My family was very small, it’s just my parents and six siblings. My parents came from the European continent looking for a better life in South America since their country suffered from the economic consequences of the Second World War.
But they brought their genetic load that they passed on to all of their children. By that I mean that they, my parents and their parents, had certain diseases and they passed them on to us.
Four of my brothers got the pathologies of arterial hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, two of them have already died from that cause. Two brothers got respiratory diseases in the genetic lottery, although my younger brother won the respiratory disease of asthma, I won the chronic upper respiratory inflammations and I got cancer, but it has already been overcome.
So my brother got ready to clean a room in his house and vacuumed up how much dust was there: cement, soot, rust, mites and more. Shortly after, the respiratory distress began, immediately afterwards he developed bronchitis and in less than 24 hours he already has pneumonia.
He went to several hospitals to be treated for his severe dyspnea. He tells me that when he arrived at the emergency at the first hospital, they told him that they would not treat him because they are not prepared to treat COVID.
I understand as the doctor that I am that our hospitals have none or even minimal protection to face the COVID. The emergency care personnel only have as protection a blue gown, gloves and a common face mask. I also understand that you should take care of positive patients, but how do they know which patient is positive or if, on the contrary, the patient is under an acute respiratory crisis? They can't detect it just by looking, no they can’t. We are doctors, not fortune tellers or gods and this just reminds me about how many people are rejected in emergencies on the assumption that every dyspnea patient is COVID-positive until proven otherwise.
After going to another patient care center, they suggested that he go home because there in that health center only COVID-positive patients were hospitalized and my brother would be infected because he was only a carrier of asthma or severe dyspnea.
Do you realize what I just wrote? Where they were able to treat him they did not do so because they diagnosed him as a COVID patient just by seeing him arrive and in the other health center did not hospitalize him because they only have confirmed cases of COVID there.
This happens because we are a country of appearances. In other words, the authorities responsible for maintaining adequate health care conditions are not doing well. That’s why our sick and healthy population is left to its own devices and health care personnel must make the decision to deny care to patients in an attempt to prolong their own lives.
Continuing with my brother's adventure, he went home again, from there they called an internist who evaluated him and diagnosed him with pneumonia and according to the protocol he indicated medical treatment for COVID, since the protocol in our country is that every patient with respiratory distress should be treated as a positive patient for COVID until proven otherwise.
I arrived at his house just as the doctor was making the orders and of course I stayed to serve my brother as a general practitioner and nurse, it goes without saying that I have both titles, how lucky we are.
At night when I left him he had his oxygen connected and had received his doses of antibiotics and other medications.
So are the situations in life, all doors are never closed at once. What was so worrisome in the morning hours became calmer at night, after the administration of the medications and so the disease will continue its course for 5 days, then all of this will just be a bad experience and will also become one more anecdote to tell, thank God!
I’m saddened by patients with respiratory diseases who don’t have any resources, either material or human, and who have to go from one place to another looking for help and don’t get it. Although I also have the thought that doors don’t close completely and we just have to look with faith for the door that will open to solve our immediate health problem.
I hope your brother gets better.