Spain's first responders rise to the challenge

Dr Cristina Fernandez stands in a residential Madrid stairway, both feet in a red plastic bag while a co-worker gingerly peels off her personal protective equipment, taking care to only touch the inside of her disposable overalls.

“The exterior could be contaminated,” explains Juan Carlos Lopez, an ambulance technician with Summa 112, the only first-responders’ unit to cover the whole Madrid region, where the coronavirus outbreak has raged.

Spain has reported more cases of the new coronavirus than anywhere but the US and its death toll of 21,282 is Europe’s second-highest after Italy. A strict lockdown has helped bring down the infection rate, though an average of 495 people died daily in the past week.

“There were very hard days, with many (patient) transfers,” said Santiago Albadalejos, an ambulance technician in the same unit. “But we were trained to withstand extreme situations.”

At the peak of the outbreak, Albadalejos’s team handled up to eight transfers a day, sometimes shuttling intubated patients between intensive care units, or moving elderly people whose nursing homes had become vectors for the infection.

For these specialised medics, minimising risk is paramount, meaning each transfer takes two to three hours.

“We deploy higher protection than others because the patients we handle present intense symptoms and are more contagious,” Albadalejos said. “Transfers are slow, and very meticulous.”

The teams work 24-hour shifts and rely on one another to stay safe, taping up seams between shoe covers and suits and disinfecting each other.

“When you get home, you think Yet another day. Mother of God’,” said Albadalejos. “But we’re getting better, and I ask people for precaution and patience.”

When fully suited, Dr Fernandez can only hear by orienting the bell of her stethoscope towards the sound, while double-layered gloves mean her co-workers struggle to feel for veins.

But, despite her eardrums hurting from the constant pressure of the stethoscope and her vision being impaired by a slipping face mask, falling hood and steamy visor, Dr Fernandez says PPE is the best way to avoid spreading the virus.

“It’s exhausting to breathe in your own air all day,” she said.

But a few hours earlier, when Spaniards applauded medical staff, Dr Fernandez joined in, saying that people staying home deserved as much recognition as herself and her colleagues.

“I clap for the children, who are behaving so well. I clap for the collaboration of all of us.” — Reuters