Volunteers of the State University of Medicine and Pharmacy struggle alongside doctors and nurses for the lives of those who got COVID-19. Some of them work at the triage center COVID-19 at “Moldexpo”, while others at the Emergency Clinical Hospital or other hospitals in Chisinau.

The head of the University’s Communication and Public Relations Department, has told IPN that about 400 students of the total 3,460 national students work as nurses at medical institutions in Chisinau.

Student Mariana Covali works as a nurse at the Chisinau Emergency Medicine Institute.  For her, a day on guard starts at 7:30am. She puts on the required equipment, including three pairs of gloves, and then goes through two filters to the infection area.

“To be sincere, it is terrible. We all expect the number of patients to decline, but it continues to rise and we have more admitted persons,” stated Mariana Covali, noting the patients are as scared as they are and the required equipment creates a psychological barrier between patients and medical staff.

Student Petru Butucel works at the Emergency Admissions Unit. All the employees work in the isolation unit in turn. Patients in a critical condition are often brought there. They need to be tested, intubated and put on a ventilator. “I remember a female patient who could not be sedated even after large doses of medicine were administered to her. She showed to the tube and wanted to remove this by force as she thought it prevented her from breathing. She was placed under intensive care and the performed tests showed she suffered from pneumonia that seriously affected her lungs due to COVID-19,” he stated.

Four-year student Sîrbu Vasile works at the Emergency Medicine Institute. His first experience during the pandemic was on March 30, when the first three patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were hospitalized. During the first days, the hospital beds were occupied at an increasing pace. “Work during the pandemic is very difficult, exhausting and unbearable sometimes owing to the high temperatures. We do our best to help the patients feel safe and win the battle against the virus,” he noted.

Moldova so far has got 19,400 cases of COVID-19.  Over 650 persons succumbed to the disease. About 13,000 infected persons recovered.