Although the numbers of Coronavirus infection are still on the rise, the number of recoveries continues to rise as well. Many of the infected people recover after several weeks to return to a healthy life and lead a normal life as before, but most of those who were infected with Covid-19 say that the pre-infection is not the same after it!
Ossama. U (a pseudonym), a young Syrian man who came to Germany four years ago, settled in Berlin, and has been working for 3 years as an employee in a hotel, as a specialist in the field of automation and computer engineering. Osama is one of those who lived through infection with the Coronavirus, and he recovered later after he remained in quarantine for several weeks .. He says that it was a harsh experience, but he was stronger than her, and he overcame it with isolation and patience .. We met Osama, who told us how he was infected, and how he recovered later From the emerging corona virus ..
I will not forget the day of my injury!
Osama says: “The story started on March 11th, during a normal workday, and I did not expect what happened to happen. On that day that I remember well, a hotel guest asked to fix a problem with his room’s internet connection, and asked for help to solve a problem with his cell phone. The guest does not speak German or English, but only Russian. And since I speak Russian, I was sent to help him and solve the problem. When I got to his room and found him sitting with his wife and son, and he was looking tired or sick, I tried to stay away from him as much as possible, but I had to take his cell device in order to solve his internet problem, after I fixed the malfunction; I got out of the room and sterilized and washed my hands, and upon his request an ambulance doctor was brought for him. When the doctor came, I entered with him to help with the translation, and I stayed with them in the room for about 15 minutes during the examination. After examining the patient, he was transferred to the hospital for the necessary checks for him!
A positive test for the hotel guest's checks.
Osama continues: The day after the incident, the human resources department at the hotel called me and asked me if I had actually entered the patient’s room, and I told them that I had already visited the inmate in his room. Because of the questions that I was not used to during my work. After I answered their questions, they asked me to come back immediately. I used the hotel stairs and went down to them so as not to meet any of my colleagues because I felt the situation was dangerous. I arrived at the Personnel Office and they told me the shocking news: “The inmate who went to provide technical service to him yesterday, was admitted directly to the hospital, and the tests that were conducted for him showed that he was infected with the Coronavirus. Here was the biggest shock ... I never expected that the man would actually be infected with the Coronavirus, because the symptoms that appeared on him during my visit to him were mild and somewhat similar to the regular flu! Here questions started spinning in my head and I immediately asked myself:
I don't think anything but the worst ..
Based on confirmation of the inmate's injury; The hotel management asked me to go to my house and quarantine myself because it is possible that I had been infected, and when the hotel administration contacted the Health Bureau to find out the possible procedures, they replied that I was likely to be infected, but they placed me in the second place of the three classifications of infection with the virus, And they asked me to fill out a form related to my condition and send it to them, which means that I will not be tested for Corona unless there are clear symptoms of the infection. I refused the administration’s request to go home, fearing that I was already infected and transmitting the infection to my wife and children. Based on my rejection, they offered me to stay in a secluded room in the hotel, and to isolate myself in it until it became clear of my health. I called my wife and told her what had happened, it was a very painful and traumatic conversation for her. I told her that I would stay outside so that she and my children would not get infected, but she reminded me that I had spent a night at home after meeting the patient, and that if I was infected, it was possible that I had already infected them. My wife added, that the problem will be greater if you stay away from them in the event of an emergency with me or with one of my family members, because we are strangers here, and we do not have a breadwinner or relative to help us. At the end of the conversation the decision was to go home because there was no other suitable solution! I left the hotel in a very bad psychological state, and frankly, my life suddenly became black. I was no longer thinking of anything but the worst and two things only, will I die soon? What will happen to my wife and children? I left the hotel in a very bad psychological state, and frankly, my life suddenly became black. I was no longer thinking of anything but the worst and two things only, will I die soon? What will happen to my wife and children? I left the hotel in a very bad psychological state, and frankly, my life suddenly became black. I was no longer thinking of anything but the worst and two things only, will I die soon? What will happen to my wife and children?
My family and will ..
I took the train to my house, on the way I called a dear friend of mine, residing in Hamburg, and told him what happened to me, I did not think much about what would happen next, so my first request was that he bury me in the Islamic way in the event that God decides that I will die because of Corona, and that I am not I want my body cremated. I also told him how he could communicate with my father and mother who are residing in my home country to inform them of what happened, and I recommended him to my family, which will become lonely if something bad happens to me. I did not notice that the conversation was audible to the people around me, except when I saw that some Arabs who understood my words were trying to get away from me! I ended contact with my friend and started to think about a lot of things to do, here a long strip passed in my mind about that fateful day that I met that guest, and I began to remember the following events of leaving the hotel. My God .. what have you done? I met some friends and greeted them, were they injured? My pain increased even more due to my fear that I might have hurt them.
For the first time I will not embrace my children ..
I arrived at my home, and I lived through the most difficult moments of my life when I entered it, it was the first time that I entered the house without hugging my children as every day. My wife prepared everything for me before I arrived; To shower, change my clothes and sterilize myself. She stood away from me and hid tears of sadness and feelings of fear in front of me, it was a more difficult situation than death itself. My wife and I suffered a lot before arriving in Germany, starting from fleeing Syria, arriving in Ukraine, my wife's birthplace, until we finally settled in Germany. Only during the last four years we spent here did we feel secure and stable. But Corona completed our misfortunes and dispelled our dreams, and our eyes stood confused, and silence reigned during the moments of my entry into the house as if it were the last farewell!
No response to the hotline.
With the beginning of feeling infected, I started calling the hotline for Corona patients, and I repeated the call several times a day, but to no avail, the high pressure on the line prevented the communication from succeeding, so I sent them an e-mail message and explained to them what happened to me in detail. The response came by the necessity to stay at home with the family for two whole weeks, and to write to the health office in my area if the symptoms persist or there is a feeling of danger. On that day, I had mild symptoms of infection that lasted for four days, but on the fifth day things started to change, I started feeling pain in my throat and then started a severe and dry cough, this was the first time in my life that I coughed in such a severe way, and that was the worst thing It happened with me during my injury. I felt a big wound in my chest, so I bought some medical materials on the Internet, including a respirator, a spray machine and small oxygen cans as a kind of safety.
I recovered and my children were injured.
After the severe coughing and airway pain began, I knew I had already gotten infected, and that things might get worse. So I closed my room, completely isolated myself, and began to wait for the most difficult stages of infection. On the fifth day, I went to sleep at night and fell into a deep sleep. I suddenly woke up after midnight, and found my clothes and bedding completely soaked with sweat, and here the feeling had changed and I felt better. The next day the severe cough stopped, but the chest pain and shortness of breath remained the same for several more days. Unfortunately here the effects of the disease began to appear on my children, but my wife did not become infected, thank God. After the symptoms appeared on the children, I took them directly to the doctor who examined them remotely, wrote them a fever reducer, and then asked to return and care for them at home. My older child had symptoms and a high temperature for five days, and the most difficult condition for him was difficulty breathing, especially at night.
We used electronic circuit cleaners for sterilization.
I did not go out of the house during my injury, but my wife, who was asked by her management at work to quarantine herself with me after they learned of my injury, was the one who went out to secure household necessities. As for me, I began to go out after a similar recovery, but unfortunately, without masks and hand protectors, because we did not find them in the market at all. I went to villages more than 60 km from Berlin to search for sterilizers, but to no avail, and because of my work in computer maintenance, I had an alcohol substance that I used to clean electronic circuits, and this is the only alcoholic substance that was in the house, so we had to use it as a sterilizer.
The Corona crisis caused a loss of my business.
The hotel management contacted me later to reassure about my health and they told me that the person who transmitted the infection to me was in a critical situation and that his wife and son had been tested and the results were positive, unfortunately, they were all infected with the Coronavirus. The inmate was kept in the intensive care unit of the hospital, and I had no further news about him. After that, the management asked me to send them the keys to the business office at the hotel, and they transferred me to the "Kurzarbeit" abbreviated working hours system, and they sent me official papers proving that I stayed at work until next October only. Now I will have to register with the labor office, and this means that the Corona crisis was a reason for the loss of my job, given that I am an employee and I have not received any aid from the state since the first year of my arrival in Germany.
Fear of infecting others took hold of me.
We are the only refugee family in this country, it was a positive thing during this crisis, because we were able to close the door of our house and quarantine ourselves without receiving anyone. I am completely sure that if my parents were here, they would have come to visit me without paying attention to the extent of the risk of contracting the virus to their health, especially since they are sick and old. In fact, I was not afraid of contracting the Coronavirus as much as I feared that it would be a cause of transmission to others and cause the death of one of them. The reason for this feeling; Is that the media and the volume of news received about the continuous increase in the number of infections with the Coronavirus, gave me this feeling and affected me negatively because of the widespread idea that it might cause death in the event of infection.
Corona pros!
Before I got infected, my life was limited to working permanently, and this prevented me from using social media and knowing what was going on around me! Now I sit with my wife and children for longer periods, reading, educating myself, browsing media platforms, and following many things that I have never seen on YouTube. The positives that have affected my personal life as well that I prefer to keep only for myself.
Stay at home ..
Osama Hadithah concludes to us by saying: Canceling social activities and staying at home is the most important thing at this stage in order to protect ourselves and protect others, especially families! We must also adapt to the new laws issued by the government and adhere to them, because they are for everyone's benefit. Truthfully, we live in a country that respects its citizens, and it is better than many other countries, especially in the field of health. If we compare our situation now with the conditions of people in our country, we will find that we are living in a much better condition in terms of social security and the availability of basic materials and needs, and there is no room for comparison at all. Do you know that the phrase "stay at home" is considered "catastrophic" for the lives of people in our Arab countries? Yes, I say catastrophic because the first question someone who asks him to stay at home will ask him is: Who will feed my children? The curfew in our country is very bitter for many, and infection is worse and more important. Simply life after ten years of war can only be described by the proverb: "Above death is a stick of grave."
nice story