NADIA CASAS: “THEY GAVE US SINGLE-USE DISPOSABLE MASKS THAT HAS TO LAST ALL WEEK”

GINEBRA ROCHA

Nadia Casas (21) a social worker in a nursing home in Barcelona tells us how the crisis was managed at the beginning of the pandemic back in March.

Thur 14 Jan 202117.00 GMT

At the beginning of the sanitary crisis in Spain, there was a sector that was majorly affected: Nursing Homes.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, news where focused on the high number of deaths in nursing homes, 18% of the users in nursing homes died between March and May. The Community of Madrid reported the death of 7,690 residents only with 1,203 confirmed cases of Covid-19. The lack of the protocols that limited the spread of the virus and the concentration of vulnerable population, among other reasons, made care homes the most important focus of the pandemic during the first wave.

Its staff was overwhelmed, without resources for medical care. The Defence Minister, Margarita Robles, reported that the Army had found deceased elderly people sharing the same spaces with residents at the care homes.

Nadia Casas was a nurse at Armavir in Sant Cugat del Valles from the 13th of March to the 7th of September.

“The first cases that we learned that where patients infected by corona began to emerge during the third or fourth week of March, they probably appeared earlier but we did not have the resources to ensure those where COVID-19 cases”.

When the cases of COVID-19 in care homes started spiralling out of control many families started pointing fingers at the nurses and workers of the facilities for infecting their loved ones.

“Obviously, it was never our intention. From the first week of March family visits where banned, so we were the only ones who went in and out of the care home and went on with our lives.”

Most of Spanish citizens believe the government’s management was vague, confusing, not giving the necessary importance to the use of sanitary material, and imposing ineffective security measures for the most vulnerable groups such as the elderly.

“The measures at the beginning of the pandemic were weak and ineffective. They gave us single-use disposable masks that had to last all week and told us that they were only to avoid panic but that they were not really necessary. As months went by, we started receiving materials. But we did not get full Individual Protection Equipment until May. We went with cloth masks and double gloves. No overalls, glasses or fpp2 masks as it was shown on TV. That came much later”.  

“I can’t even imagine how hard it must be to handle a global pandemic, but what I do know is that they could have handled the care home situation a lot better that how they did”.

The number of deaths that coronavirus has left in Spanish nursing homes – whether public or private – exceeds 25,000 people ten months after the outbreak of the pandemic in Spain. That means more than 47% of the deaths caused by corona have occurred in nursing homes.

“I believe there was a lack of management not only at my care home but specifically from the Government. We did not have Individual Protection Equipment’s and we did not know to face or handle the situation that was placed in our hands. After all, who knows how to manage a global pandemic? I think that if some preventive measures had been applied earlier, everything would have been easier.”

The Spanish Government has never provided an official number of deaths. However, an internal document shared with the autonomous communities, calculated that there were at least 27,359 deaths since the start of the pandemic and that more than two thirds, up to 18,883, corresponded to deaths of people with COVID-19.

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“Many did not understand, for them it was unimaginable that a virus would take everything away from them. They always told us that after having gone through the Spanish civil war a virus was not going to scare them away. Their families missed them a lot, but we made sure to called them, make video calls and anything that could make it a little more pleasant for them and their families.

“Also, the nursing auxiliaries and technical team, ended up being like their second family, we gave them all the love and support that we could so that they would feel as loved as possible, not all elders who are in a nursing home have a family, so we became their family.”

Obviously, nurses played an important role in the number of cases of coronavirus in care homes. It was never their intention, but nevertheless, elders did not have any other contact with the exterior besides them. But also, the Spanish Government failed at giving them an efficient protocol to follow and at providing an efficient medical equipment for avoiding the spread of the virus in the first place.”