Witness to ‘terrifying’ toll
Kiwi nurse Tracey Bishop lost 13 colleagues in the Covid pandemic while working in London.
In Nelson to settle her father’s estate, the practice nurse for the military said she was frustrated with the vaccine hesitant among her co-workers, with some dying for their beliefs.
‘‘It’s something I found incredibly tough. They adamantly did not want to be vaccinated – they had their kids vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella and tetanus but were not prepared to risk themselves having a Covid-19 vaccine,’’ she said.
When they got ‘‘terrifying’’.
‘‘Some of them died very quickly. They’d seen the effects of people dying in vast numbers from Covid-19 and yet felt that they wouldn’t need the vaccine. It’s really hard without insulting somebody’s religious or ethnic beliefs, it’s not for us to judge, but it’s incredibly frustrating and sad.’’
Bishop works in primary health care, which she describes as a ‘‘GP type surgery with all military staff’’. Once the pandemic hit, primary health services came to a halt, and the workforce was effectively redeployed to support the NHS.
When Delta took hold, she continued to physically go to work in logistics and running online or phone consultations.
But because her husband was shielding at the time, she had to be very cautious and meticulous about her hygiene.
‘‘I had to walk in the door, straight into the shower, boil yourself in Dettol. It was a constant round of dousing ourselves in alcohol, but not in a good way,’’ she recalled.
Bishop is a civil servant, but works with military nurses and doctors who rotate through all specialities in local hospitals, doing normal shifts in areas where there is a large military population.
Her colleagues that died were across all age spectrums – none of the rules seemed to apply.
Some had retired in the previous few years but were recruited back to help. ill it was
‘‘We were right in the thick of the pandemic, and we started losing colleagues every week, it felt like . . . that was heartbreaking. One colleague that we lost was 32 and no underlying medical conditions. She was a triathlete, she competed, she was a normal, fit, healthy person.’’
‘‘There was no way of having any kind of funeral for these people.’’
Treatment in the beginning was hit-and-miss.
‘‘Initially we ventilated a lot of people, but it didn’t work. They were being ventilated and monitored by staff who had been effectively recruited and deployed and trained in a very short period of time.’’
It wasn’t until medical staff started to use the glucocorticoid dexamethasone that things started to turn around.
‘‘We were whacking that into people a lot sooner, rather than waiting for their symptoms to get to a point where they become really critically ill. It was a game changer.’’
Bishop’s colleagues’ faces developed scarring across their cheekbones from tight-fitting masks. Their hands were itchy from the constant washing.
Residential streets filled with refrigerated shipping containers for the bodies.
Soldiers and combat medics had been drafted to undertake PCR testing. Soldiers worked as health care assistants on the wards, washing and feeding people, and transporting and storing bodies.
Military doctors and nursing staff were treating Covid-19 patients and at the same time having to deal with the large numbers of people that were dying, people whose families would be desperately calling their cellphones.
When Bishop’s father Graham had a stroke and died in January, New Zealand’s borders were closed and she was unable to return.
After talking with doctors at the hospital where he was admitted, she knew she wasn’t going to be able to get back to see him alive, but dealing with MIQ and being unable to find a solution was ‘‘a gut wrench’’.
Incredibly, Bishop never once tested positive, despite swabbing up to twice daily.
In the UK now, asymptomatic cases go to work wearing a mask, she said. They are advised to change it every two hours.
People were ‘‘very impressed’’ with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern overseas, and she was highly regarded in Britain.
‘‘New Zealand was very fortunate that by the time the bubble popped there was a vaccination programme under way,’’ Bishop said.
‘‘Kiwis have not seen the volume of deaths that we’ve seen in the UK, so it doesn’t feel as real or as scary.’’
‘‘Some of them died very quickly. They’d seen the effects of people dying in vast numbers from Covid19 and yet felt that they wouldn’t need the vaccine.’’
Tracey Bishop