Disheartening

by: Rowena Joy Flores

Fear is replacing the urgency to care for patients in the hospitals, and it is really disheartening.

Last December 15, my father was supposed to drive a lady to her destination in his red tricycle when they passed a man who was having a seizure. According to my father’s words, the man was shaking hard and blood was sputtering from his mouth in huge volumes. The lady passenger asked my father to stop the tricycle, got out, and told my father to prioritize the man who needs help.

My father rushed the man, who was being supported by two companions, into the local hospital. In my father’s eyes, the man needed immediate care and attention. However, when they arrived at the hospital they were put at a distance. The nurses merely glanced, asked “Kuya anong nangyari diyan? (Kuya, what happened to him?)” like curious gossips, but never bothered to take the man away from the tricycle into the hospital.

My father said this went on for about 15 minutes. Nobody from the hospital wanted to go near the man who was having a violent seizure until my father finally snapped and yelled “MAY EPILEPSY IYAN! HINDI IYAN COVID! P*****-**A! (THIS MAN HAS EPILEPSY! IT IS NOT COVID! S** ** * ****H!” Only then did the medics respond, and ushered the man into the hospital.

Apparently my father went back for the lady passenger who was going to a destination that would pass the hospital. He came back to the hospital with the lady to make sure the medics were attending to the man well, but they were disappointed to learn that the medics merely let the man sit on the chairs inside. The man was still not given medical attention. My father did not charge the man nor the man’s companions for the tricycle fee.

My father was very agitated when he was telling me and my sisters that story. He used that story to remind us to take care of our health. He fears that our constant staying up all night would result in something severe that we had to be taken to the hospital. His words to us were “Mahirap nang magkasakit ngayon. Tingin ng mga taga-ospital lahat ng pumupunta doon may COVID. (It is hard to get sick these days. The workers in the hospital always suspect those who enter the hospital have COVID.)”

Of course I understand why the medics, as the frontliners fighting against COVID, would be hesitant or scared to approach patients. But what is the point of working in a hospital if they’re just going to delay help for every patient who comes to get treated?

Time is very important to treatment. At the height of the spread of COVID, many reports about hospitals not admitting patients surfaced in newspapers, TV news programs, radio stations, and even on the internet. That time, there were patients who died because of delayed or lack of medical attention. Many of those patients were not even infected by COVID.

I talked to my friends about the matter. Two of them told me about the experience of their friend and grandfather who were both rejected and referred to different hospitals many times. One of them said her friend needed immediate surgery because of water-filled lungs. On the other hand, my other friend’s grandfather died on the way to another hospital.

One would think that after nine months of living under the pandemic, most people would at least learn to cope with fear. I assumed frontliners would adjust to the situation professionally too. I know that it is hard and scary, because they are the first ones at risk of contracting the virus, but how will the miasma of fear and panic be dispelled from the general population if the frontliners make patients and their families feel as if they are not going be heeded when they ask for help.

Do people need to feel rejected just because they went to the hospital in the middle of the pandemic? Why is suspicion prioritized over the urgency to help? Are we, the general public including the frontliners, supposed to make sick or injured people feel shunned and abandoned just because we are wary that they contacted COVID? When medical practitioners are the first to show hesitation towards a person in need of treatment, they create an atmosphere of distrust and isolation. Even if a person does have COVID, they should not be subjected to blatant wariness as if they are the virus itself. They are going to be isolated physically, why isolate them further emotionally?

Skeptical medics should realize that patients are just as afraid as they are. I am sure it is hard for some people to even muster the courage to go to the hospital. This reminds me of a quote I read from Filipino Economist Professor Bernie Villegas, “The epidemic of fear is worse than the virus itself.”

I hope that medical practitioners would also help eliminate the epidemic of fear, not just the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people, myself included, trust medical practitioners. I sure hope that my trust will not be returned with repulsion.

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