In the corona ward in Ziv, the exhausted team is also trying to survive: “Patients are collapsing at once”

The corona wards in Ziv were established on the underground floors of the Child Health Center. The intensive care unit is located on the floor of the auditorium on the 2nd floor. Festive ceremonies were held there in the past, scholarships were awarded and films were awarded. Today the chairs are folded and attached to the wall. The festive suits and the sounds of the orchestra were replaced by the white protective suits and the sounds of the monitors and respirators.

“I received an order 8 so I’m here,” said the department’s director, Dr. Alexander Isaacson, between intubation (inserting an oxygen tube into the trachea for respiration) and inserting a “line” (central infusion). “This is a very intensive unit, with lots of critically ill patients. . There are currently eight patients here, seven of them respirators and eight on the verge of resuscitation that we may very well have to intubate at any given moment. All eight meet the definition of a patient in a critical condition, “he explained.

“What characterizes the work in Corona Intensive Care, and with Corona patients in general, is that it is a very intensive, very strenuous work. Very charged. The condition of these corona patients is very dynamic. It changes, and when it gets worse unfortunately, it happens fast. It can be stable and then patients courses at once, “He explained.

Since the opening of the corona wards at the hospital, in March 2020, 632 corona patients have been treated there. 76 of them – 12% – died. During a visit made this week by the Ynet team to the corona wards in Ziv, there were only a few patients that could be talked to. The majority were connected to such and other means of oxygen supply, and many others were unconscious.

One of the patients who managed to recover is Herzl Matuk, 56, from Safed. He was initially hospitalized in a regular outbreak ward, and was later transferred to intensive care, until he was able to recover with the help of large amounts of oxygen.

“I was very strict about the rules, but I probably got stuck on the commute to work,” he said. “I felt unwell at home, I did a test and was told ‘you are verified patient, corona patient’. At first I was in an isolated room at home. The fever started to rise, and suddenly, on Saturday night, I started coughing. I started to be a little blue. My wife invited me to MDA , And brought me down here, to the Corona ward.

“Feeling pain, there is pain in the legs, legs are caught, weakness in the body, abnormal cough, fever rises and does not go down, only by pills and medication. I have been hospitalized for two weeks, being treated, now thank God I feel better. But it is very difficult. This is not a normal flu I would say, this is a murderous flu, which takes over the lungs and trachea and it is the most dangerous.

“At first I had no hope of getting out of it at all. Who would have believed, only the Blessed One took us out of it. I did not believe I would return home at all. I had a very bad feeling, very hard, and my stature (blood oxygen level – AR) also went down To 80%. I did not have oxygen in my blood, I did not have oxygen and health, so that’s the story.

A copy overflows with praise for the medical staff and care he has received. “The medical staff is wonderful,” he said.They do holy work day and night. They work 12 hours a day, without letting go, and take care of every sick patient. I have no words“.

A copy is supposed to be released to his home in the near future, but before he gets home it is necessary to install an oxygen generator in his house, so that he can continue to receive assistance with oxygen and respiration. Ha said he did not believe the disease would reach him. “We kept to ourselves. We put on masks, we kept to the rules. I didn’t think I would get it, but in the end it came to me.”

One of the doctors who treated him was Dr. Yassin Adi, from the Araba settlement in the Western Galilee. He has been working in the corona wards since the beginning of the epidemic, in March 2020. “Herzl is one of the patients who arrived in a really difficult situation. He had severe pneumonia in both lungs. It was supported by ordinary oxygen but could not withstand and maintain storylines. He was transferred from a regular ward to a ward where he could be helped to receive oxygen at a higher level, and he also received other treatments: mainly physiotherapy, steroid therapy and antiviral therapy. ”

Dr. Yassin added: “Slowly we started to overcome the severe inflammation in him. After a few days in high oxygen, we switched it to normal oxygen. It maintains clinical, respiratory stability, and is now with minimal oxygen support. ”According to the doctor,“ It makes us happy to see results. Both he and some of the patients who come out of it, and we were able to stabilize them in time. “

As someone who has been at the forefront of the epidemic fight since its inception, Dr. Yassin has a perspective on the intensity of the third wave. “We feel the difference. It’s a more aggressive wave and numbers are catching on the rise. We guide people who will work according to the guidelines of the Ministry of Health, but unfortunately there are those who do not obey the guidelines, and unfortunately see it in the results. “Now there are also more mutations, and that’s getting really dangerous.”

Nurse Sima Eliyahu Dror, in the Second Outbreak Department, says that the epidemic continues to create new difficulties not only for the patients but also for the medical staff – who reached the third wave when he was exhausted from months of coping. “There is a lot of motivation, but because a lot of time has passed the feeling of the team is that he is exhausted. It is not easy. Somehow one has to constantly raise the morale of the team and strengthen it. There are champion teams here. Simply teams that give of themselves, and then need to continue to function indoors with the families. It’s not easy, we have to try to survive the period like this. To believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel. “

According to Dror, the difficulty also affects life at home, at the end of the shift. “From here I move to shift B, at home with three children. My kids are pretty used to the fact that Mom is not there. Get used to conducting yourself, doing a wonderful fact. I have peace in this sector. “

On the situation in the department, she says it is a challenge. “Right now the patients are harder, they are younger and they are collapsing faster. It is definitely challenging. We are trying to survive and I hope it will not continue for a long time. We are starting to get a little tired. I hope we will see the effects of the vaccines soon.

“I hope people understand that in order to get out of this situation as quickly as possible they need to help us, because we are starting to get tired. There are people here who are close to a year in this story, it is not simple in any way, neither physically nor mentally, and people need to understand that they need help right now. “To cooperate with the guidelines of the Ministry of Health – so that we can get out of this situation as quickly as possible. We also have limits.”