Loneliness, frustration, uncertainty, desolation, terror, chaos, fear... His are the words that come to mind for the Toledo toilets of those days portrayed by 'In the silence of that pandemic', a book, edited by Ledoira, which was young, at 19.00:XNUMX p.m., he presented David Dylan García, a young Neurology resident doctor, who lived with his eyes and the astonishment of a newcomer to this profession those rare days, of hell and pain.
From the beginning of 2020, David Dylan began training to cover the MIR and rotated through various services. On March 2, in the Emergency Room, patients arrived from a group from a nearby municipality that had been at the Milan footwear fair, in Italy, where the virus was already rampant. And from there, to chaos. This is how the book begins, which is articulated by service structures. The first part focuses on how they saw themselves in Primary Care and how the wave began to reach the province of Toledo and saw patients "with cough, fever and non-specific symptoms that could be confused with a winter cold or with allergies ”, reminds ABC.
A few days later, on March 12, 2020, the newspapers woke up with the classification of a global coronavirus pandemic by the WHO and a strange normalcy was experienced at work, with worried faces among the doctors and with the virus hovering in the ambient. So came the lockdown. As soldiers in the war, they were recruited in Internal Medicine, ICU and ER. There they were, "confronting you have an unknown, invisible organism, with our human vulnerabilities, with our dedication, our bare hands and a phonendoscope to cling to." Days, weeks and months of uncertainty experienced by doctors, nurses, assistants, clerks and cleaning service personnel, who survived with a shortage of means, even with protective ski goggles. While the rest of the Toledans were discounting the days of confinement to return to the streets, they were fighting from the trenches, on the front line of the Covid battle. And they lived in fear of an unknown situation, with a killer virus of which much remains to be discovered. “In that moment of uncertainty, the wave overwhelmed us, it experienced fear not only for us, but also for our families. Many colleagues spent months to see their loved ones. I isolated myself in my apartment and I didn't go home, avoiding contagion to my family: others isolate themselves in their own house… ”, he recalled. They did not expect it, they were not prevented: “No one told us about the associated complications, the risk of superinfections, the possibility of pneumothorax in fibrous lungs, nor the psychological pain of each professional, nor of each destroyed family that this situation has caused. «.
They were also times of camaraderie between health workers, who wrapped themselves up and recommended volunteers to cover the casualties; and also of solidarity, of people who in their homes sewed masks for the toilets, created 3D screens and wrote maps to alleviate the loneliness of patients. Therefore, the benefits of the book will go to the Food Bank of Toledo, to return what was received to society.
As the first wave began to subside in May 2020, David Dylan decided he had to tell the tale. “I was left with a feeling that everything we had experienced had to be reflected somewhere because over time those feelings vanish. We had lived many experiences, many personal experiences, and I wanted them not to be forgotten. It seemed that the figure was going down, but behind each number there was a story, a family”.
The book dedicates one of its sections to the ICU, and to the difficult task of dismissing a bed from one patient for another; Mental Health is presented free of charge due to the work carried out by Marina Sánchez Revuelta, and Antonio Rincón Hurtado, a service that has been deeply affected by the consequences of this virus; Nursing, also key in this fight, has the testimony of Rosa Carreño and another chapter talks about the responsibility that fell on the MIR students, with the testimony of Lorena Suárez. Other sectors also have their place, led by the philologist María Agujetas Ortiz, such as the farmers of the towns of La Mancha who fumigated the streets with water and bleach. David will never be able to forget the patients and their families: “When they used to say that they could not see their relatives: they looked at you with immense sadness because they did not know if they would see them again and the gestures of pain could be sensed behind the masks «.
Do not forget
David Dylan wanted to be faithful to what he lived through, “neither sweeten it nor exaggerate it”. It is not a book of politics, conflict or confrontation; It talks about feelings and conciliation of professionals, health workers and families and is, above all, a vindication of the health system and a tribute "to those who risked their lives for us, so as not to forget them, so that their sacrifice is not in vain" . At the age of 28, he has written this book with the mind of a doctor, but with the heart of a lover of letters and the philosophy that from a young age led him to write stories, a blog and publish his first book, 'The Beginning of Victory ' with only 16 years, a novel of struggle also against destiny and misfortunes. With 'The silence of that pandemic' he wants to pay a debt, so that the voices and stories of those days are not silenced "because after the storm, we will not be the same again, as Murakami says." This Thursday, in the presentation, which the mayor of Toledo, Milagros Tolón, will resist, she will be surrounded by many of those who lived through those dark and uncertain days and this book will make them not forget.
Video. David Dylan H. FRIAR
