Pandemic tough on Argentina’s already overworked care givers
Even before the new coronavirus hit, Argentina’s health care workers were struggling, most of them often working more than 12 hours a day at multiple jobs to make ends meet amid the country’s overheated inflation.
The pandemic has meant even tougher times on the job, providing medical care for the gravely ill and also giving what comfort they can to patients dying of COVID-19 while cut off by quarantine from saying goodbye to family and friends.
Some still go home at night to their families, after taking precautions. Others, fearing for loved ones, have moved into hotels. Some have sent their children to stay with relatives.
Andrea Cortes demonstrates how she embraces her husband amid the new coronavirus pandemic, while standing in their kitchen in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, July 13, 2020. "I have not seen my daughter for the past 4 months and it hurts, I don't kiss or hug my husband when I get home… and I wonder if I have done my job well so I don't carry the virus with me," says the 49-year-old nurse. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Andrea Cortes, a nurse, also goes home to be with her partner, Ariel, but they have not kissed or embraced in nearly four months. She hasn’t seen her 27-year-old daughter for nearly that long.
Cortes, who puts in an average of 17 hours a day at two hospitals in Buenos Aires, worries constantly about bringing the virus home.
“That fear and doubt make me hold this distance with the family until it’s all over because I love them and I have to take care of them,” she says.
Doctors, nurses and other health workers account for 7% of the more than 130,000 confirmed infections reported by Argentina’s government.
Juan José Comas tested positive for the coronavirus but never showed any symptoms while he was quarantined at the hospital where he began working as a volunteer when the pandemic began. He got his medical degree last year but still must do training before taking his resident’s examination, for which he has now gotten a crash course in treating patients.
Comas has been sharing a hotel room with three doctors he didn’t know since moving out of his parent’s home in April to protect them. “I went a couple of times to see them behind the gate,” he says.
It has been three months since nurse Marcela Brancati last saw her 9-year-old daughter, Agostina. She only gets to watch her daughter through photos sent on WhatsApp by her mother, who is caring for the girl.
“We’ve never been apart so long. It’s very difficult,” Brancati says. “Sometimes she calls me crying. She can’t stand it and she wants to go back (home).”
Marcela Brancati shows a picture of her 9-year old daughter Agostina, during her shift at the Ezeiza Hospital, southwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, July 16, 2020.
Marcela Brancati attends to a patient infected with the new coronavirus at the Ezeiza Hospital, southwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, July 16, 2020.
Marcela Brancati, a nurse, walks in the corridor of the Ezeiza Hospital, southwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, July 16, 2020. Brancati sent her 9-year-old daughter to live with relatives fearing that her daughter could become infected with COVID-19. She now lives alone and says it is very difficult, only leaving her house to go to work. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Dr. Juan Jose Comas visits a patient infected with COVID-19 at the Ezeiza Hospital, southwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, July 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Dr. Juan Jose Comas eats lunch in a hotel room he shares with three other doctors, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, July 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Gabriela Sian, a nurse, washes her face before going on her lunch break at the Hospital Britanico, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, July 22, 2020. Sian works in an area exclusively for COVID-19 patients which initially made her feel afraid and uncertain but since has adapted. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Gabriela Sian, a nurse, checks in on patients infected with COVID-19 via telephone at the Hospital Britanico, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, July 22, 2020. Sian says she is struck by the admiration she receives from people who are not healthcare workers. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Text from the AP news story, Pandemic tough on Argentina’s already overworked care givers, by Debora Rey
Photos by Natacha Pisarenko