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Christian Ernesto Aravena Lepe (45), an engineer with a long career in the radio world and from Linares, recorded his last message alive last Friday, April 17 at 6:50 p.m. In his usual affectionate and collaborative tone, as defined by his close ones, he sent a WhatsApp audio to Patricio, one of his many acquaintances in the field of radio broadcasting.
In this register he made evident his manifest difficulty in speaking and spinning ideas. With effort, he told her that he had been infected with coronavirus and explained that naturally this situation was going to delay the pending labor issues.
But his words can also glimpse the hopes he had of recovering: “When I’m back, I’ll tell him,” he said spontaneously at the end of the conversation. But they never spoke again.
He also did not answer the phone or messages from his family and friends. María del Rosario Aravena Lepe (41), her sister, who lives in Talca with her 2 children, thought she was sleeping and decided not to insist to let him rest. They had been in constant contact – even more after the confirmation of the contagion – and he himself had stated before that he had trouble falling asleep.
24 hours later, on Saturday the 18th after 7:00 p.m., there was no turning back. Police, a locksmith and a cousin – the only family member he had in the capital – entered the Aires Urbanos Building on Calle San Diego, between Victoria and Pedro Lagos, in Santiago Centro. They went up to the tenth floor, where he was already serving his eighth day of quarantine. They opened the door and when they entered they confirmed the worst: Christian was already dead.
But the nightmare had started several days before. On Thursday, April 9, Ramón Corbalán Melgarejo went to Cesfam No. 1, located in Copiapó street, 9 blocks from his home. At 1:40 p.m., when the doctor Sofía Victoria Molina Loreto (30) treated him, he had had a headache for 5 days, had had a fever on 2 occasions and had mild eye discomfort. He had taken acetaminophen, which lowered his high temperature, but the headache had worsened. So he decided to go to the office.
He immediately warned about his history, which transformed him into a potential risk patient: 3 years ago he faced testicular cancer that he had to combat with chemotherapy and radiotherapy at the Adult Oncology polyclinic of the San Borja Arriarán Clinical Hospital, 6 blocks from his home. Since childhood, he also had a history of asthma.
“It was common to be able to see him in the winter with an inhaler,” recalled his colleague and one of his closest friends, Cristian Esteban Pereira Calderón (43).
Before sending him home, he was prescribed acetaminophen, an Oxolamin syrup, and performed the PCR test on suspicion of Covid-19. In addition, the physical examination detected “respiratory sounds present in both lung fields with diffuse roncus aggregates”, as stated in his attention sheet.
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The sample was received on Friday the 10th in the laboratory of the University of Santiago (Usach) and confirmed the suspicions: it was positive. On Saturday morning, he received a call from the health authority and would have chosen to remain in quarantine, despite his background. His close ones admit that he was somewhat reluctant to go to public health and, at the same time, the primary care facility – dependent on the Central Metropolitan Health Service (SSMC) – considered him an optimal candidate to continue treatment at home, since he lived alone and he was not at risk of infecting his family group.
For friends and family, negligence was evident. Each on their own, they asked doctors they trusted. And they all agreed on one central point: with these medical histories (cancer, asthma, and lung noise) and the subsequent confirmation of Covid-19, it was imperative to admit him to a hospital and connect him to a ventilator.
Cesfam promised to visit home health personnel to check his condition. So it was. On Sunday Christian called the compound explaining that the previous night he had had respiratory problems, so on Monday, at 5:20 p.m., attention was arranged in his department with a doctor and a kinesiologist.
Both professionals evaluated it and applied salbutamol treatment. Specifically, what they call a “short hospital stay” for respiratory management, which gave immediate results and improved their saturation and heart rate. Before leaving, according to records from the SSMC Primary Care Directorate, they insisted that he go to the hospital or call SAMU if it worsened. But he would have refused for fear of catching some other virus.
