The bird of the apocalypse
I called my mom worried, “I’m supposed to go to the hospital today after 2 pm; the same hospital where they bring patients with coronavirus.” She told me before this conversation I should go to the doctor in some private clinic and not even think about going to a public hospital. She explained that it would be more dangerous to go there even with my problem.
“You never know who is sick in the hospital or even has the virus”
Let me start the story from the beginning. When we went under the state of emergency in Bulgaria, I thought that the worst-case scenario is that something could break again in the flat. I had already problems with electricity and a sink. Little I knew that the lockdown would bring more adventures to my life. The first week of the lockdown my internet died. I was bored out of my mind with no internet and had to run to the university campus to catch Wi-Fi for online classes. For five days they have been fixing the problem but luckily they didn’t need to come to my apartment. Three days after, my washing machine broke down. It took workers a week to make it here. They looked funny. They had masks and gloves on; looked a bit like Teletubies. They were trying to keep a safe distance from me in an already small apartment. They had to go to the store twice to buy something. Whenever they would return to my apartment we would go through a fun procedure. I had to open the front door, run back to my sofa to keep my distance and observe the whole process from a distance.
I thought that I was done with the bad luck during coronavirus. I woke up a week later with ear pain. I was not sick. I did not go outside or travel anywhere (Bulgarian cities were already under the lockdown). What could have happened to my ear? I called my mom first of all crying on the phone how scared I was. She was confident that it was nothing serious, told me to get ear drops and wait a few more days to see. Two days later, I still had ear pain and it also evolved to shooting pain. The decision was made. I had to go to our university doctor for a checkup and a recommendation for a specialist to see. The whole process of going to a university doctor became a bit odd from March. Students who have stayed on campus are allowed to go for a checkup only after reaching out to our health center and confirming that they have no recent history of traveling and no COVID-19 symptoms. Outsiders (off-campus people like I am) have to follow the same rules but we would still have to wait in line with possibly infected people from the town who come to our health center. There is a special door for the outsiders and one for students. I was terrified of the idea that I have to sit in line with the other people. So, I waited outside. Luckily enough, it took about ten minutes to get to our doctor. He knew about my symptoms from the emails that I wrote to him. He called a few clinics but no one responded. The last option was a doctor at the hospital. That doctor immediately picked up the phone. My appointment was scheduled after 2 pm on Monday, April 13th.
It was me plus the other 20 people
The hospital is located 3 km away from my apartment. I didn’t want to take a taxi as it would be even riskier right now. Walking up the hill took me around 30 min and then I had to climb the stair to the fourth floor. Now, when I hear the word appointment I usually assume that it would a time slot specifically reserved for me and only for me. It was me plus the other 20 people. Everyone had a mask on but people didn’t keep the distance in the hospital. I felt like I was back in the Russian hospital with the huge lines there. Everyone looked tired as if they have been waiting for ages. I sat further away from the crowd of people and texted my mom. She was as shocked as I was. One hour passed, I was 12th in the line. One hour and a half passed, I was the 10th one. It felt like I will be stuck in the hospital until the late evening. Two hours passed, I was 7th in the line. It felt like people were taking ages now at the doctor’s office.
He was like a Fenix in his sanitized cage
And then, I saw him, the doctor. He was probably the only one working on that floor as there were no more people except us. He didn’t look like those doctors on TV screens now (‘Ghostbusters’ of our time). He had a gas mask on! I turned my phone on and texted my mom “our doctor is wearing a soviet gas mask”. It was not a big terrifying gas mask but a smaller version of it. Three hours in the line, I finally made it to the door. I was waiting to finally meet that ‘bird of apocalypse’ as my mom described the doctor. And there he was. He was wearing a pink bag over his whole body. It was probably a raincoat made out of really cheap plastic that you find in the 1$ store. He had protective glasses as scientists do during their experiment and a gas mask. He resembled a bird-like creature wearing a pink gown. He checked my ear, temperature, looked in my throat, and did a few weird manipulations with my ear. He put a small watch next to both of my ears one by one and asked if I could hear it (interesting technique). I have never seen that methodic before. His office looked like a mess. There were a bunch of instruments on the table. Paper towels and sanitizing products were everywhere; pandemic had its effect on him. He was like a Fenix in his sanitized cage. He gave me prescriptions and told me to come back if my symptoms continue. I hoped to stay away from the hospitals at least for now.
Going back home, I still had that picture of the doctor stuck in my head. At the beginning of the pandemic around 84 doctors resigned in Bulgaria as they were not prepared to face the virus. People were afraid to keep working in the healthcare system. My “bird of the apocalypse” was helping more than 20 people a day working a half-day shift. They always tell on the news about the shortage of protective equipment but you can see it only in the hospitals. That doctor was risking his life and health while using equipment that he had at hand. The gas mask and his protective clothing might have looked odd but they allowed him to do his job despite the pandemic.
He truly was that Fenix surrounded by the ashes of the failing healthcare system.
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Daria Biryukova is a student at American University in Bulgaria with a major in Journalism and Mass Communications and a minor in Mathematics. She believes that COVID-19 has not only changed our society but our moral characters as well.
