CAMAGÜEY. - He gives answers of exquisite literature. We cannot agree on meeting and he prefers this route. I agree. For the Facebook chat inspiration is born for my sheet of paper, “news“ for Adelante, he treats for the Camagüey in the middle of so much "viral" despondency. “I only hope to be on a par his, of you, when he finishes these lines”, I write to him.
I know that I incur again a serious mistake. They have already indicated to me that I interfere too much in my journalistic texts; and in the first person one is not very objective. Nevertheless, I prefer to show the histories as they come to me, as they freeze me or cure me so that the reader discovers, interprets to their own way. The fact is that Umberto Eco taught us in the academy that every recipient completes the work. And behind these sheets of paper there is an infinite polysemy.
“What we do is not for so much, but the work to which we decide to dedicate our lives”, he answers.
In coronavirus times, almost all of us are touched by the imposed isolation; he classifies as volunteer. Yosbel Hidalgo Dieppa, chief of the service of Internal Medicine in the Hospital Amalia Simoni of this city, the charge is small when you know that he is one of the doctors who attended on the first confirmed case with COVID-19 in the province.
From March 17 the doctor Dieppa, as they know him, he does not share the anxiety of this pandemic with his. “And 28 are still missing”. Imagine the inability of being at home, waiting, not more, to which everything bad happens. Imagine how much can change in 28 days, especially for the agility with which this virus moves; and caliber, of that time, some magnitudes.
“This is not my history no more; it is that of seven more persons, and so many people others in disposition”, he establishes from the beginning of the dialogue, because he already said it: "it is not for so much”.
Nevertheless one sees it as so much, it is seen as everything, that one day they inform you that there the same, quite near, to another side of the door, there is the "bug" that walks killing the people for heaps, and say yes, I go, I risk myself.
“When the case was confirmed with COVID-19 the direction of the center met the service of Internal Medicine to organize a system of direct work of 24 hours with the patient and 72 of rest in another room, isolated inside the same hospital. The personnel that would make the teams up (a doctor and a nurse), it would be voluntary; nobody can dispose of the life of other persons. The doctors Jorge Serrano Jerez, Roger Campos Batueca, Julio López Silverio and I offered volunteer; in addition to the nurses Alexander Batista Zayas, Gilberto Sánchez Morgado, Waldo Velazco Naples and Liliana Gomila Suárez. And this way it began our every day”.
The fear is licit; it does not turn out to be a reproach. The fear means the proof that we are alive, of that we have a purpose, that everything continues, and to be a part it means the best of the elections.
“This would be my first mission. Because not only you are in one mission when you go out of the country; but when we come where they need us, and here, now, they need us more. It is a question of the situation of major risk which I have faced in only two years as specialist. I would lie if I said that there was no fear. Before crossing the door of the cubicle, in the room of Infectology, where the patient stayed, tension was perceived, a sensation that once inside disappeared. We are like the soldiers, who never wanted to have to take part in a war, but if it appears they know that they have to come. And this one symbolizes our battlefield”, adds Yosbel, simply the man.
He writes with a frightening serenity; in the middle of an absolute isolation and the real possibility that the "bug" puts him out in its own body, he insists on being calm. Perhaps because with this calmness he chooses to awake every day so that at every hour they imagine to another side of the line that everything is fine, that it will pass soon, that other birthdays will come to celebrate together. On April 18, 2021 it will be already another life.
“The family is never prepared to assume that one puts himself in risk. They were not missing ‘why you; why did you get into that’. Nevertheless, there is a simple logic that they ended up by understanding: these persons have parents, children, woman or husband, a family that waits for them, and they are not guilty of having been contagious; they deserve an attention with the whole care”.
Later, when I contact with Liliana, she starts by recapturing this last Yosbel prayer. Liliana Gomila Suárez also speaks about care.
“There was fright, yes. The illness is new for the world. But I never demonstrated insecurity to the patient; he needed support of all those who approached him. Our profession takes as a beginning to provide with medicines the patient, but also to create an ambience of confidence and closeness so that he expresses his fears, his doubts, all what he feels and how he feels it”.
I try to turn, then, a little nurse and translate for him, from a newspaper, Maikol and Marco Antonio who in one day does not spend all the time - challenge, but it will pass; that mommy will return soon stronger and happy, and in these states they will continue growing.
With Gilberto the communication looked alike more to the classic journalism. He preferred the phone call. The technique failed and I had to write it by heart. Gilberto, that of the mission in Angola somewhere near ‘85, and in Ghana, and then in Belize he "sound" to be good people. Although the above mentioned you will see that it is a mere lyricism in the writing.
“We had all the protection; there was no only one breach in the care. The patient behaved very collaborative, disciplined. The decision? Imagine, the commitment with the profession and the desire of being useful and saving lives stands out”.
I try to imagine. But of this side of the phone, sitting in my bed does not reach my imagination to do of a bunch of letters an extraordinary work as his. Not even in isolation. Not even in the whole rest of the life.
“Thank you, journalist, for calling and interesting. Your work is as important as ours”. “I don´t think so, Gilberto, thanks to you. The comparison does not fit”, I answer him. “Yes, it is. What you do makes possible that the persons know, take conscience, and this way they help us”, and he laughs honestly.
We hang, and I think how a man can laugh widely when in the same paragraph he has said a serious prayer, of those of report and protocol: "We still have left several days in isolation. On having been direct contacts of a positive patient, the risk exists. But until now we all are asymptomatic”. The good people, I had already presented it.
For the time being also the coronavirus prevents us from knowing if earlier or after every comma or word Yosbel, Liliana or Gilberto sigh; when do they open more their eyes, and get excited and move the hands. When do they remain calm; and they smile indeed, not in jajaja. I hope I will be able to know them soon, something of “personal and non-transferable” requisite, in a guard or common and current consultation without the watching of a few forced holders so that Yosbel tells me of Kevin, his “beautiful nephew”; so that Liliana says to me what this text looked like to her without her "frights"; so that the noble Gilberto does more stories of these days to me while I see his optimism and his teeth. I hope, I hope this "nervous" multi-interview turns quiet chronicle.
Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez