100,000 Germans have already died from the corona pandemic, many of them in the intensive care units of hospitals.
But what exactly is going on behind the scenes?
Berlin / Munich - 100,000 dead - a number that causes shock in Germany.
This morning the Federal Republic crossed this sad threshold of deaths and in the next few days the events should not lose momentum.
The intensive care units in Germany work at their absolute limit, and at their own locations they have long been working beyond that.
Death is a constant companion of the nursing staff, painful farewells are on the agenda.
The Berlin intensive care nurse Ricardo Lange describes these scenarios in an interview with
Der Spiegel
.
Corona in Germany: "Infected people are younger than last year"
“I have to swallow when you say that.
It's an unbelievable mass, "replied Lange when he was informed that there are now 100,000 corona deaths in Germany.
Despite the high numbers, every single person is close to his heart, Lange continues, and he stuck to this philosophy even in the “high death phase” last year.
The black body bags are still there today, although the situation in Berlin currently seems to be under control.
Lange expects a “déjà vu” soon, the numbers will skyrocket again in the federal capital as well.
One thing will change compared to last year, predicts Lange:
"The infected are younger than last year."
The German vaccination behavior is decisive, there are also vaccinated people in the intensive care unit, but the unvaccinated are in the majority.
This fact makes him sad, according to Lange: "The infection or the severe course would have been avoidable." Nevertheless, he does not want to condemn any of his patients: "I leave that to the judges," emphasizes Lange firmly.
“I care for felons, rapists and traffic hooligans.
They are all human. ”He said he was not interested in the vaccination status of his patients during treatment, even if he was to find out about it in passing.
“If I were to neglect patients for this reason, I would be in the wrong job.
For me, people count, and only they. "
Corona in Germany: sad farewell to the dead
The dying process itself, as Lange describes it, takes place differently in each patient. He said goodbye to someone who was halfway healthy in the evening (“Have a nice evening, we'll see you tomorrow”), the next day the patient was dead. “And that's so often the case! This rapid deterioration, from a hundred to zero. ”A woman in her 40s had just got through the worst of her leukemia when she contracted the virus. The already weakened immune system of the patients could no longer fight.
In addition, there are still patients who are in the intensive care unit with their infection for a long time. “These are the patients with whom I develop a very close bond, because I am often their only caregiver, because the relatives are not allowed to be there too much,” explains Lange. Often, after long weeks of waiting, he still has to deliver tragic news to these relatives. At this point in time, many patients can no longer be recognized, adds Lange. “Because of organ failure, water accumulates in the body, sometimes even in the eyes. For some, the face swells beyond recognition. When lying on the prone, some of the skin is peeled off. Everything before death itself. "
After death in the intensive care unit, relatives are allowed to say goodbye.
“The farewell is distant, in full protective gear.
The mood is extremely depressed, patients often lie in twos in one room, ”explains Lange, who has seen so many quiet minutes.
“I might have to burst in, change hoses, give medication while the others are still sitting there mourning.” His answer, whether he has gotten used to dying, speaks volumes: “I never will.” You can only endure dying When you feel alive now and then, Lange says: "Do sport, get out with the dogs, meet people who have no idea what you are doing."
Nursing staff in the intensive care units: "We are not heard"
Working under the current conditions demands everything from Lange's staff, the pressure is huge, as he describes using the example of a colleague: When a patient's blood was drawn, it slipped in one line.
“The point here is not why, but this patient was required to be resuscitated tonight.
Because the colleague had slipped in the line, because she was tired, because she had a lot on her mind at the same time.
They didn't lose the patient, they brought him back.
But the colleague was done.
(...) Making a mistake can cost us a human life. "
I long for the beginning of the #Corona #Pandemic.
At that point in time, I still had the naive hope that something would change in the nursing care and that we could get the virus under control.
Pity
- Ricardo Lange (@ RicardoLange4) November 23, 2021
Lange no longer feels much of his former dream job.
"Today there is only bitterness, the realization: It is part of this job to betray one's own ideals." He himself does not want to be cultivated in the current system, he explains with great clarity.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, the federal government has justified the measures by not wanting to overload the health system, the intensive care units.
To date, however, this problem has not been addressed and hardly anything has happened on the wards themselves.
We tried: We are not heard. "
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Peter Kneffel
