Doctor At Minsk Hospital #4: Patient Died In Half A Day

What are Belarusian doctors forbidden to talk about?

Lies in epicrisis, lack of protective gear, lack of testing for coronavirus among doctors. Belsat.eu met with the doctor of the Minsk 4th city clinical hospital, who, on condition of anonymity, spoke about the work during the epidemic.

- Can people infected with the coronavirus be diagnosed with pneumonia?

- One woman was brought to us from another hospital, immediately to the intensive care unit in serious condition. Half a day later she died.

In the epicrisis, they wrote “pneumonia,” but from the doctors I learnt that she had two positive tests for the coronavirus, and only one negative. But in the end, they wrote pneumonia. She was 72 years old.

She arrived in the evening on March 23, and on March 24 at 10 am she was already dead. The woman came from Vilnius. Everyone has some kind of chronic disease, but this virus kills the immune system, suppresses the function of the lungs, and this pneumonia is very fleetingб and very quickly takes a person. If pneumonia is normal, bacterial, you can stay in bed at home for a week, and there will be no such symptoms. And in this case, according to the description of the patients, on the second day they felt that they could not breathe, as if someone had pressed a foot on their chest. They just burn out. Another woman was 83 years old, came from Paris. She was also diagnosed with pneumonia.

There was also a man, on March 14-15. They took a smear from him and found the swine flu, they did not find COVID-19. He was 57 years old, he died. But he had pathologies, diabetes.

- Do you think this is a decree of the Ministry of Health - not to diagnose COVID-19?

- Yes. The doctor does not hide anything. He writes what he sees. There is no reason to hide anything. However, there is the classification of diseases that they do not write in diagnosis, since this is a ban from above. According to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), there is encryption, and each disease has its own gradation according to the ICD: usually the letter of the English alphabet and numbers. And for the coronavirus there is its own gradation: death is associated with coronavirus, for example, or death as a result of complications due to the coronavirus. And I know for sure that there are cases according to the International Classification of Diseases that we don’t write.

Now everything is just beginning. I don’t know when the peak will be. Maybe in mid-April or early May.

But we will have a lot of deaths, and they will not be able to remain silent. Many doctors are no longer silent. Therefore, moral pressure and dissatisfaction are growing due to the fact that they are forced to deceive the family members of the dead.

- Let's start from the very beginning. What has changed over the last month in your work?

- Technically, nothing has changed, the same work, but the conditions are different. We are currently working in protective gear. We are isolated, we cannot leave the building. Until you finish your shift, you don't go to the shower, they won’t let you out. During the day we should be in special clothes: a suit, shoe covers, a hat, glasses, a respirator, gloves. We don’t throw away the costumes after work, they are reusable, although they should be disposable.

The entire therapy building, 4 floors, was converted for patients with suspected COVID-19. All departments except pulmonology have been disbanded. Part of the elderly with heart problems, for example, were transferred to cardiology.

- Is it true that doctors working with patients with COVID-19 sign non-disclosure obligations?

- I haven't heard of that. We did not sign this, only consent that we agree to work in a pandemic with contact persons of 1-2 levels. I have heard nothing like this about other departments either. Maybe this applies to doctors working in the infectious diseases hospitals.

- Do you now have patients with COVID-19?

- They're being taken from us very quickly. Yesterday there were several, one man felt bad, and he was transferred to the intensive care. The special box arrived straight away, and the man was taken to the infectious diseases hospital. But in our hospital there can be two people in the ward. So it turns out that the second is in the risk zone, since he was in contact with him. In general, the result of the COVID-19 test does not come soon, a person can wait a day. And during this day he is in contact with someone in the department.

In each department we have 55-60 beds. That is 275 people plus resuscitation. About 300 people in general. And the building is already completely full. The first two women were brought to us on March 22, they came from Poland and the USA. And the hospital has already been completely filled for a week, no one else is being accepted. We work only to service those patients who are here now. No one has been discharged yet. About 15 people, or maybe more, were taken to the infectious diseases hospital during the week.

- Is it scary for you to work?

- When you work at this pace, then there is no time to think. Of course, it’s scary, not even for myself, but for the loved ones, so as not to infect them. They also may close us in the hospital.

- Have you heard that the hospital was completely closed in the Kopyl region, and now doctors have to live in it for 14 days?

- The manager told us that if someone from the staff gets sick, they will close us. But in practice, we had infected staff, but no one was blocked. Maybe they don’t want to confirm the fact there are infected doctors. People are taken out, they don’t say where exactly they found it. We are all afraid of this and expect it to happen, but so far there has been no quarantine.

- But are there proper conditions at the hospital, if this happens, and you will have to continue to work and live at work?

- We were told that on the 8th floor there is a relaxation room, and they will do it there, but it is not clear where to sleep. We have a lot of people working. I think they will close us, and we will sleep in our departments.

- Did you speak to relatives about such an opportunity? How do they react?

- Yes. My boyfriend said that if it is necessary, then let it be so. I didn’t tell my grandmother. Mom is worried, of course, but does not show it. You can’t show your loved ones what you’re experiencing. I say that everything will be fine.

- What are the average salaries of doctors in the 4th hospital?

- Medium-BYN 950-1000. This is a labor rate. 7 shifts per month.

- Have you been promised bonuses?

- Yes, we were told that there is such an order, as everything is organized, the bonus will be 20 to 100% of the salary, but I don’t really understand how they will do it. Therefore, I do not know how it will actually be.

- What are the moods in general in the team and among doctors who are at risk?

- Only a few people work at the retirement age. In general, everyone is calm, but everyone is annoyed by the lies that the Ministry of Health cites, their statistics, that they hide everything from everyone. Everything is shocked by their policy, by what is happening, how they try to manipulate.

- How do they manipulate information? Why do they first say what it was discovered, and then deny it? How does it work with tests?

- They believe that in order to confirm the absence or presence of a virus, three tests should be done. That all three must be negative. It happens that two tests are positive and one negative. That is, they first write the truth, and then they erase information in a chart, as was the case with the actor, whom they wrote pneumonia of unknown etiology. How is this possible if a smear was taken from him?

Until the authorities tell the truth about the sick and dead, people will continue to go to barbecues, to clubs, to act as if it does not concern them.

- How many more people with pneumonia are there, compared with last year?

- I would say that 2-3 times more, for sure. For example, there are 55 people in the pneumology department. Usually half of them are with pneumonia, half are bronchial asthma. Now everyone has pneumonia.

- How many smears do you take daily?

- We took from everyone who arrived, that is, about 290 pieces.

- Is it likely that smears are lost?

- Maybe, if they are unsigned.

- Are the doctors themselves protected?

- No one has taken smears from the doctors. There is an order that even if we become infected, they will not hospitalize us. If there are no symptoms, or mild symptoms, then you will need to work. Why? After all, no one will work. But we are not provided with the necessary things, they say no - and that’s all.

I had to buy my own respirators and a suit, a painting overalls. In the intensive care unit, there are no protective suits at all, nothing. It seems to me that most doctors will get sick.

And to say about them that they do not observe safety measures is like a spit in the face. It remains only to wash your hands. And hands after 24 hours and long washing with antiseptics look like rough boards. We also had retinal burns from quartz lamps, because we are given plastic glasses, and they do not protect against ultraviolet radiation.