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‘I started 2020 thinking that I would finish my medical course in June. The pandemic came, however, to change all plans. With the spread of Covid-19 generating an increasingly serious scenario, my graduation from the University of Grande Rio (Unigranrio) ended up ahead of April. There really was no reason to wait.
The diploma I got from a drive thru ceremony. That was a Thursday, and the following Sunday I was on my first shift, at the Albert Schweitzer Municipal Hospital, in Realengo, Zona Oeste de Rio. I was in charge of treating only patients with Covid. In a room where there were supposed to be 15 patients, there were 27. From then on, I did a series of what we call ‘joker shifts’, when you are not an employee of the health unit, but hired only for the shift, general for cover the absence of a doctor. This happened frequently because, in the first months of the pandemic, many doctors became ill and needed to be quarantined.
I did ‘joker shifts’ in the Complexo do Alemão UPA, in the Carlos Chagas State Hospital and in the private network. Today I work alone at the Anna Nery Family Clinic, in Rocha, North Zone of Rio, to have time to study for the residency test.
What I find most challenging about this virus is the uncertainty about how it attacks the body. In each patient, he seemed to act differently, sometimes even the opposite, which made me feel very insecure. Bacterial pneumonia, for example, you know that you will get a good patient outcome if you give the right antibiotic. With Covid-19, insecurity remains great.
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I remember on my first shifts, I was almost paranoid without wanting to touch anything, because I was too scared to bring the virus home with me. I live with my mother and my 80 year old grandmother. Besides being elderly, she is hypertensive. I was more afraid of contaminating it than of infecting myself. Luckily it didn’t happen either. To this day, when I get home from work, I go into the garage, bag all my belongings, and head straight for the bathroom.
In these seven months of the pandemic in Brazil, I think I am still a little anesthetized. I didn’t exactly feel the joy of those who graduate, or the fear of those who have to go to work in the midst of a pandemic. I’ve already graduated seeing at least two service fatalities. But I think the plug hasn’t dropped yet. “
