“All the horror is just ahead” - a Ukrainian journalist from a hospital with Covid-19
Kiev journalist Anna Steshenko, who works in the Verkhovna Rada, was hospitalized at the Alexander Hospital with suspected coronavirus. It was to this capital clinic that several deputies of the Ukrainian parliament and VIPs who had previously been diagnosed with Covid-19 after returning from abroad were brought.
“What killed me the most today was the nurse’s comment. A woman in chemical protective equipment, leading me to the box room, shared: “My sister is also a doctor. Lives in Italy. Yesterday she called me and screamed: “quit, run!” Our doctors can't stand it. Yesterday a colleague hanged herself. We don’t leave the hospital for weeks.” What awaits us? – Steshenko reports a conversation with Ukrainian doctors, who, according to her, realize that “all the horror is only ahead.”
The journalist says that the test done in the hospital shows the result only after 2-3 days. “The doctors themselves say that there is no point in doing a rapid test. "They don't show results." There are no medicines either. They give you a sheet of medicine for ARVI so that your relatives can buy it. They are also asking to hand over a lot of water,” Steshenko said.
She shares her fears: “Two or three days – laboratory. And no antiviral treatment all these days. During this time, the corona successfully enters the lungs, and you already have pneumonia.”
“Behind the scenes, doctors say that the delay yesterday with smears is due to the fact that our doctors are overwhelmed by the number of tests. There are really a lot of them. And this is just the beginning,” notes the journalist.
“The situation with me at the Alexander Hospital is actually still super bad. Here’s one patient from the fifth floor (I’m on the sixth) who writes that she’s been in bed for two days now, and no X-rays, no smears. There was a rush in the evening. The nurses complained that they were again transporting patients with suspicion: “Where are we going to put them?!”, “In that ward? There’s a coronavirus there,” I heard outside the door. People here already know that I am a journalist. Naturally, the medical staff is not happy that I am sharing with you about what is happening from here from the inside,” Steshenko also reports.
“Working conditions are emergency. Nurses complain that there are no promised additional payments, but there are serious problems with getting to work. The main thing here is not the problem of our doctors, but of the system itself, which is definitely not ready to receive a large flow of patients, but they definitely will be. Doctors are already working day and night. It’s hard to even imagine what will happen next. Despite the fact that the Alexander Hospital is the best in Ukraine. It’s scary to think about the regions,” she warns.
“Now the question is only for the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Health, the Rada and the President, all taken together, who are responsible for the fact that they have not yet devoted all their efforts and resources to provide material support for doctors, protect them, and possibly provide hospitals for their residence directly next to clinics so that they can relax without having to travel home. Plus – the delivery of tests, medicines, mechanical ventilation, protective suits, disinfectants, masks, which are not even available for patients in the wards,” the journalist clarifies.
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