Vanesa Lopez
08/05/2020 - 16:53
- Clarín.com
- Society
"The pandemic does not justify abandonment ." " My dad was killed little by little." " He died from a system that turned him off, devastated him, and abandoned him . " With phrases as mobilizing as these, a letter that the daughter of the pianist and composer Manolo Juárez wrote in the media and on social networks.
The woman, called Mora Juárez, spread the text on Facebook to “make visible what is happening” with older adults who are undergoing a hospital stay amid the coronavirus pandemic. Because, of course, she is not the first or the only one to suffer this situation.
“It is true that my dad was sick (he had several previous illnesses), and his heart, which was already working at 25%, would sooner or later go out. When I took him to the clinic on June 25, he was walking, talking, and the day before he had been composing . On the trip he asked me if I liked eating pizza with him on Fridays ”, the story begins.
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"When he entered through the guard, nobody told me that he wasn't going to hug him until a month later . Nobody anticipated that when they went into hospital, the aforementioned pandemic protocol was put into operation , that so cruel that it did not allow us a kiss of farewell, or to explain the reason for their hospitalization, "continues Mora.
The musician was admitted on June 25 for a heart condition. Therefore, his daughter insists that "he was not hospitalized by Covid." He was in intermediate therapy for a week and, before surgery, the swab was performed. Just there, they detected coronavirus.
The point is that, according to Mora, even before they knew he had a coronavirus, they wouldn't let him see his dad . He explains that, as part of the "Covid protocol", family members were not allowed to enter the therapy room.
“I spoke, I spoke and I spoke. I asked to see him with protection, even before I knew he was already a carrier of the virus . I never understood why the coffee maker could enter (and beware that I have nothing against the coffee maker, because I love coffee). However, her family could not, she was handicapped . It would seem that the bug is carried only by family members ”, Mora writes.
He comments that the artist was “always” isolated from his relatives: “For a few days we couldn't even make phone contact with him . On some occasions, some nurses attended to us and told us -as if they were committing a crime-: " I am going to give your father the phone so that he can talk to them, he will do well, but don't tell anyone ..." .
In the last week, according to his daughter's account, Manolo Juárez was unable to communicate with his family for four days. After "so much insistence" they were able to see him a day before his departure, which was on July 25.
Manolo Juárez and his piano shared a long history of creation, interpretation and teaching, merging the academy and the popular (Juano Tesone)
"My father is no longer giving me back ... But gentlemen: We must demand a change that will lead us to the practice of humanized medicine ," concludes Mora.
She knows that she is not the only one. In the letter, he even comments on the cases of two personalities, such as the actor Marcelo Mazzarello - "his father also remained hospitalized in situations of extreme neglect" - and the journalist Fernanda Iglesias , "whose grandmother died without being able to have contact with her family."
Similar situations live the common of people in different parts of the country. And social networks are the space that many choose to do catharsis.
“I have my grandfather hospitalized literally dying and my dad can't fire him for all this shit we're living through. You literally can't see it anymore . They do not know the anguish that we are living at home ”, Miguel published on Twitter.
“My 90-year-old mom was hospitalized. You can not visit, or see, or anything . You have to wait at home to give the part by phone. It is necessary? It is an immense anguish to be so far away and unable to do anything. Unfair protocols, ”Patty wrote on the same social network, clarifying that her mother does not have coronavirus, but was hospitalized for a fracture .
Consulted by Clarín , Dr. José Ricardo Jauregui, president-elect of the International Association of Geriatrics and Gerontology, explains that visits to the elderly hospitalized with various diseases are not allowed "for the same reason as patients with Covid: because the places of health are the centers where there is more risk of contagion ”.
From the human point of view, companionship in older adults (APD) is extremely important.
"The reference Covid Protocol is from the National Ministry of Health, which is taken into account in all hospitals and sanitariums in the country. Each health center adapts it and makes its own decisions . In the case of the City of Buenos Aires, there is a protocol from the Government of CABA ”, Jauregui details.
The expert acknowledges that, from a human point of view, "company is extremely important in older adults", but he also mentions that " the issue is infectious and epidemiological risk ".
When asked how both needs can coexist -that of protecting the adult against the pandemic and that of giving him the affection he needs- Jauregui answers that "it is a difficult question."
Cecilia Jaschek (right), director of the Rossi Hospital in La Plata, with Santiago Primerano (center) and María de los Ángeles Mori, from the Palliative Care Service of the hospital (Martín Bonetto).
"If the institution has separate areas, with separate staff, and with adequate protection measures, what could be called 'protected visits' could be done , which in principle are done through screens or devices that mark isolation between the patient and the family ”, he explains.
The gerontologist - who is also the medical director of We Care - details that the "protected visits" have already been made in some geriatric institutions and that the PAMI is working on a protocol in this regard, which is not yet in force.
A protocol for coronavirus patients with serious pre-existing diseases is already working at Rodolfo Rossi Interzonal Acute Hospital. " It is not the same to die alone than accompanied ; it does not matter whether you can say goodbye to a loved one or not," its director, Cecilia Jaschek , told Clarín .
The initiative - of which there is no known history in the country - allows patients who have a pre-existing, serious and advanced condition, who are being cared for by the Palliative Care Service of the hospital and who have contracted covid-19 —or is created who may suffer from this disease, may be accompanied by a family member during their hospitalization .
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