«For my part, for all of you, there's a giant thank you! I am very grateful to all health professionals!». The words are from Dona M.'s daughter, a lady from Lours who has been hospitalized for a few days at the campaign hospital activated in Portimão Arena by the University Hospital Center of the Algarve (CHUA), to support Covid patients.
The daughter managed to talk to her mother through the communication system implemented in that campaign hospital and whose functioning depends on the help of a nurse, who is with the patients, and volunteers from the Municipal Civil Protection Service of Portimão, installed in a separate room from the hospital. CHUA Arena.
Communication uses the Wi-Fi signal in the Portimão Arena pavilion, available in all wards, and is done through WhatsApp, connecting a special tablet, which is in the nurse's hand, to the tablet, in the room where the volunteers are, and to the cell phones of family members.
Basically, it is a system of virtual visits, implemented using tablets and the collaboration of volunteers, who mediate calls between patients and their families and friends.
«I only failed here one day», says the volunteer to Filipe Bernardo, from the Fire and Civil Protection of Portimão. «Not failed! He couldn't be here one day, because he had other important things to do!”, replied Filipe.
“How many calls do we have today?”, asks the volunteer, settling into a chair in front of the tablet. "We have 17, but I think there are even some new people, who have joined today, who also want to talk to their family."
The volunteer fills her chest with air, lets the air out slowly, as if gaining courage, and says: "Then let's go!"
For almost an hour, calls to family members – sons, daughters, grandchildren, wives, godchildren, friends. Among patients admitted to the field hospital, who went live on January 10th, many are from outside the Algarve. They come from Odivelas, Vila Franca de Xira, Loures, that is, from the region of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo. As for the Algarve, there are people from Albufeira, Almancil, Lagos, Olhão and a single patient from Portimão. These are people affected by Covid-19, who need to be hospitalized, but not in Intensive Care Units, nor ventilated.
The volunteer first makes the call to Nurse Monique, who is in the wards with the patients and carries a special tablet with her. «This is a more robust equipment, with an integrated camera and microphone, intended to be used in situations of contamination, of high temperatures, it can even go to water», explains Filipe Bernardo to Sul Informação.
In addition to Filipe, the volunteer who intermediates the calls in this virtual visiting room is Isilda Gomes, president of the Portimão Chamber. With a mask on her face, reduced to one of the little squares on the family's tablet or cellphone, no one knows who it is, nor does she ever say who she is. That's not what matters there. What matters is getting the patients to talk and see their relatives and vice versa, in a virtual visit that can give them some more encouragement to overcome the disease.
On the afternoon of Monday, 18 January, there were almost four dozen Covid patients hospitalized at CHUA Arena, occupying about a third of the premises of the field hospital set up in Portimão, equipped with all the necessary conditions of comfort and assistance.
Despite the scarcity of human resources, which is what is most lacking in these times of acute pandemic crisis, at CHUA Arena there are, at all times, teams of health professionals that include doctors, nurses and assistants.
As of this Monday, these teams are being reinforced by Medicine and Nursing students from the University of Algarve. Because all the available professionals are few, the president of the Board of Directors of CHUA, Ana Castro, combines her management functions with those of a doctor, working at the Arena.
«Nurse Monique? Now let's go to Mr J., from B3», says volunteer Isilda. “This gentleman is a little unwell, but the relatives know, we've already talked to them, and they still want to see him,” explains the nurse. When his granddaughter appears on the screen, Mr J. barely moves, but his granddaughter calls him: “Grandfather? Grandmother?". Volunteer Isilda's eyes fill with tears. “There, thank you. See you tomorrow!"
Patients and families succeed each other. In the hospital's field rooms, nurse Monique, all protected with the equipment that makes her look like an astronaut, couldn't be the one to carry it on the tablet screen to make the calls. Hence the invaluable help of the volunteers in the separate room, who take care of this. The nurse carries the tablet, talks to the patients explaining what is going to happen, adjusts their clothes or hair so that they appear beautiful in the image, sometimes answers questions from family members, tries to give everyone encouragement.
The daughter of one of the elderly hospitalized at CHUA Arena begins to cry, as soon as her father appears in the picture. “Don't cry, he's fine here,” says volunteer Isilda. "Find the strength not to cry in front of him," adds the nurse. And there they can talk a little. "I'm tired of being here," says the father. “Look, I can't leave the house either, we're in confinement again”, replies the daughter.
Sometimes, when the connection is not very good and the words are barely audible, the images remain. Sick on one side, relatives on the other, exchange little kisses, sent with a wave of the hand, say goodbye to each other. There is a lump in my throat.
A patient, more animated, plays with her daughter and grandchildren: «This is a 5-star hotel, they take great care of us». Then he turns to the nurse and says: "It is necessary to laugh outside, even if the body is not ready to laugh".
This ritual has been taking place since the beginning of last week and takes place every afternoon, when a volunteer creates the technical conditions for family and friends of those admitted to CHUA Arena to have the possibility of making a virtual visit to the patient who is admitted to this hospital in campaign. Despite being geographically distant, they end up approaching virtually.
After an hour of calls, some of them failed because family members do not answer, the long list of contacts comes to an end. «Monique, thanks for today! We'll stay here and until tomorrow!», says Isilda Gomes, leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes for a brief moment.
"This is very gratifying, because this tightening of ties works as a powerful soul injection for the patient, who is very pleased to be able to be, even virtually, with his family", he comments. “But for me this is hard. I know what it's like to want to be close to a sick family member, who loves each other a lot, and not being able to…», he adds, his voice choked.
For those who think that politicians are always campaigning, in the case of Isilda Gomes, criticism cannot be applied to her. This Monday, January 18, of all the approximately 40 patients hospitalized at CHUA Arena, only one was a resident in the municipality of Portimão. It is not, therefore, for the votes that Isilda Gomes has taken, every day, more than an hour of her scarce time to be there, helping Covid patients and their families to maintain ties and hope.
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