The confession of the nurse who took care of those infected with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic

Fear, sickness, fatigue, death and hope all experience within a working day, says Fetija, in a story about Radio Free Europe.

Fetije Kacuuri-Hyseni, 43-year-old, works as a nurse for 22 years at the Infectious Clinic of the University Clinical Centre in Kosovo. This clinic has the main burden of coping with patients who are ill from COVID-19, the disease that causes the coronavirus.

She says all these years of work, she's never faced a situation, as she's faced over a year with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“has changed everything”, says Kacuri-Hysen.

We've always had various epidemics in the Infectious Clinic, but the pandemic with COVID-19 has been different. The first few days have been very stressful, very serious. Separation from the family has been a serious challenge. The virus was unknown”, adds, which is a mother of two.

During a year of the pandemic, the Fetije Kacuuri-Hysen nurse also worked after working hours, since there was a shortage of nurses at the beginning of the pandemic.

You can't just leave the patient and finish your job because your schedule is done. You have to stay on time to help the patient”, she says.

Each day, fear continues that the virus will transfer from clinics to family members. So far, fortunately, it has not been infected.

The beginning of the pandemic has been more difficult. I had two father-in-laws, they died this year, but not from COVID-19. While they were at home, I was so scared. I didn't want to cause the virus to come and infect them. I've had a lot of stress...”, she says.

As soon as she gets home from work, Kaçuri-Hysen says she changes all her clothes and doesn't hug her children until she's clean and safe.

During a year of pandemic, nurse Kaciuri-Hysen says she has cared for patients of different ages, young and old. But it has been harder for older ones.

“Experiences are changing I cannot say any case, all cases were sensitive. But patients of old age were tired. They saw themselves not making any progress - we tried to talk to them, we encouraged them to do better. But they saw it's not going to succeed, it's a hard time for us”, she says.

Patients in serious condition were in intensive care, where they could not meet family members and change their lives without having family members around.

The news was often forced to be delivered by nurses who have been a very difficult situation for Fetiya.

We would in some cases inform family members by phone that the patient's condition is severe, but there were cases when they were not even notified and shocked when they received news that the mother or father failed to overcome COVID-19”, she says.

A year ago, on March 13th, Kosovo marked the first cases with COVID-19. Within a year Kosovo has registered 76,110 people infected with this virus. That's 1,688 dead.

Fetije Kacuri-Hyseni calls on all to respect the measures because the number of cases with COVID-19 has increased and hospitals are increasing.

“We are physically, mentally, emotionally”, she says.