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ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Dressed head to toe in protective gear, medics and nurses cluster around the patient, fighting to keep the man stricken with the coronavirus alive.
Right behind them, unnoticed and unheard of, a worker wearing the same protective gear takes on an entirely different task: disinfecting surfaces, collecting waste in biohazard bags, discreetly passing beds and survival machines to clean the area. ground.
Coronavirus intensive care unit cleaners manage infection risks on a daily basis to keep intensive care units running smoothly, and they are essential in preventing the spread of disease in hospitals. But their status as unskilled laborers in a behind-the-scenes role has left them out of the public eye.
While medical staff are praised around the world for their vital work during the pandemic, cleaners are rarely mentioned.
They feel “like the smallest cog in the wheel, like no one considers us,” one said shortly before beginning the painstaking process of donning protective gear to enter a unit. intensive care at Sotiria Thoracic Diseases Hospital in Athens, the main COVID-19 treatment center in Greece.
She and her colleagues said they were treated well by the medical staff and praised the team spirit within the hospital. Cleaners have also been included with medical staff in the first wave of coronavirus vaccinations. But beyond the doors of the hospital, she says, the dominant attitude towards the cleaners is, “I haven’t seen you, I don’t know you.
So great is some people’s contempt for cleaners that the 50-year-old mother-of-two asked to be identified only by her initials, AB, as some parents were unfamiliar with her job.
“They will perceive it as something inferior, the fact that I am a cleaning lady,” she says. Some relatives would also question the risk of working in a COVID-19 intensive care unit and the danger of passing the virus on to her family, so she avoided telling them what she does for a living.
Georgia Tsiolou, who like AB started working in Sotiria in January 2020, months before the pandemic hit Greece, said authorities often spoke of hiring more medical staff and offering bonuses and contracts. long term to nurses and doctors. But “for us there is nothing.”
Since they all have one-year contracts, the cleaners don’t know if they will have a job after December.
“People only talk about doctors and nurses. Of course, it’s good that they talk about doctors and nurses, because they are the ones who are leading the biggest battle “against the pandemic, said her colleague Anna Athanassiou, 55.” But with them there is we. We may not know how to heal a person, but we help a lot in our own way, in our work. We are a chain. Our work, I consider, is absolutely necessary.
Medical experts agree, stressing how vital cleaning is.
“I cannot separate it from medical work or nursing work. It is equally important, ”said Antonia Koutsoukou, professor of pulmonology in intensive care, citing infection control, a major issue in hospitals and in particular in ICUs. Koutsoukou is the director of the Respiratory Diseases Clinic at the University of Athens in Sotiria.
At the start of the pandemic, infectious disease experts at the hospital trained cleaners in the use of protective equipment. Now experienced cleaners are teaching new hires.
For ICU’s newest cleaner, Theodoros Grivakos, carrying the equipment was a struggle. It includes a mask, goggles and visor, hooded jumpsuit, double gloves glued to the cuffs and plastic coverings glued to the feet.
“I panicked a bit,” admitted the 28-year-old midway through his first shift in intensive care. “I dressed. I was dizzy. I felt the pressure. I did not feel well.
With a degree in electrical engineering, Grivakos accepted the cleaning job when he couldn’t find work in his chosen field. After being assigned to the outdoor park-like areas for the first time, the sudden switch to the ICU was a shock.
Working in an intensive care unit, which is “an environment with increased stress and emotional pressure,” is unlike any other job, Koutsoukou said.
The cleaners work closely with patients who could die suddenly, she said. “They are therefore also called to arm themselves with a lot of emotional courage and composure, and to understand the importance of their own role in the care of seriously ill people.”
Some of the cleaners said they were unprepared for the psychological toll of the job, especially since the isolation of COVID-19 patients, who cannot receive visitors, has often caused them to bond with hospital staff, cleaners included.
“It’s very emotional when you’re in there. It’s difficult, ”Tsiolou said.
The onset of the pandemic was particularly difficult. Faced with a new virus that doctors didn’t know much about, cleaners were terrified of getting sick or carrying the virus home. Many have stayed away from their families or reduced contact to an absolute minimum.
For some, the fear and stress turned out to be too much.
“There were a lot of people who were called to come to work, and they didn’t want to come because they were afraid,” Tsiolou said. Many of her colleagues have resigned, leaving the housekeepers short-staffed.
Those who have stayed despite the risks say they hope for some recognition of their critical role.
“People still think our industry is inferior,” said Athanassiou, who said she was saddened by the public’s indifference. But the medical staff, she said, got it.
“They know we are the same as them too,” she said. “We are in exactly the same danger, we are no different.”
Grivakos compared the attitudes towards the cleaners with the ancient Greek treatment of the helots, a subjugated population of Sparta.
“They don’t talk about (cleaning) staff because (we) are helots,” he said. “(We) are consumable, because one year you are here, and the next you may not be.”
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