verónica maintains. "We fight this for sure," says this 37-year-old saleswoman looking at her husband Luis, a teacher. And it is right at this point when a nurse, noticing the presence of the journalist, informs him that the hospital's address does not allow his presence. The next day, Luis, after the chronology of the crisis was published, he would consider it pertinent to denounce in El Mundo that on day 8, when his wife had the first symptoms, they were given paracetamol and soft diet in the outpatient to combat gastroenteritis.
Investigations in the coming weeks will determine whether, in general, in the emergence and management of the outbreak, there was negligence or lack of control or incompetence or fatality.
Days have passed and these women who had just arrived on Tuesday already know each other and share their concerns and their lives. They encourage each other in the hope that everything will be fine.
At the time these lines are written (Friday), a second person has died from listeriosis . There are 168 affected - most of them in Andalusia - and it is estimated that they can exceed 500 in Spain. Pregnant women are 23.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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