The nurse italian Massimo Galeotti account of one of their close encounters with
ebola
The Triangle of death. This is how I have to describe this part of the world in
which the teams of doctors without Borders (MSF) are fighting day and night to
stop the Ebola epidemic. The story I would like to tell you begins and ends in
Gueckedou, a village in the interior of the Guinean forests, not far from the
border with Sierra Leone and Liberia. There the Ebola virus does not seem to
want to halt their advance and in our hospital campaign we have increasingly
difficult to find beds and space for all the cases presented to us. Deaths occur
on a daily basis: it is like a massacre that leaves a trail of victims drop by
drop. The day that we had fewer deaths we have four victims, but we have come to
lose up to seven people. The same day of my arrival to enter an entire family:
the father, the mother and her three daughters, 7, 10 and 13 years. The father
died a few hours. Geneva was terrified at the possibility that she was still the
same fate as her husband and their three beautiful girls will be orphaned. His
condition began to deteriorate suddenly. Started to bleed from the nose and then
the mouth until he could not endure more. I will never forget the screams of
horror of their three girls, traumatised by having to go through the horrible
experience of seeing his mother die in this way so cruel. The father had gone to
a funeral of a brother. At that time nobody knew that this man had died of
Ebola, so their families made the ceremony of preparing body without protection.
A person infected with Ebola virus in all the secretions of the body: the sweat,
tears, saliva, blood, feces, vomit, and even in the breast milk. And we have
already seen that it is precisely in the funerals where most easily spread the
disease, since all the people who come to the burial are touching the body of
the deceased. And in the case of this family, as well was as happened: not all
of them were at the funeral, but once back at home the father transmitted the
virus to his wife and daughters. Mary, the largest of the three sisters
impressed me immediately by your attitude and mature by the harsh glances that i
ran. It had been left alone to care for her two younger sisters and I spent
hours trying to give you something to drink and food. They were asked to make an
effort to get ahead, but for them the open mouth was already a real calvary. The
diarrhea began to manifest itself in the youngest sister and after a night of
agony at the end we are also was. Mary and Jetta, the other sister that still
reluctant, barricaded themselves in total silence. Not even looked at me when I
walked into the tent to see how they were. They refused to eat despite the fact
that Mary still had strength to do it. My colleagues and I entered by shifts in
the isolation unit to not leave them much time alone. The protective suit gives
a lot of heat and we cannot remain in the interior of the store for a long time.
However, we knew we had to make an effort to be with them. Mary and Jetta didn't
speak english, so when asked how they felt or if they wanted to eat or even
looked at me. We have found that it is precisely in the funerals where most
easily spread the disease to the next day Jetta fell asleep in a deep sleep,
from which she never more aroused. Sadness invaded all the team, our hearts were
broken in pieces and rabies accumulated before so much accumulated frustration
threatened to quit. The feeling of powerlessness is the one that you have the
skillet by the handle in this type of cases. Anger increases progressively and
you just want to shout to get it off their chests. Mary was still there,
seemingly indifferent to the death of his second sister, without looking at your
body. No longer crying. I wanted to embrace her and i approached her to do so,
but made a sudden movement and turned to another side. While my colleagues are
available to take the body of his sister, Mary remained with her gaze fixed on
the wall of the store. Did not move from that position for hours, and so i found
it at seven in the evening, when i went to bring him dinner. I put the dish in
front and asked him to make an effort. Tried to explain that eat and drink helps
the body fight the Ebola virus. But she did not move the head or a centimetre.
The next day, I found it lying on the floor. I Temi the worst, but i was only
asleep. The call. Note that he recognized my voice and she reacted as if he were
waiting one of my usual questions. Take your right hand and i argued and told
him that I was not going to give up, that would be there by his side until
proved a little of the food that had brought him. Remained without staring. And
then it was when I said to myself: "why don't you speak with her in italian? In
the fund is going to understand the same thing that if you speak in English. And
at the end of the day
