“Working under COVID brought back memories of my first experience as a nurse in Peru. I was 15 and I was thrown into a hospital at the height of the HIV epidemic. We had no equipment to treat the hundreds of patients coming in and had no idea how to treat them. They just died like flies in front of us.”
When COVID began, the lack of PPE provision was distressing, Yoshi continues. “Our staff and doctors were dying. Our porter, who’d been working with me in the hospital for 20 years, died within a week. He should have had a mask and gloves when dealing with the patients because he was given no protective equipment.”
“I was petrified. When I entered the doors of the hospital, my stomache would begin churning and panic gripped my body, just like when you experience turbulence on a plane, and you think you are going to die. I would feel like that every day”
“But it was the camaderie among my colleagues that kept me going. Only we understood each other and what we were going through. We couldn’t tell our families. I couldn’t tell my children when I got home that I had just held my patient’s hand as he died.”
“But of all the terrible things I witnessed I think the most distressing was the fact that patients died because we didn’t have enough Oxygen. I’ve worked in that hospital so long I know every corner. I would run to every corner looking for Oxygen to save someone’s life. I would finish my shifts and my scrubs would be drenched. My watch would show 30,000 steps, all from running in the desperate search for oxygen. In the morning, if the patient I was trying to find Oxygen for was gone I didn’t want to ask what had happened to him. I knew. You feel so helpless and angry, because I knew I did everything I could but the supplies weren’t there.”
I absolutely love my job. But I don’t feel appreciated. The clapping was great. But people aren't taking it seriously now. We have people coiming in drunk from partying, as if bothing was going on.The government doesn't care either. We aren’t invested in. They know we will keep on doing what we do. But I don’t know if I want to go back for the second wave. I feel people are just careless now and they don’t think about the consequences.”
Watch Yoshi's story in full as part of Fuerza London - a free online concert and documentary of film, dance, poetry and music to share and recognise our suffering, loss, resilience…and our contribution to the COVID response.
