When the number of coronary patients increased rapidly, the Vrina Hospital Hospital in Norrköping was forced to start a brand new department in just under two days - where half the workforce lacked experience in intensive care.

- On Wednesday afternoon we were called to a grand meeting. They told us that we would start a new intensive care unit for patients with covid-19. The first patients would arrive as early as Friday morning, says the nurse Therése Mechlenburg.

In the video above, she talks about the first tough days - which included both worry and hope.

“Our patients have a very difficult situation. You are sick, you feel ill and are not allowed to meet your relatives. Then you also can't talk because you have this tracheal cannula, "says the nurse Therése Mechlenburg, who works in a newly opened department for patients with covid-19. Photo: Tina Enström

To try to comfort

She talks about patients in a respirator who are awake but unable to talk and how it feels to try to comfort and get close when she has to wear a protective mask that buzzes like a vacuum cleaner.

- It doesn't feel so good when you come in and look like a space guy to patients who have a lot of trouble, says Therése Mechlenburg.

In this protective equipment, the nurse Therése Mechlenburg works all day. The mask contains a small fan "that sounds like a vacuum cleaner". Photo: Tina Enström

But there is also hope. Like when she recently had to get a file and cereal for breakfast for one of the patients.

- When you start eating again. Then you feel better. In fact, some of our patients are beginning to recover.