'We’re damaged goods': Out-of-work nurses explain what it's like to live with long covid
(Left to right) Nurses Noreen Lucey, Fiona Walsh, Helen Hypolite and Olivia Barry in the INMO centre in Cork where they talk about their experiences working in hospitals during the covid pandemic. Picture: Chani Anderson
When Helen Hypolite got covid-19, the Cork woman was terrified by the symptoms, including struggling to write and speak in the weeks and months that followed.
Today, many would spot this as brain fog from long covid, but five years ago, this condition was unknown. Indeed, a clinical definition of over 200 symptoms was only agreed by the World Health Organisation in late 2021.
Helen, a nurse living in Ballincollig, said during 2020 they often received new safety guidelines twice daily from the hospital’s covid committee.
“The country was under restrictions and so were our hospital visitors,” she said.
“We all worked through that year and were all highly stressed because of who we were, as nurses, we couldn’t look after our patients the way we wanted to.”
Living with her husband and three children, aged 18, 21 and 25 then, she took precautions to avoid contracting the virus.
“I went into work with a paper bag, in which I had a disposable lunchbox, my phone, and nothing else."
She changed out of her work clothes on the porch at home.
“We were stressed and our patients were stressed.
“We had PPE. Our main issue was that in line with HSE guidelines we were not permitted to wear ffp2 masks (high grade filtering masks) when nursing suspected covid and covid-positive patients. We were to wear surgical masks.”
One day at work, her temperature plummeted suddenly, leaving her freezing and distracted.
Trying to sleep at home, she said: “I remember trying to contact work. I couldn’t talk, I managed to text a few words but I couldn’t see with the headache I had.”
She added: “When I came out of isolation, I couldn’t write anymore. My brain was just struggling”.
The symptoms did not disappear.
“I couldn’t go back to work,” she said. “It wasn’t long before my GP saw it as being long covid, she was very informed. I think I was the first person at the long covid clinic in Cork.”
This week, sitting in the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation Cork offices, she said she remains out of work.
“I use puzzles and various other things to get my brain back, it’s still not comparable. It was many many months, it was a year I’d say (unable to write),” she said.
Helen and three other Cork nurses are among around 160 HSE staff relying on a special pay scheme to support them through long covid. It is due to end in June.
Fiona Walsh, living in Donnybrook, is audibly out of breath sitting in her chair.
The week of a big outbreak in January 2021, she said: “I ended up working three nights before I got sick.
“They were definitely the worst three nights I have ever worked, so many patients were sick. We didn’t have enough staff and then, with the hospital being closed to visitors, it was very difficult telling someone that your loved one has covid but you can’t come in.”
She first knew something was wrong when she couldn’t taste her food. Her positive test result was among thousands identified that day, she added.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people paid the price for a 'meaningful Christmas',” she said.
“I’ve worked busy in the past, but there’s no words to describe how busy it was those nights.”
She added: “People think covid is over, but we’re damaged goods. I haven’t worked since that week.”
Olivia Barry, living in Carrigtwohill, also caught covid-19 at work, testing positive on December 31, 2020.
“I did my 14 days isolation and I returned to work, half-dead, I would say. But staffing levels were low, I felt I needed to return to work, I felt guilty,” she said.
She added: “And that’s what we’re living with every day is the guilt that we’re not back at work. It kills us.”
Married with two children, aged 18 and 11 then, she said: “The main fear for me was of bringing it home. When I tested positive, they were swabbed but they were all negative.”
She pointed out some patients were so ill that a nurse might spend over an hour with them, even though guidance was for 15 minutes.
“I had three attempts at returning to work but I wasn’t able to sustain it, so I last worked in August 2021,” she said.
Noreen Lucey, living in Mogeely, said by late December 2020 she was working only with covid-positive patients.
“I considered my house my safe space,” she said.
“So I used to run up and down the road to get rid of the energy before I went in, because I wanted to be calm going into that safe space. I wanted to leave all the worry outside because I lived on my own.”
She was due a break over Christmas, but swapped shifts to allow colleagues with children have time off.
“So that was my meaningful Christmas,” she said, adding she has decades of experience with TB and HIV patients but was still shocked by the pandemic.
“They’re all really busy areas, but this was different. There was fear in the atmosphere, even just coming into the hospital and seeing all the signs, there was fear,” she said.
On the day she got sick in early January, sudden exhaustion was the first of many long-lasting symptoms.
“I had huge shortness of breath, I had all the tachycardia, the (heart) palpitations,” she said.
“You learned to take no notice of having a pulse of 140 for periods of time, it just becomes normal. You learn to hold yourself back.” A normal resting heart rate for adults ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute.
All four expressed disappointment that the HSE and Department of Health continue to fight the remaining long covid healthcare workers over sick leave.
Negotiations are now expected to resume within a month, the INMO said this week.
The four nurses have been discharged from public long covid clinics, simply because, as Olivia put it, there is no clear treatment for the wide range of symptoms they continue to experience.
Some have tried expensive private treatment, travelling to Dublin when possible but have seen very little improvement.
They remain frustrated by the mask guidelines for those critical weeks.
“Guidelines changed in January (2021) but this was too late for us,” Helen said.
“I believe the cases of covid amongst healthcare workers on our ward dropped to zero once the ffp2 masks were introduced.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
