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During a few days of feeling bad, Kiwi teacher Rick Armstrong and his wife Mavi, a lawyer, socialized with friends and made plans to go on vacation to New Zealand, before being admitted to a Madrid hospital with Covid-19. They credit their survival to a controversial drug trial.
February 25
I will call this day zero. We had gone out to lunch with a group of our travel companions from a recent group trip to Cuba for Madrileños over 65 years old. Magnificent menu of the day in an Asturian restaurant, four generous dishes, seafood soup, chickpea stew, baked lamb, a generous flan, and indeed as much good red wine as you are likely to drink. Madrid at its best. That night the first cases were announced in Madrid, and some more in the following days.
READ MORE:
* Coronavirus pandemic: full coverage
* Kiwis in Spain share the experience of life locked up
* A kiwi struggles with life and confinement in Spain
SUPPLIED
Kiwi Rick Armstrong and his wife Mavi Hernández contracted Covid-19 while living in Madrid. Photographed here in Uzbekistan.
February 29
We had organized a calsotada at home with some of our best friends, a global group of my time in international schools in Madrid. This would be our last chance to see them for a while as we were leaving in three weeks for a three month home exchange organized in Nelson where our daughter and grandchildren live.
A calsotada is one of my favorite ways to eat in Spanish. It is about cooking calsots, a type of leek / onion grown in Catalonia, over the vine ambers. There are many secrets to a good calsotada as we have kiwis for our barbies! The calsots are eaten by hand with romesco sauce, and we serve them with roasted rabbit and vulture sausages.
We toast to the good people of Catalonia. We were not aware of social distancing, and the hugs (hugs) were effusive. Later, we had to remember that wonderful day through different lenses. Later we would start to worry about the health of our friends who were in our house that night.
March 4
We have a small cabin in the mountains of Asturias that has become a beautiful place of escape for us. We got into the car to close the house before leaving for New Zealand. Upon arrival, Mavi complains of a dry cough and general malaise. Two days later, I show similar symptoms and joke about having the virus.
We have been invited to a traditional Asturian bean stew, cooked by Loli and her husband Alfonso, our neighbors in the valley. Mavi and I tell them that there is a possibility that we have the virus, not hugs and social distancing. Of course, in Spain there was still a “let’s not worry about this nonsense” attitude and perhaps there were more hugs than normal, since we wouldn’t see each other for four months.
The number of cases is growing in Spain, up to 222 cases with two deaths. I have a feeling that our trip to New Zealand is under threat. I uselessly changed our route from Hong Kong to Singapore.
FAKE IMAGES
Cars drive down an empty street on Gran Vía on March 15 in Madrid.
March 8
We return to Madrid, a little tired, a little cough, there are still no temperatures. So difficult to know what to do. The next day my wife hesitates, decides she feels better and goes to her French class. I carefully drive my car to a garage for a pre-arranged checkup, buy some groceries, and visit a pharmacist for a thermometer. There are no signs of masks anywhere. We look back on this day with a sense of irresponsibility now.
Mavi’s high temperatures begin, we are both weaker and my cough worsens. We take acetaminophen and spend much of the day sleeping. We called the Madrid help line Covid-19, but the lines have collapsed. When we finally arrive, that we have no connection with China or Italy, it seems to limit interest in our situation. We are told to use wet towels to keep our temperature low.
There is very little evidence that will prove to be a weakness in the Spanish response. We’re told to call back in a day or two if we get worse, but no one answers the lines. We arrive at our local medical center, our doctor calls again, very concerned, and advises us to visit the local emergency medical center over the weekend if we get worse.
March 12
The local government of the province of Madrid unilaterally decides to close all schools and universities, which affects me while teaching at a local university. We decided to disconnect the exchange of houses and optimistically discuss putting it back in early September. Very sad as we both miss our grandchildren in Nelson, I hope this is not the new norm.
March 14
We visit the local emergency health center. Strange atmosphere, no other patient, but everyone in the center is well prepared, masked, wearing gloves and following strict protocol. The doctor tests our lungs and seems satisfied that we are not so bad. An official test is not yet available.
Unexpectedly, he calls me later to ask more questions. Now he seems more concerned, perhaps our age, perhaps some aspects of our medical history, and now he seems more concerned with my cough. He suggests that we go to the emergency department of the local El Escorial hospital the next day for more elaborate tests. A very lucky tip for us on reflection.
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Kiwi master Rick Armstrong recovers at Hospital El Escorial in Madrid after contracting coronavirus.
March, 15th
At El Escorial there are only eight others left, all looking pretty miserable. It seems to take an age for doctors to see it, get tests done, including eventually a virus test and x-rays.
Many people were sent home, but we were moved to a different room, and it is clear that we are considered more troublesome than most of the people around us. We both have signs of pneumonia, generally poor lung function, and worrying indicators related to kidney and liver function. We spend the night in an emergency room.
It was extremely loud, there were lights everywhere, some employees wearing extreme containment clothing, others walking without masks. It felt chaotic and more like a front line of war. We had enormous respect for the hospital staff. In the middle of the night we were moved to a separate room, crucially with our own bathroom, and we finally slept a few hours.
For that afternoon, Spain had 7988 confirmed cases and 296 deaths.
March 15-20
They keep us in the hospital for observation, it seems that they are also concerned about our age and some aspects of our medical history. We are in a spacious recently renovated double room overlooking the pine trees, and it is snowing. Parts of Doctor Zhivago I was shot close, imagine Julie Christie and Omar Sharif floating in front of me.
The quality of the treatment during these five days was exceptional, always humane and in a good mood, although it was clear that the staff was stressed. Each entrance to our room involved protectively dressed people, then an elaborate procedure to remove protective clothing.
Our diagnosis of Covid-19 comes on the 16th and our doctor leads us to an experimental trial involving the use of the antimalarial drug Doquine and an antiviral combination used for HIV called Kaletra. Both had shown some as yet unconfirmed positive effects in China.
The first doses came during our first night and it is up to my character to question the reason for them. The nurse struggled to explain their purpose, but we took them in good faith. The doctor apologizes the next day for the lack of communication and also admits that he should have first asked for our formal permission to be part of a lawsuit related to its use.
We were delighted to participate, although looking back perhaps it was blind faith. I had already investigated its potential via the Internet and our pharmacist daughter in the UK. There does not seem to be a clear consensus in the medical world.
Trump has promoted doquina (hydroxychloroquinine), claiming that he has a “special feeling” and that he is going to be a great cure, “one of the main changers in the history of medicine.” Of course, this was against the advice of its public health experts, including its own chief infectious disease adviser, but a day or two later, the FDA, against all medical advice, approved its use for the coronavirus.
Covid-19 had no desire for the flu, or anything else he has experienced. It appears to have its own odor and significantly affects one’s cognitive ability. When we got to the hospital, I couldn’t remember my national identity number, something we use most days in Spain. Then my spelling, never my strength, fell apart.
Our medications also had significant side effects. Both Kaletra and Dolquine cause nausea and diarrhea, weakness, and drowsiness. I had trouble sleeping and had some amazing dreams.
Perhaps the biggest difference from other diseases is that we are all very aware of the global situation. We are continually exposed to news of its spread, deaths, total chaos and being over 70 years old knowing that we are in the high risk category.
One afternoon during a call from our daughter in New Zealand, when my cough was getting worse, I suddenly found myself falling apart. The thoughts of never seeing her again suddenly took over.
I believe in the fundamental importance that people can die with dignity, and this usually implies in the presence of their loved ones. It is horrifying to imagine the number of people with the virus who have died alone, in distress.
BERNAT ARMANGUE / AP
Two people wearing face masks to protect themselves against the coronavirus attend the funeral of a relative in a Madrid cemetery.
March 20
Our doctor reluctantly decided that we could go home, with phone supervision, bags of medications, and detailed advice on how to take them. In the hallway we see for the first time the faces of the nurses; emotional enough to say our thanks and goodbyes. Also very moving to reach the welcome of the green door of our granite cabin.
It seems like we’ve been out a lifetime with the first spring buds everywhere. Our wisteria has put the greatest abundance of color in our honor. I am struck by the Maori Koru ceramic pendant that represents new life, growth, strength and peace. I think now I am beginning to appreciate his true spirit.
The best of our village community was shown in the coming days. Our local doctor and nurse contacted us several times over the next week. Online shopping has collapsed in major supermarkets, but we found that stores are delivered free to locals, and when I need a new medicine, the city council has a service to arrange for delivery. What we don’t have is the lively singing of the balconies and the applause for the medical services seen in the center of Madrid, although our neighbors are doing everything possible.
The song, Resistirè, released in 1988 by the Duo Dinamico, has been reborn as the new national song. There are so many encouraging examples of people supporting each other, young people offering to buy food for older neighbors, people volunteering in hospitals.
We gradually improve over the next week. We finish our experimental medications and feel better as the side effects wear off. We receive regular phone calls from the hospital and our local health center.
CARLOS ALVAREZ / GETTY IMAGES
A nurse wearing gloves and a protective suit cares for a Covid-19 patient.
March 26
Spain has up to 56,000 official cases and 4,000 deaths, with little sign that the curve is flattening. Hospitals in Madrid and Catalonia are at their limit. To the government’s dismay, China’s rapid test kits prove to be dysfunctional and must be returned. The government extends the state of alarm. The main opposition parties support the measure, but the Popular Party begins a period of extreme attacks against the government, effectively accusing them of deaths from the virus. His only suggestions were to ask for all the flags flying at half-staff, a state funeral and a monument to the victims. The tragedy of the numerous cases and deaths that originated in nursing homes reached our family, as our sister-in-law’s mother dies alone in a hospital with Covid-19.
28th March
The Government announces an increase in the degree of confinement and closes all non-essential activity for two weeks. They had been under pressure to do this, although they had defended the position that a complete closure would cause significant harm to the economy and that science did not really support such action.
Mavi has decided not to visit her 94-year-old mother, who lives alone and was used to daily visits. She is very strong and has coped well, but there is a limit.
We are spending a lot of time gardening and I am completely back in my pottery with an unusual energy. To my relief, my cognitive abilities seem to be coming back.
Five weeks from day zero. It seems like an eternity ago. There is some sign of the curve flattening here in Spain, some reason for hope, but clearly a long way to go.
The government has handled the crisis well enough, some mistakes, of course, but with calm, dignity and mainly transparent communication. When the situation returns to normal, there is a high risk here in Spain that opposition parties will try to create a polarized atmosphere of hatred and instability similar to the days before the Civil War.
Surely a new world order will emerge, perhaps with more emphasis on solidarity, equality and stewardship of the planet. Here in Spain I see reasons to be hopeful and also to worry.
That will be another story.
* * Rick Armstrong has lived in Madrid for the past 30 years with his wife, Mavi Hernández, a lawyer. A former forensic scientist at DSIR, now teaches
