Battered and bruised
Italian nurses reveal their exhaustion and bruises in the battle against coronavirus
Italian nurses have been bruised by constant face mask use and left slumped over their desks from exhaustion as they battle the coronavirus crisis in Italy.
One nurse, Alessia Bonari, posted a picture of her bruised face after wearing protective gear for hours during a shift in Milan.
Describing life at the hospital, she revealed how she could not drink or go to the bathroom for six hours after putting on her protective gear.
Another nurse, Elena Pagliarini, was pictured slumped over her desk while still wearing her mask at a hospital in Cremona where she had been working around the clock.
Italy has seen 631 deaths and more than 10,000 confirmed cases since the outbreak began with hospitals becoming ' overwhelmed' by the crisis.
Bonari, the nurse with the bruised face, described in a social media post how she feared she would be infected during her work at the hospital. ' I'm afraid too, but not to go shopping, I'm afraid to go to work,' she said.
'I am afraid because the mask may not adhere well to the face, or I may have accidentally touched myself with dirty gloves.
'Or maybe the lenses do not completely cover my eyes and something may have passed.
'I am physically tired because the protective devices are bad, the lab coat makes me sweat and once dressed I can no longer go to the bathroom or drink for six hours.
'I am psychologically tired, as are all my colleagues who have been in the same condition for weeks.
The nurse also appealed to Italians to obey the quarantine rules which were announced on Monday in an unprecedented nationwide lockdown.
'I will continue to take care of and take care of my patients, because I am proud and in love with my job,' she said.
'What I ask anyone who is reading this post is not to frustrate the effort we are making, to be selfless, to stay at home and thus protect those who are most fragile.
' We young people are not immune to coronavirus, we too can get sick. I can't afford the luxury of going back to my quarantined house, I have to go to work and do my part. You do yours, I ask you please.'
Elena Pagliarini, a nurse in Cremona, was pictured collapsed at her desk in a photo shared by industry website Nurse Times.
The nurse had fallen asleep while still wearing her face mask and surgical gown with Italian hospitals ' overwhelmed' by the crisis.
'We are all tested in body and mind, seeing all those sick people, asking for help with our eyes,' a fellow medic who took the picture said.
'We started at 8pm. We had been working tirelessly for over 10 hours.
'I saw Elena rest 5 minutes after hours spent running from one patient to another, trying to help yet another patient who came with a fever and respiratory failure.'
Medics have already described how hospitals are running at '200 per cent capacity' with operating theatres hurriedly converted into intensive care units.
Doctors have been forced into life- ordeath decisions over who should receive intensive care, with virus cases piling up around the country.
Non-coronavirus cases are being sidelined with some medics being given a 'leaflet' and told to perform specialist tasks for which they are not qualified, while some patients over 65 are not even being assessed, one doctor in northern Italy said.