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Protecting the elderly without sealing them off

2020-08-16T22:13:00.762Z


In the meantime, the visiting rules in nursing homes are a little more relaxed, but the risk of infection is growing. Experts are looking for solutions.


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Home resident Wünsch: feels "like in jail"

Photo: 

Sabine Höroldt / DER SPIEGEL

Perhaps everything has to do with the fact that Edelgard Wünsch has already experienced worse. There was the Berlin bombing night in 1945, during which she and her parents were buried in the basement of their house. The time after the war, when her mother got typhoid. Or the tuberculosis patient she saw coughing up blood as a nurse.

In any case, her fear of the corona virus is manageable, says the 89-year-old. She is only afraid that the state of emergency could return - and with it her despair of having to forego any contact.

On this July day, Wünsch treats herself to something that, strictly speaking, is still not legal - at least not if you live in a Bavarian nursing home: She is holding her niece's hand. Hugging each other, stroking the other's cheek, is a form of communication for them, just as important as speaking.

"We are both touchers," says Wünsch's niece Petra Hitzginger, who sits next to her on the care bed. "It's been like that forever."

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Source: spiegel

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