Far removed from family, Kosovo couple fighting the Coronavirus

Infectian Lindita and child surgeon Murat Berisha have worked at the University Clinical Centre in Kosovo along the pandemic, so distanced from their children.

When the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Kosovo in March, the Murat and Lindita Berisha, both doctors, knew they would be at the forefront of the war of an unknown virus.

Couples of doctors on front lines and away from their kids.

Lindita, infection and child surgeon Murati have been working at the University Clinical Centre in Kosovo all the time of pandemic. Their fear was that they would take the virus to the hospital and infect their children, 14 and 20 years old. To eliminate this, they took the children away from home and did not see them for two and a half months.

I started to fear that if I took the infection I'd wear it home. And when the first cases began to be looked at, I stayed at work until 12 p.m. after midnight, I began to think that besides the possibility of carrying infection, there was also a lack of child care. So we decided to send them to my parents in Prizren, not to see them for two and a half months,” said Lindita.

It tells Radio Free Europe last days and nights at the Infectious Clinic during the pandemic, not even hiding the fear of this new, unknown virus.

In addition to her duty as infected she and her colleagues had to deal with the psychological side of patients who were afraid.

When suspicious coronavirus cases in Kosovo began to appear, any person who resulted negative was a great joy for each of us at the clinic. When our first positive case with COVID-19 was diagnosed, we knew that we would face diseases, such as many countries that had already been involved with infection. When the first cases started being hospital, we as doctors did not only the doctor's work but also the psychological side of patients, because they were very scared, but we as medical doctor”, she says.

She says that most patients with COVID-19 carried a sense of responsibility for infecting other people, saying that she characterized them as diseases different from those they have treated.

Lindev's husband, Murati, says that at the Kosovo University Clinical Clinic, he was only involved in emergency cases, and that no child who needed surgery fortunately has been infected with coronary.

He says it has been very difficult to leave his children for two and a half months.

The “has been an unpleasant situation, since everything was limited. It has been especially difficult for children. They have often sought to come home, despite telling them of the danger about pandemic, he said.

The doctor, Murati, says that he has not kept extended hours like his wife, so he began preparing food for the woman who spent long hours in the Infectious Clinic. And what I've never done before is preparing food. I have committed it, since Lindita has been more busy with work and longer hours than I have, he says.

One of the most difficult times, says the doctor, was when young people began to put them into oxygen therapy. She felt great fear among the doctors at the time.

And if we had information that the elderly had the worst progression, the opposite happened, and we didn't know what was going on with the disease. One day that counts is the first death in the clinic. We were very upset and felt that death from COVID-19, since we did not know what would happen next,” says Lindita.

Lindita says working in protective uniforms has been difficult all the time. According to her, monitoring infected patients, including conversations, lasted up to six hours.