Quarantine Diaries Spain III part II - Before admission to hospital

Week III - From March 22, part 2

I call to the attention number and this time they do listen to the requests, a doctor calls and asks to know how my father is, he responds with a high voice and with many difficulties. At that moment they decide to call an ambulance which 20 minutes later was presented at our house. My father was leaving with just and necessary, at the last moment my mother tells him to pick up the mobile phone, and with tension, nerves and a lot of fear we see him leaving in the ambulance towards the hospital.

We are fortunate to live 5 minutes away from the hospital of Sant Pau, one of the best in the respiratory field in Spain. One hour after he left our house in a state of anxiety, my father sends me a Whatsapp, says he’s on oxygen, but stable. He does not know if he will be admitted, if he will be told to go home or what will happen, the hours pass and at a certain moment we no longer have communication with him.

The hours go by and my mother and I go to sleep, thinking that she’s resting and that the situation is under control until 5 o'clock the phone rings. The sound of the phone at that time unfortunately brings back memories of the deaths of my grandparents in Venezuela and El Salvador, all those calls to give the worst news were at the least thought-out moment and created a special dread of a call during the night.

My mother answers the phone with a broken voice and at that moment begins to nod her head for 30 seconds. All the fears and negative thoughts that can go through one’s head happen through mine until my mother hangs up the phone, says that my father has entered the Intensive Care Unit, that he has pneumonia and that his condition is very serious.

Fear is present, not the worst news, but pessimism is beginning to take hold of us. At that moment my mother and I were in shock, we encouraged each other saying that it is in the best possible hands and that we have acted in time, that we will get out of this. After 5 minutes each of them tries to go to sleep, but we know perfectly well that neither of them can go back to sleep comfortably.