It was arranged so that one of its critically ill Covid-19 patients could see their loved ones. But instead of the usual smiling face at the other end of the line, or the couple waving to the children, this time there were 45 relatives, all sneaking into one room.
“On many occasions we have had to stop zooming in because there have been too many relatives in the room with no social distance.”
In the overcrowded ICU in Blackburn, north-west England, where she works – and where eight patients have died alone in the past week – abuse of the rules is not the only problem she and other medical staff face.
“There are nurses who are withdrawing treatment from the patient and ending their lives [procedures] On a patient with a relative on a zoom call – crying with husband or daughter at the end of the camera and saying ‘please hold my daddy’s hand.’ And the next phone call may be someone abusing them. “
Last week, Blackburn had the highest rate of new infections in England. For staff at the Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital, where patients have died from Covid-19 so far in October, the abuse only adds to the litany of trauma and fatigue – and do-it-yourself.
In the ICU, where a third patient has died since Friday, there is another form of insult to locals who break government rules designed to fight the disease.
At the onset of the epidemic, relatives of the victims of Covid-19 were banned in many UK hospitals. Here, they are allowed to come and say goodbye – the same two people provide during a visit. Yet this rule is also broken.
“Some relatives came and then swore that only those two relatives would remain,” Greggson said. “And then people change during the night when the nurse isn’t watching.”
Greggson said this makes her nurses more annoyed, because they think they should enforce the rules. “They’re pretty tired,” he explained. “And then you have to do something else to deal with it. It’s really difficult.”
As the second wave of coronaviruses grows in the UK, the pace of events in the ICU is uninterrupted, Greggs said. “You have death and there is someone [waiting] Going to that bed. So there is absolutely no downtime. Replace the mattress. Next patient. “
Ignoring the rules of coronavirus
There is growing frustration among local employees at a place where locals feel the disease can be dismissed, or rules designed to slow its progress are ignored.
Ian Stanley, a counselor, recalls hearing a local DJ on the radio that morning, saying, “She says she’ll take her family for Christmas, and if that means breaking the six rule – ‘then be it.’ “Well, that’s fine. You have Christmas because we don’t have it. That’s our consequence. And it’s transformative.”
Support and National Unity physicians say their work is over as soon as the epidemic begins, staff told CNN.
During the UK lockdown, at the height of the first wave of Covid-19, many people stood at the door of their homes every Thursday evening to applaud UK National Health Service (NHS) workers. The weekly event became known as “Clap for Carers”.
“There’s a really good picture on Facebook that says, ‘Thank you so much, you’re standing at the door of your house and you’re clapping and now it looks like you’re stabbing us in the back,'” said Gregus. Is that we feel. We have given absolutely everything. And yet we are being lied to and abused on the phone. “
The Royal Blackburn ICU – often a place of quiet and silence – is unusually busy, and employees fear it will only get worse in the days and weeks ahead.
It’s hard to leave the hospital for a break, Gregson says, because he feels guilty he should be helped at work.
And then there’s the constant fear of overheating Covid-19 “pub wisdom” while they try to spend a quiet night.
Dr. Bethan Gay said, “When patients at work die in a very specific way it really makes you tired and yet there are people who know nothing about the virus that it is not real and does not exist.” Said Bethan Gay.
Gay said the uncomfortable denial of the severity of the disease is always a measure of the problem he works around every day. When he started working on the ICU in August, the patient list was covered with two sheets of paper. He is now five years old.
“Last night my night [shift]”As soon as I got here, a woman came into the ward and unfortunately died almost immediately,” Gay recalled.
She did not have time to meet the patient, although she was given the dead woman’s belongings by the hospital’s porter before her relatives arrived. “Giving some relatives a bag and a stick of a woman who has died in bed in front of them. It’s hard for them, and it’s hard for us too.”
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