[ad_1]
Twelve months: KUL doctors have been working with the insidious Covid-19 for so long. During this period, the uncertainty was changed by lessons learned, and the enormous stress, responsibility, and atypical work hours during the peak of the pandemic were aided by the concentration, teamwork, and dedication of employees to the medical profession. .
The number of patients is decreasing, there are no infected workers
“It just came to our notice then. The number of Covid-19 patients stabilized. Currently, there are 44 of them, in the Department of Resuscitation and Intensive Care – 11. However, that number changes a little every day. There was a time when there were almost 200 Covid-19 patients in the hospital and 30 in the Resuscitation unit. Now the tide is so low, but it is too early to calm down. Covid-19 has already changed the world, we have learned to work in such conditions and we remain optimistic.
Of course, it will not soon be possible to fully return to what it was “at that time.” However, it is necessary to make an effort, it is necessary for sick people, it is necessary for society ”, emphasizes the director of the Klaipėda University Hospital, prof. enable dr. Vinsas Janušonis.
Employees with Covid-19 have not been registered at the Klaipeda University Hospital for several weeks. The most important thing is that the psychological condition of the employees has improved, they have felt stronger and more secure. According to the hospital director, this is the result of the vaccinations. The KUL Covid-19 vaccine has been administered to more than a thousand workers. Vaccinated doctors feel calmer and more courageous. You continue to fight the virus, but it is accompanied by a lower risk to your own health, the health of patients and loved ones.
KUL is not just a combat hospital, coordinating the Covid-19 situation in western Lithuania. The institution provides all planned and emergency specialized inpatient and outpatient counseling services to residents throughout the region during quarantine.
He remembered the beginning of the challenges
KUL began to prepare for possible challenges to the coronavirus already last year, after receiving information about the prevalence of Covid-19 in China, the spread of this infection in EU countries: the national legislation governing the spread of infection.
In early March, after receiving the order from the Minister of Health on the procedure for organizing health care services for Covid-19 disease, KUL was appointed as the institution that organizes the provision of services in Klaipėda counties and Tauragė.
The hospital was urgently reorganized and prepared for new activities, to work with suspected and treated Covid-19 patients. The KUL emergency management plan was reviewed and supplemented, activities were restructured, and the coronavirus infection control algorithm was approved. With the start of the quarantine, the work of the hospital was fundamentally reorganized, the activities of fifteen departments were suspended, staff and patient flows were redistributed.
The entire fourth hull with two hundred beds was exclusively designed to treat an infection, Covid-19. Equipped operating rooms and midwives. As the situation changed, the problems were addressed in accordance with the recommendations and procedures of the Ministry of Health.
“We were the first to deal with it and look for quick solutions. There was very little time to prepare and decisions had to be made here and now. We reorganized the work of the doctors and other personnel. All of this was done in the shortest time possible,” he describes the hospital manager the start of work with Covid-19.
According to prof. skilled. Dr. V. Janušonis, these are just some of the challenges the hospital faced during the pandemic, quarantine and emergency. At first, due to the unclear situation and the lack of methodological information, there were various moods and fears, but mainly the hospital staff faced difficulties. The situation was quickly brought under control and fully managed.
According to Jolanta Česienė, head of the Infectious Diseases Department at KUL, it was a very strange feeling until the first patient, because she was transporting a lot of people, thinking that they might be infected with the coronavirus. There was a flu epidemic at the time, so the symptoms were similar. “We just realized that the coronavirus was still a long way off. And suddenly, on March 12. – A 39-year-old patient arrived who was confirmed with coronavirus.
The doctor who worked and who had this patient was like a teacher and knew what was missing when working with coronavirus patients. Whether it was for clothing or writing instruments, he realized that he couldn’t get in with the phone. They seem like such small things, but you understand that the first patient seemed to show what we still need in the wards, what we still need to do, how to make patient visits more convenient ”, recalled the head of the KUL Infectious Department of Diseases.
According to doctors, during the coronavirus pandemic, work changed dramatically: overalls, glasses, respirators.
The day begins in a completely different way than it did before the pandemic. We do everything differently from the moment we enter the body, we come to work. We were used to seeing the open door come in, interacting with the patient, because it was not only the medication but also the conversations. Now all this is not there. You arrive at the concentrated neighborhood, you know exactly what you will do, what you will ask, what you will see ”.
After the coronavirus hit Lithuania, all infected people were initially admitted to the KUL, and then it was decided to hospitalize only seriously ill patients. The worst period of the pandemic was at the end of December.
Pandemic waves: insidious and different
Most Covid-19 patients have a serious and critical condition. Particular attention is paid to resuscitation and intensive care units, which treat the most seriously ill patients.
More than half of the patients receive oxygen therapy. About two-thirds of the people in this unit require artificial lung ventilation. The longest treatment was 65 days for a patient who recovered.
“Working in extreme conditions doubles and sometimes even triples the load to the limit of physical and psychological possibilities. We feel and feel a responsibility and a duty both to patients and to colleagues. As a team, we focus on sustainable solutions, quick response. A year ago, we couldn’t have thought of such a challenge, ”says Zita Vetrovienė, Head of the Division of Resuscitation and Intensive Care in the Department of Infectious Diseases. According to her, the unit of KUL employees was especially important in this fight, when doctors, nurses and employees of other hospital rooms voluntarily came to rescue colleagues who worked with coronavirus patients.
Head of the Department of Diagnosis of Internal Medicine and anesthesiologist-resuscitator dr. Sigitas Stonkus volunteered to work in the Resuscitation and Intensive Care Unit of the Infectious Diseases Corps during the first wave: “The situation was not standard, additional doctors were needed for this unit because there were so many patients.
What if we are not ourselves? I did not hesitate to offer help to colleagues. “During the first wave of the pandemic, which was in March-April, and during the second wave from November to the present, I am working and fighting for the lives of people loved by someone.” Dr. S. Stonkus spoke openly that doctors are already used to working in the context of Covid-19 and adopting insidious rules of the coronavirus game.
“It just came to our notice then. The patient’s condition can get worse very suddenly. Every life saved is a victory for us doctors,” shared S. Stonkus. According to the doctor, anyone who has contracted the coronavirus can say in voice high that the disease was not only severe, exhausting, but also very long-lasting, becomes very slow and worsens within minutes.
Doctors who have spent years fighting for the lives of seriously ill patients are open: the first wave of the pandemic and the second are incomparable, and each stage brings news.
“They are very different, they are incomparable. During the first wave, we live in ignorance: are we really taking good care of ourselves or are we doing everything for patients and doing the right thing? There were many questionnaires everywhere. We are much calmer now because we know what disease we will face.
We just focus and work. We apply the lessons learned. And at this time we notice that the number of patients is constantly decreasing, but the condition of patients becomes extremely difficult in the first days of the disease. Right now, a 24-year-old boy is lying in the Resuscitation and Intensive Care Unit. His father is in the same department, ”explained J. Česienė, Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases. The doctor did not hide that the years with Covid-19 passed very quickly and before the pandemic, hardly anyone could have thought that he would have to overcome those challenges that had already become a daily routine.
In the molecular laboratory – almost 170 thousand. research
Laboratory research is one of the components of work in the fight against a pandemic. The Hospital’s Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory, which had previously performed genetic tests for hereditary diseases (oncological, cardiological), identified mutations in malignant tumor cells for the selection of targeted therapies, was dedicated to the molecular diagnosis of infectious diseases and control of the effectiveness of the treatment, he was forced to redirect. A new Covid-19 laboratory equipped with modern technologies has been installed, the only laboratory of such technologies in Lithuania.
In total, almost 170 thousand tests were carried out in the molecular diagnostic laboratory. Covid-19 studies found about 18,000. positive cases. If previously the laboratory performed about 100 tests a week, now it has between 500 and 600 tests a day during the peak of a pandemic.
Recently, a method was introduced in the Division of Molecular Diagnostics of KUL Hospital to detect mutated types of SARS-CoV2: British, Brazilian, South African and mixed. Previously identified positive import samples (people returning from other countries) were used to implement the method. Twelve samples were tested, of which 2 were positive (British): from Germany and Sweden. Both samples were taken at the mobile coronavirus checkpoint in Klaipėda.
Statistics
Almost 170,000 were performed in the hospital’s molecular diagnostic laboratory. Covid-19 studies.
Set almost 18 thousand. infected patients.
The infectious disease corpus treats 44 patients infected with Covid-19.
11 patients are treated in the resuscitation department for infectious diseases.
Almost 1,400 patients with Covid-19 were treated and discharged from KUL, receiving oxygen therapy, hemodialysis, and artificial lung ventilation.
Almost 3,000 patients have been referred to CULid-19 for CULid-19 testing and follow-up.
The youngest Covid-19 patient is a newborn.
The main Covid-19 patient was 95 years old (recovered).
The main Covid-19 patient was 94 years old (recovered).
