‘My Ward Neighbor Coughed So Badly I Thought She Would Break’

A Belarusian woman was taken to the hospital, where she became a first-level contact for coronavirus.

Darya Rubleuskaya is now in the Minsk Dermatovenereal Dispensary, which has been reprofiled for patients with the coronavirus, and contacts of different levels, Radio Svaboda reports.

“In the emergency room they said that 300 people arrived during the night”

“I maintained social isolation, it was important for me because I am socially responsible,” Darya begins. “That day when I called an ambulance, I was in self-isolation for 16 days and left the house just for groceries, and once I went to the university to submit my graduation work for control.”

But at some point, Darya began to feel chest pain, developed dry cough and fever.

“I couldn't take a deep breath,” the girl says. “I called 103, started talking, asked what I should do. I also had contact with my father, he works as a trucker, he was in Ukraine. My father felt okay then, and he feels good now, too. They soon told me that a brigade had already been sent for me. I started to pack.”

Darya was taken to the dermatovenereal dispensary. She says that only one person can be taken into the emergency room, and all the doctors enter it there in the protective gear.

“But the doctor on duty had a mask on his face pulled down, he was wearing an ordinary robe, he began to say that “the coronavirus is an over-advertised thing, and that we have all experienced it,” recalls Darya. “And a minute before that, the receptionist said that 300 people arrived during the night.”

Darya was put into a six-bed box for two wards. She was in a ward designed for four people. She says that they took the first test right away, but she did not learn the results. At the hospital they were reassured that if the result was positive, they would definitely be told.

“She coughed so badly I thought she would break”

Darya says that the employees in this department did their best to avoid contacts with them. “On the one hand, this is understandable, but it comes to the point that you already doubt whether you are a person,” the girl says. But most of all, she is unhappy with the way patients are hospitalized during an epidemic.

“An elderly woman shared the ward with us, and she coughed so badly, we asked her to cover up, and put on a mask, but she didn’t,” said Darya. “She always had a dry throat and a fever.” She coughed so badly I thought she would break.”

Two days later, it turned out that this woman had the coronavirus. This became known at night, and the woman was taken from the ward.

“But the nurses and staff said nothing: “Hold on, girls.” The bed of this woman with her linen, all this remained with us for several hours,” Darya worries. “And we stayed with an infected person nearby for two days, they did not give us antiseptics, once a wet cleaning was carried out. The probability that we got infected from her is quite high. My bed was across hers, but the woman who was lying next to her is very worried.”

On the same night, except for the infected woman, all of Darya’s ward was transferred to another floor.

“Now we are all waiting for the second test, which should be done on the 7th day after the contact with this woman. If the results are negative, then we will be sent home under the supervision of a polyclinic, for self-isolation,” says Darya.

“And they don’t give us masks at all”

The practice of placing patients with vivid symptoms together with those who have mild symptoms, such as Darya, or generally with “contacts”, seems unacceptable to Darya.

“It’s also unclear to me when young people and people at risk are accommodated together, with various symptoms,” she explains. “Still, our 64-year-old neighbor had much clearer symptoms.”

This way, patients can be quarantined or worse, catch the coronavirus while in the hospital, says Darya.

“When we moved to another floor, a men’s ward was moving at the same time as us,” she says. “An elderly man lived with them, and they found he had the coronavirus. So these guys became first level contacts. But this was not the end of their story, because after moving, they put another elderly man in their ward. He also turned out to have the virus, and a new countdown of these 7 days began for them.”

On the other floor, Darya is okay with the attitude of the staff to patients. But she still does not like the state of the unknown. And the fact that there are no masks, antiseptics, and even drinking water in the ward.

“The disadvantage of the situation is that they did not want to talk to us. For three days we did not understand what was happening to us, says Darya Rubleuskaya. “They didn’t give us drinking water, they said that it should be passed in parcels by relatives. And they don’t give us masks at all. When we asked, they said that they had nothing for us. We must acquire antiseptics, disinfectants ourselves, because we understand that we are possible carriers of this virus and can infect each other.”

On Friday, April 10, Daria told what happened to her in the last days.

“The doctor has not seen us for three days, since we have no complaints about the condition. But they continue to give the same medicines. For example, they give me strong antibiotics and pills from coughing, although I don’t have a cough,” says Darya. “Another very strange thing: it turned out that the results of our first tests were lost. Yesterday, the doctor said that they were not there yet, and she would find us. But phone calls to the lab showed that our tests were not even recorded.”