Philippiens Frontliners share personal stories (1) Rhey Ecobiza, ER Nurse

I have been an emergency nurse in the Davao City Council for 7 years. I work in the Southern Philippines Medical Center, the largest hospital in the southern Philippines.
I remember that around the second week of March, the Community Quarantine (ECQ) was strengthened. It has a huge impact on our lifestyle and work. popular).
At first, we still did not realize its impact, this popularity and ECQ traffic has decreased. However, since we have to change our living arrangements, this is still a big challenge-we can’t go home, we have to live in a dormitory. At least with wifi, we can still make video calls with family members.
I just got married in January last year; it was too difficult, my wife and I were not together. It makes me miss her even more (laughs).
When cases began to flood, seeing my wife was an extra motivation for me to do the right thing. I need to be careful when protecting myself. That was the only way I could go home at last.
In a way, it’s like fulfilling my childhood dream of becoming a superhero. I am helping the front line of mankind. However, this is really frightening, especially when one of our colleagues tested positive for COVID-19.
My colleague, he is also married, and his wife has just given birth to a child. I kind of saw myself in him. His case is not that serious, but he still spent 54 days in the quarantine area. . Your wife and newborn child are left alone. Most importantly, the man’s mother-in-law was also in critical condition at a hospital in another province.
It’s really hard to be a striker.
Even before the pandemic, it was difficult to be a nurse in the emergency room. After entering the emergency room, you will get uninterrupted action. You cannot eat or go to the toilet. But now, we must use the complete PPE to operate. Performing CPR on patients becomes more difficult. At that moment, it felt like losing all the oxygen in the brain due to the transfer. However, we have no choice.
At that moment, I think I will go all out, exhausted, as long as we can save people…Of course, it is not ourselves who are saved.
We send us personal protective equipment and the food chain provides us with food. Even transfers were made and the children gave us inspirational notes. It’s touching.
I hope that many of me can also learn to appreciate this gift of life. Please share the information I give you. yourself. We add a saying: “Stay at home and work.” We need to be together, we need teamwork.
I also hope that, in the final analysis, the government and other agencies will recognize the frontiers beyond our oral service. We have a family to feed. At least when we are out on adventures, it will help us improve their lives.