In the year since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic, doctors, nurses and medical staff have been at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19.
Front-line health workers around the world have faced enormous challenges to deliver essential care to patients, struggling with a lack of equipment, the constant fear of spreading the virus, and other issues such as social misconceptions relating to their work.
Often isolated, they have seen colleagues and patients die. According to Amnesty International, at least 17,000 health workers have died from COVID-19 over the last year.
New variants of the virus discovered in recent months led to a resurgence of infections. But with some countries rolling out vaccines, and health workers among the first in line to receive shots, there is some sense of hope.
Health workers around the world spoke to Al Jazeera about their experiences over the past year and their hopes and fears for the future. Below are their stories.
Dra Anne Menezes, Brazil
When Dra Anne Menezes arrives to work at the emergency COVID-19 ward at Getulio Vargas Hospital, Manaus, she has to decide which patients to stabilise and which require intubation. The city in Amazonas state is the epicentre of the outbreak in the country, where a second wave of the virus is becoming more vicious.
“What is really worrying is that compared to the peak of infections last year, patients in their 30s to 50s are now developing severe symptoms. For example, we lost a young otologist colleague due to COVID complications, as well as a 44-year-old patient. We fought to keep the patient alive, it was like a warzone.
“It’s shocking that people here don’t respect social distancing measures or wear masks. Since the government reopened the economy, people have returned to crowded parties. We’re now waiting for the third wave to hit. Despite all of this pressure, the company of my colleagues has lightened the mood. We give support to the other so that we don’t fall. Otherwise, we couldn’t keep going.”
– Reporting by Charlotte Peet.
Dr Jehad al-Ja’idi, Gaza
Dr Jehad al-Ja’idi is the director of the intensive care department at the European Hospital in the besieged Gaza Strip. It is the main site in Gaza for patients with severe and moderate cases of COVID-19.
“My staff and I expect to be infected any day. It is hard for our families, as we try to go back home but we avoid kissing or hugging our children, and we keep our selves isolated. Twenty percent of my staff was infected with COVID-19 while treating patients.
“The biggest challenge we faced is the shortage of PPE, and noninvasive ventilation equipment. We have limited items in the ministry storage to face this virus. The Gaza context is difficult, due to the dependency on international aid amid the Israeli siege. But there was an advantage due to the restrictions on travel – this delayed the arrival of COVID-19 compared to other countries and gave us time to prepare our hospitals to receive the first cases.”
– Reporting by Hana Salah.
Dr Manggala Pasca Wardhana, Indonesia
Dr Manggala Pasca Wardhana, 36, is an obstetrician-gynaecologist at Dr Soetomo Hospital in Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya.
“I myself am a COVID-19 survivor. I contracted it while doing a Caesarean section in a case of pregnancy with a complex problem – placenta accreta which was very risky to heavy bleeding – and unfortunately, this patient was also exposed to COVID-19. The operation went well, the mother and baby survived, but unfortunately, most of the members of the operation ended up testing positive for COVID-19.
“During this pandemic, working at the hospital every day is clearly worrying. [My] family is also very worried. At home, I use one room to self-isolate until I am absolutely sure that I am not infected, and I do this periodically every time I have exposure [to the virus] or I feel unwell. What worried me first is, of course, not myself, but my family. I am really scared this could infect my family.”
– Reporting by Randy Mulyanto.
Junior Doctor Ithra Ganijee, South Africa
Junior Doctor Ithra Ganijee was in the first year of her medical career when the pandemic hit. As South Africa’s first wave took hold, she was among the staff on the COVID-19 ward at New Somerset Hospital in Cape Town.
“As the first wave went on, I too got COVID-19, and while my symptoms were mild, having to isolate was incredibly difficult. A few months on the numbers began to settle and there was this feeling of calm. Soon we began to see cases rise and towards the end of 2020 the second wave arrived. Though this time the hospital was better prepared, there is no denying that the healthcare system across the country was under immense strain and by extension so were front-line healthcare workers.
“Above all, the rollout of the vaccine has provided us with something we’ve been without for a while; hope, in what has been a dread-filled year. Many health workers I know have been inoculated and this feels like such an achievement, now we are keeping our fingers crossed that things go to plan, meaning that relief is in sight.”
– Reporting by Samira Sawlani.
Dr Maurocrop Daguino Ayala, Bolivia
When Dr Maurocrop Daguino Ayala arrives at the coronavirus emergency room in Municipal Plan Hospital 300, one of the main COVID-19 hospitals in Santa Cruz, he not only has to deal with critical patients but has to do so with limited medical supplies.
“In my clinic, we have had to make do with little biosafety equipment. Bolivians are very creative people so we have been using facial masks made from different materials which are either bought or manufactured, but we are still undisciplined with anti-coronavirus measures.
“My working day has changed a great deal during the pandemic, as we have to be more attentive in what we are diagnosing and obviously at this moment we are always looking out for suspect COVID-19 symptoms. Psychologically it’s been hard. Every day, when I get home exhausted, I log onto Facebook praying that I do not encounter a colleague who has died from the virus or a family holding their breath while their loved ones are in the intensive care units.”
– Reporting by Charlotte Peet.
Nurse Victoria Neville, United Kingdom
Victoria Neville, 34, is an intensive care nurse at a hospital in Cheshire, northern England. Neville says that front-line staff at the hospital are struggling to cope with the trauma of the past year and suffering from burnout.
“Staff are physically and mentally drained. They are off sick with burnout and are using counselling services because it’s a repetitive trauma [working on the front line]. Every shift you go in, there’s a traumatic event. Every shift, there’s a death that you can’t explain in normal terms. On a daily basis, I have to say sorry to multiple relatives for something that actually is out of my control. That has a constant impact on you.
“Looking back, it has been the worst year of my life; I’m exhausted. It has made me consider whether I want to be a nurse, and think about whether I am good enough, at times, to do this. It has just been relentless, and it has taken its toll on even the strongest of people.”
– Reporting by David Child.
Dr Muhaymin Abdel Reda, Iraq
Dr Muhaymin Abdel Reda works in the emergency department of Baghdad’s Shaikh Zayed Hospital.
“One by one, doctors and nurses fell ill with the virus. I was one of them. I quarantined at home and treated myself with painkillers to cope with the fever and pain. After about two weeks, I was able to return to work. I continued to feel weak for about a month, but I had to help others.
“During the peak weeks of the infection, we, as doctors, had no time to rest. Each of us was trying to help everyone that they could. Many of us isolated from our families to keep them safe as we worked around the clock. Although many people refused to believe that the virus was a real threat and many did not follow safety precautions, we still managed to overcome the worst of the coronavirus in Iraq. It has been an overall successful experience and things have nearly returned to normal here.”
– Reporting by Abdallah al-Salam.
Dr Rahim Khan Babar, Pakistan
Dr Rahim Khan Babar, 29, is a resident doctor at Quetta’s Civil Hospital, the largest government-run hospital in the city and one of the few places in the province of Balochistan that is equipped to deal with serious coronavirus cases.
“The second issue was that our lives with our families were really badly affected. Most doctors stopped going home, we stayed here at the hospital or the hostels all day. We slept in our ward duty rooms, or we would sleep together huddled in the apartments of other doctors. We knew that we would have been exposed together. I myself spent two and a half months sleeping away from home.
“We faced the maximum level of exposure – I would say more than 70 percent of the doctors here at my hospital tested coronavirus positive at some point. People who were infectious were forced to come to work in the wards wearing masks, because if they didn’t then there wouldn’t be any doctors left. There were very limited resources here [in the first few months] – there was a time when we didn’t have sanitiser, didn’t have masks. But we still worked through it.”
– Reporting by Asad Hashim.
Nurse, DR Congo
She has been in the profession for 14 years and is currently posted at a busy hospital in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa. She requested anonymity citing fears for her safety over stigma related to the coronavirus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“One difficult thing which is why I prefer to be anonymous is the stigma faced by some health workers because there are people who think that medical staff will be spreading the infection everywhere we go and so they avoid us.
“I am eager for the vaccine, however, it is now important to educate people about it because already I have met many people who say they will not take it because they are scared. This is largely down to misinformation spreading all over social media. As a healthcare worker having people trust you and the system is an important thing, we have seen the importance of building trust, educating and communicating with communities particularly through COVID-19 and the Ebola outbreaks in this country and the continent.”
– Reporting by Samira Sawlani.
Dr Vojtech Weiss, Czech Republic
Cardiologist Vojtech Weiss has been tending to COVID-19 patients at Prague’s Na Homolce Hospital since October 2020. Weiss explained that all 12 beds in his ward have been full with patients since mid-February, as the country’s infection rate soared to the world’s highest.
“There is also a lack of information going to the public: the fact that the government puts restrictions in place and proceeds to change them a day later is undermining the severity of the pandemic. I see many COVID patients but also my friends worry about their symptoms at times when the course of their illness is still under control. Many don’t understand at which stage they should seek medical help and what is still treatable at home. It seems like basic information is missing.
“I am also surprised at the lack of cooperation between hospitals. The Czech Republic has a public health care system, so I would expect hospitals to transfer patients when they reach their limits, but this type of communication is lacking.”
– Reporting by Anna Koslerova.
Dr Luis Omar Monarrez Luna, Mexico
Every day starts and ends in “the COVID room” for Luis Omar Monarrez Luna, 39, a doctor from the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.
“My speciality is rehabilitation medicine but all the specialists in the hospital have been converted into COVID doctors. I deal with emergency patients, supporting the emergency units to receive patients and give them the initial protocol treatment. There were moments when the emergency room was full and patients were still arriving. I had to deal with the relatives and explain to them that we can’t accept their relatives even though they needed it, on the verge of death. I knew that whatever explanation was going to be insufficient.
“As a medical professional, I can never show my fear or my sadness, but I felt a sense of impotence over how COVID is being managed in my country. I had to remain calm in order to handle the situation because people depend on this. But during these situations, I had fear and nervousness but I think the training that I have as a doctor would push us forward and give us this calmness, up to a certain degree.”
– Reporting by Jihan Abdalla.
Priyakant Sharma, India
Priyakant Sharma, 37, is a nursing officer at New Delhi’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital and a vaccine supervisor. As the pandemic worsened last year, he sent his wife and children to the family home in Rajasthan, some 320km (200 miles) from the national capital, and stayed behind.
“After six months, I couldn’t stay away from my family. I took a test and it was negative and I went home to see them. When I returned to New Delhi I got tested and it was positive. When my father got infected and was admitted to an ICU, it was the most painful moment for me. I felt guilty for his condition until he fully recovered.
“We can say that the situation is under control now. We have got vaccines now which is a good thing and I hope soon this disease is over and we will get back to normal.”
– Reporting by Bilal Kuchay.
Dr Haydar Can Dokuyan, Turkey
Dr Haydar Can Dokuyan works at Dr Nafiz Korez Sincan State Hospital in Ankara. He is also on the board of the Ankara Medical Chamber.
“During the pandemic, physicians were financially supported with additional payments. However, there were huge inequalities in these additional payments and others, such as assistant physicians, cleaning staff and nurses, didn’t benefit from these additional payments. Overall, I don’t think medical staff are sufficiently supported.
“Since the start of the pandemic, there has been no transparency and, despite calls from Turkish Medical Association [TTB], the actual number of cases wasn’t fully disclosed, which pushed people to complacency. Meanwhile, the TTB and medical chambers were accused of being traitors. Our professional organisation, whose constitutional duty is to protect public health, wanted the epidemic to be managed scientifically and transparently from the very beginning.”
– Reporting by Andy Wilks.