‘I didn’t worry about the odds if I caught virus’
DECLAN GAFFNEY reported for work at the Tara Winthrop nursing home in north Dublin, not knowing what to expect.
He is a support worker with the Central Remedial Clinic, a day-care centre for people with disabilities in Dublin. It had shut down in March and he volunteered for redeployment to where he would be needed most. At that time, it was Tara Winthrop.
“A number of the staff had shown symptoms and they had to self-isolate, so we were replacing them,” he said. “All of us had experience, so it wasn’t as if we were dropped in at the deep end as such.”
He didn’t know how many residents were Covid-19 positive in those first days, and he didn’t ask. Declan, who is in his 50s and a seasoned care worker, said he wasn’t particularly worried. “The survival rate is about 98pc so the odds are in your favour,” he said. “Some healthcare assistants were nervous. Some told me that they would cry before going into work because they were terrified of bringing it home. You had to admire their courage.”
Declan was assigned to a unit that was initially Covid-19 free but the infection spread. Residents had their own rooms, and staff were assigned to specific residents to contain the spread. Declan found it hard to see residents confined to their rooms during the outbreak, a vital protection against the virus.
“Having to isolate people in their rooms, to keep them from contact with each other, would have been one of the difficulties. As a care worker providing care for people for years, you know that it’s not good for people,” he said. As for residents, those capable of understanding tended to be philosophical, he said, but some were fearful.
As with many centres, personal protective equipment was scarce until supplies came in. Declan caught the virus not long after he started. He said the hardest thing was “having to walk away knowing that they had so much work to do and not enough people to do it”.
He got a test through his GP and took to his bed. “I wasn’t particularly sick. I had the tiredness and the terrible tickling in my lungs. The fatigue was the worst thing for me.” Declan was back at work two weeks later.
Tara Winthrop was one of many nursing homes that were severely impacted by the virus. The death toll was put at 29 on a disputed HSE list leaked last week. Sources say the home had 18 confirmed and five suspect deaths. Among those who died was a cherished colleague. “I worked days and she worked nights, and I only passed her saying hello,” said Declan. He commended the staff and management. The staff responded “as quickly as they could, in the best way they could with the resources they had”, he said. “I don’t think it’s fair to go back and say ‘why didn’t you do this, why didn’t you do that?’ I saw the stress they were under to try and make it work. When you work there with the residents, you become personally bonded with them. And to watch them get sick in front of you, and to watch your colleagues get sick in front of you, it’s difficult.”
Declan was redeployed again to the City West isolation facility. He has no regrets and found the work at Tara Winthrop fulfilling. “It’s a job that someone’s got to do,” he said. “I would rather do it myself than have someone do this who has children.”