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"I've seen people fail to understand what is actually going on."
»Corona is very treacherous and unpredictable.
«
"I think that applause is not enough."
Fabian Fiechter lives in Lörrach, on the border with Switzerland and has two jobs.
He has been working in the intensive care unit at the University Hospital in neighboring Basel for more than 15 years - part-time, because the 40-year-old is a freelance photojournalist in his second job.
At some point during the first Corona wave, it occurred to him that he should combine the two.
Fabian Fiechter, intensive care specialist and photographer
»Every day there was somehow an interview with a chief physician who stood in front of a camera in front of the clinic and gave detailed information, but there were no pictures.
And then I was surprised at the pictures that existed in the German-language media, that they were often some agency pictures that showed the intensive care unit in such a vague way, but weren't really close. "
Fiechter asked the clinic management if he could take photos in the house outside of his working hours.
She finally agreed.
Fiechter's concern: to take photos in such a way that he conveys the most realistic possible picture of everyday hospital life in the corona pandemic.
Fabian Fiechter, intensive care
nurse »In the spring people looked at me strangely when I said: Hey, please keep your distance or put on a mask.
They then hear some numbers and then they say: Here comes a dangerous virus.
And the population is like this: Yes, but I can go to the cinema again now, right?
And I saw the opposite in the hospital.
So that's where my pictures come in.
I've experienced that people didn't understand what was actually going on.
During a normal flu season we always have patients with lung failure, but never in this amount. So I've never seen us half the ward, that 20 beds are only occupied for patients who are infected with the same virus. We often have patients who then suddenly get worse or have some additional complications that we did not expect. And then there is also the fact that colleagues somehow drop out, that they get sick. You can already feel that in the team that people are getting tired.
It is normal in an intensive care unit that there is a high workload, but then again and again it decreases and you also have a few quieter duties and can recover as a team, and then it increases again. And now it's actually always at the highest level for a very long time. "
Some of his pictures stay especially in the photographer's mind.
Fabian Fiechter, intensive care nurse
»First, the picture of a colleague who is on night duty putting her hand on the leg of a patient who is doing her rounds.
She examines the patient.
People's facial expressions are gone because they are wearing masks.
You can't tell if someone is smiling ... But for me, this picture simply shows this attention to people.
Another picture that touched me is a patient's wedding with us. He was already on our ward, I think for almost three months, and then married his partner with us. On the one hand this is a sad reason that this has to happen in the hospital, but on the other hand it is also a bit of a hopeful situation, of course, that it will somehow continue.
Fabian Fiechter also accompanies the patient with his camera during his time in rehab.
He has to work for months to get off the ventilator and get back on his feet.
Fabian Fiechter, intensive care nurse
»For me, the pictures simply show how hard someone has to struggle with these long-term effects and for how long.
And even today he still has to struggle every day. "
With his photos, Fiechter also wants to draw attention to the permanently difficult situation in nursing.
Fabian Fiechter, intensive care nurse
»I heard this topic of nursing emergency during my training, and that was 20 years ago.
And of course some things have been optimized.
But the basic problem that we have too few carers, too little recognition in this profession too, the pay, the working conditions are too bad.
And of course that now leads to a situation in this pandemic time that will then come to a head. "
Especially since there can be no question of the all-clear.
Especially with the much more contagious virus mutations.
Fabian Fiechter, intensive care nurse
“I also have great respect for the fact that this situation can also tip over, because up to now we can somehow handle it.
But if the number of infections increases massively, then patient care would also deteriorate and that in turn would mean that more people die from it. "
