"Within three days of arriving at the corona ward, I became a human patient," said Yochai Eldar, a Knesset employee who contracted the virus, in a post we bring in full.
Yochai Eldar, before she fell ill
Photo:
Courtesy of the photographer
Anyone who knows me knows that I do not like to post personal things.
This is how it is when you deal, among other things, with law and technology, with an emphasis on privacy, but sometimes it is impossible to remain indifferent and have to expose and share in order to save lives.
So in a nutshell - exactly two months ago I connected to the soul device in the Corona department at Rambam!
I am young (relatively), healthy, without so-called "background diseases".
I worked in the Knesset and was very careful not to get infected with Corona by using a mask, washing hands, alcohol, etc.
I went through the first wave with great success, even though I worked full time and even harder than usual because of our definition as a team of "vital workers" in an emergency.
When the second wave came and the economy opened up, more and more people came to the Knesset and were later discovered to be Corona patients (MKs, ministers, parliamentary advisers and workers).
On June 25, I celebrated my birthday with a small party with friends in the open air in Jerusalem.
In those weeks we worked around the clock on emergency legislation.
During Tuesday, June 30, I began to feel severe weakness.
The next day I did not go to work and insisted on getting a corona examination from the doctor.
The doctor did not want to give, as I was not exposed to a verified patient and did not have a fever, cough or shortness of breath.
After a long debate the doctor agreed to give a corona test.
Coordination with Clalit Health Services has revealed that there will be no choice and I will have to travel specifically north, to the parents' house, to perform the test there (yes, in 2020 it is not possible to be a clinic member in one district and do a corona test in another district, but digital apps and services abound).
The results came on Friday.
I discovered the thing I feared most - I was infected with corona.
After between Tuesday and Friday I started to raise a fever that reached 40 degrees without going down, I was referred to a hospital.
Luckily I insisted on going to Rambam Hospital and arrived at the Corona ward.
Within a day, shortness of breath began to develop, which got worse.
Three different oxygen machines, each more sophisticated and sophisticated than the other, did not help.
From that point on I no longer remember anything ... within three days of arriving at the hospital they had to put me to sleep and feminize me.
A young man, with no background illness, is ill with a disease that Prof. Les and his friends call "flu" - hospitalized in a human condition.
During the anesthesia and resuscitation I was given experimental drug treatment with a drug from the US. It later turned out that I took the last dose that was in the country. I could not get the second dose because the company that makes the drug is based in the US - and President Trump issued a presidential order banning the drug. .
Thanks to my amazing family, my lovely friends and lots and lots of good people - MKs, ministers and senior officials (led by my amazing boss and also the Speaker of the Knesset) - managed to get a limited number of additional doses of the drug that probably saved the lives and lives of other severe Corona patients in Israel .
After I got out of danger and regained consciousness I continued in the hospital treatment with an oxygen machine for a few more weeks, during which I was also completely nursing.
Discovering that you can not do any independent action so in mid-life when you are a healthy and working person is an indescribable trauma.
The realization that you now have to rely on people's kindness to even eat with a spoon - when it all happens in a secluded corona ward, to which no family member or relative can come to hold your hand, hug, stroke your head and say a good word - is unbearable.
Even today, exactly two months after I was connected to the respirator, I still have not regained consciousness and the rehabilitation process I am in is still going on.
I got my life back and I thank the Creator of the world every minute for that.
My life took a serious turn and suddenly things took on new proportions.
Do not think that corona is a "disease of the elderly".
True, the majority who suffer are our parents and grandparents who we very very much love and want to live and be with us, but there are also many young people who are in Corona in a difficult situation and suffer greatly but no one hears about them (well, in my case Daphne Liel wanted to post that I paralyzed the activity The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for a week and a half in the middle of the GSS Localization Law, and then everyone did polofahs, but we don't hear about the majority!). .
Corona is a new disease.
None of us can know in advance how his immune system will react to it, so do not take unnecessary risks!
Mask, social distance, alcohol and hand washing are the basis.
I do not know whether it is right to make a closure or a night curfew or to take other actions.
Each has advantages and disadvantages, but it is clear to me that the current situation in which over 3,000 patients are discovered every day cannot last long without the health system collapsing and as a result the economy, society and security will also be harmed.
Another path to full recovery awaits me, but I am very optimistic and cherish thousands of thanks to the Creator of the world, to my wonderful family who actually moved into the doctors' room outside the Corona ward, to dear friends who did not leave me and family for a moment, to the Knesset Legal Bureau staff. Rambam Intensive Care Unit, which is made up of righteous angels who made sure I received the best possible care.
Take care of your health!