Retired Vanda, who escaped from the hospital, says she reminded me of a nightmare: They caught me and they didn’t want to let go.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, patients had never been heard to flee the hospital. Okay, it sounds a little absurd. Why run away from where you want to help? But it turns out that it happens more often than it seems. While sitting in a closed house during the quarantine, there were repeated reports in the media that people diagnosed with or suspected of having coronaviruses had chosen to be arbitrary and not cooperate with doctors. Both men and women, including adolescents, fled from doctors, for whom the last period was already extremely difficult.

All the refugees were arrested sooner or later by the police and taken back to the medical facilities. During the coronavirus pandemic, you cannot talk about someone who wants to abandon mandatory treatment or isolation. Even the highest government in the country took care of that. Each case of escape was commented on by hospital managers and the health minister himself.

Conversations about the virus are slowly fading, quarantine has been relaxed many times and continues to be relaxed, but patients have continued to flee the hospitals, only no one announces it as a sensation.

Vilna V. Šalkina pensioner is one of the refugees. She herself received medical attention voluntarily. Suddenly feeling unwell, the woman called an ambulance home. The doctor who arrived decided that she needed to be transported to the Santara clinics, and she did so. “It was very bad. I was diagnosed with a pre-stroke condition. He did a coronavirus test at the hospital and then did an urgent cardiovascular screening and admitted him to the cardiology department to monitor him,” says Vanda.

He does not blame the doctors, on the contrary, he appreciates the life saved. One day, lying in silence, the next morning, the eldest woke up with restless thoughts.

“I am so old that it is difficult for me to breathe, I suffocate. There was a great fear that it could only get worse, so I went home. You see it yourself: the atmosphere in the hospital is very sad, there are serious patients around. I told him I told the doctor that everything would be enough for me to go to bed here, I had to go to my apartment in Šeškinė, with my husband. But the doctor said that he could not let me go because he had to control to be able to prescribe the treatment. I said I couldn’t lie here, I still refused to release him, ”says the woman about negotiations with the doctor who is treating her.

When the requests were unsuccessful, Vanda began to develop a plan to withdraw from the Santara clinics on her own. He thought down to the smallest detail how he would do it. “I know there are a lot of doctors in the morning, the visits continue, so I decided to wait until I’m calmer.” I had lunch at the hospital, waited for the nurses to pick up the dishes, and then I changed my clothes, put on shoes, picked up all the items in the closet and left the room, “says Vanda, who was asked to recreate the events of the may 19.

This older person only moves with the help of a stick, so even if he wanted to quickly escape from the hospital, he couldn’t. Vanda walked through the living room rooms, thinking that they would not notice anything and would not realize that the older one was running home without permission, but he was wrong. The nurses attacked from behind. Vanda did not answer calls to stop, walking down the long and confusing hallways of the clinics.

“Seeing they wouldn’t stop me, the sisters rushed to yell and ask for help. There was a man in the hallway, without a uniform, without a certificate. I don’t know what that is, but he responded to the nurses’ request and rushed to hug me. “I resisted, then he pushed me hard against the wall. Here, look how he squeezed me, how he hit me on the shoulder, all blue, it hurts a lot,” consoles the pensioner.

But the blow of an unknown man did not stop her, Vanda continued unstoppable. He ran through the hospital door and headed straight for the bus stop.

“I didn’t speak to anyone about the leak, so no one came to pick me up. I always use public transportation. The bus takes me directly from Santariškės to Šeškinė, where I live. Very comfortable, so I thought it would be easy, but after the incident with that man in the hallway looked really bad. When the bus driver saw me, he started offering help, probably thinking he was going to die. He was breathing hard, he was pale with nerves, “says Vanda after recalling the trip home .

When he returned to his apartment, the woman lay down to rest and then felt the burning pain in her right shoulder. “I wanted to contact the police to arrest the man who pushed me, but I realized that there would be no results. I do not know who is he. The nurses are really innocent, they did their job and they didn’t even touch me, good women, “says the senior.

The same day, Vanda’s phone call was made by the outpatient doctor who attended her, who reported that the refugees were looking for doctors at the Santara clinics. But not to get it back, but to pass the prescriptions of the medicines you need to take. “He said if I didn’t drink, it would make me worse. The doctor went through a lot of things he can’t see me,” the runner is happy with the doctors’ concerns. Vanda now feels much better, only the bruise hurts.

After hearing this strange and sad story, I asked Jolanta Normantienė, director of the communication service of the Santara Clinics of the Vilnius University Hospital, to comment on Elder Vanda’s escape. He confirmed by phone that from time to time there are patients who leave the medical institution against the will of the doctors, but this is not considered a crime, so the refugees are not reported to the police unless the patient represents a threat to the public.

“Doctors, seeing the threat to the patient’s health, tried to convince them that such a decision to leave the hospital without completing treatment is dangerous to human health.” The department head called the patient’s relatives to help prove the harm of an unreasonable decision, but the patient still left the department, he was hostile and aggressive towards the staff, “says J. Normantienmant, Head of the Communication Service.

“Although patients are not kept in the hospital against their will, doctors feel responsible for their health even in such cases. Staff from the Santara clinics contacted the patient’s family doctor and asked to take care of him, issued an electronic prescription so that the patient could take the necessary medication while at home.

Healthcare workers now live in extremely difficult conditions, feel tremendous stress and responsibility for patients’ health, face high infection control requirements, face many challenges and new tasks on a daily basis, so it would be great for patients trust doctors, listen to their instructions, and make their own efforts. to protect health ”, J. Normantienė concludes this story with a beautiful request.