These sad images show coronavirus patients on chairs instead of beds because there are enough available at a Brazilian hospital.
The worrying scene was recorded by Claudia Diogo Sobral in the Adao Pereira Nunes State Hospital in the Baixada Fluminense area of the southeastern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro.
In the video, patients can be heard coughing with three seen sitting in waiting chairs next to each other in front of another lying in a bed.
Sobral told local media: “I have tested positive for COVID-19. I have pneumonia and my lungs are taken over.
Credit: CEN/@regiane.sobral.31
“I could become intubated at any time and where’s the medication? There is none. It’s really difficult. I need to get out of here, I need commitment. I know that the health professionals here are working hard, there are a lot of sick people, but so what? What about me? I need to live, I want to live.”
Reports state a tomography showed that 50 percent of Sobral’s lungs had been compromised by the virus.
Her sister-in-law Regiane Sobral told reporters: “We managed to put her phone in her bag with hygiene things. In the morning, we received a message from her and, to our surprise, we found out that all the patients who are in serious condition were in seats.
“She was in despair, she hadn’t eaten yet, she hadn’t had any tests, she hadn’t received any medication and she was crying desperately.”
Reports state she had initially been taken to an emergency hospital in the town of Mesquita but they were told the facility was full and to instead go to the Adao Pereira Nunes State Hospital.
Her sister-in-law said the hospital her relative is in has a lack of doctors, with some being taken off the wards as they had also become sick.
The hospital said in a press statement that “it has expanded its capacity, creating specific areas for the care of patients suspected of having coronavirus and for training professionals”.
They added that a new ICU unit with 200 beds is expected to be ready this month.
Brazil has become the worst-hit country in Latin America by COVID-19, with 101,826 cases and 7,051 deaths according to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University.
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Story By: Alex Cope, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Central European News
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