Francisco Spain spent almost the entire summer of 2020 sedated at the Hospital del Mar due to covid-19. He was one of the first patients that the center took out to contemplate the Mediterranean as part of his recovery. Two years later and almost 62, he is still out. But he’s back to drawing and he can’t stop smiling.
It was end of summer and Paco remembers the warmth of the air of that day. He too sky blue, the sparkling reflections of the sun in the sea and the different voices that wrapped everything. There was the occasional microphone around him. Who were they, what did they want? He only half understood. “In my memory everything is like in a nebula. He, Francis Spain, Paco for friends, was 52 days in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona because of covid-19. And that day in early September, after almost two months sedated, with three health workers pushing the stretcher on which he was still convalescing, patiently crossing the zebra crossing that separates the health center from the outside, Paco, positioned in front of the railing of the Barceloneta promenade, saw the Mediterranean again. And how to forget it.
It happened in 2020. Paco entered the ICU with coronavirus on July 14 and came out for the first time 4th of September. He was one of the first patients that the hospital took out in bed to see the sea as part of his recovery from the disease. “That day I felt as if I came out of the fridge and came back to reconnect with life and with the world”, tells this man who will fulfill 62 years in May. A year and a half after all that, Paco still low and has not yet been able to return to work.
“I think I caught it in the municipal market from L’Hospitalet where I work. there or in the public transport”, Paco says sitting at a table in the Txirimiri Bar, in the street of the Princess of Barcelona. It is the bar where he goes down every day to have coffee, right in front of his house. He says that he called his family the same day he entered the ICU to let them know that They were going to intubate him. So they sedated him and he doesn’t remember anything else until the day that, still very disoriented and with a negative PCR, they took him out to see the sea That was something of a first time.
“Those Colors”
“There were journalists out there, I don’t even know what I told them. I remember the feeling of being open air and those colors. Two friends came to see me,” he recalls. One of them told Paco all the sports news: Messi, who was still at Barça, a few days ago he had sent that famous burofax in which he reported that he was leaving the club, something that was finally frustrated. Paco woke up after 52 days asleep and suddenly the Argentine soccer player wanted to leave the team of his life. I did not understand anything.
“This has been the scare of my life. I see everything differently, I enjoy day to day more and I have stopped thinking in the long term”
That outing to see the sea from the Paseo de la Barceloneta lasted between 15 and 20 minutes, don’t know exactly how much. “I was awake but at 60%. I only understood a few things. It’s all blurry.” comments in front of a cup of coffee with milk. Although Paco left the ICU at the beginning of September, he was admitted to the Hospital del Mar floor and later to a social health center until January 5 of the following year. That is, he spent almost six months hospitalized for coronavirus.
“This has been The scare of my life. I see everything differently, I enjoy day to day more and I’ve stopped thinking long-term.” this Barcelonan reflects. “Me I understood things when I recovered, That’s why I never thought that I would die. Because, being sedated for so long, I lived it all like a dream”, Add. While he was in the ICU, the doctors called his family to inform her that, at any moment, Paco could die. “They have experienced my recovery as a miracle.”
More human Ucis
Paco’s exit to the sea directly from the ICU is part of the icu humanization program Hospital del Mar aimed at patients who have been admitted to this unit for a long time. “It was good for me. It was like coming back to life after a summer in the icu value.
His experience with the coronavirus has also pushed him to redraw, Something I hadn’t practiced in years. Some of his drawings are copies, others have been devised by him. In many of them he portrays toilets working. “It’s my way of saying thank you for what they did for me. Not only did they save my life, but after seeing the work they do – and I saw it because I was in there – you realize that it’s an almost altruistic job”, says Paco, who wants to see his drawings exhibited inside the Hospital del Mar.
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Right now, this coronavirus survivor leads normal life. Has not developed persistent covid, but still he doesn’t know when he will return to work nor if he will be able to rejoin. In the Born neighborhood, he shares a flat with more colleagues. He, who managed to avoid the infection during the first confinement despite the fact that he went to work every day (he was essential personnel), ended up coming face to face with the virus a few months later, when the indicators were down, in which he was the first pandemic summer. Almost two years after that, Paco is vaccinated and believes that the pandemic is nearing its end. Despite what he has experienced, in addition, he is not excessively afraid of the virus, although he does take “precautions.” Because “You have to go on living” opines. He has more desire than ever.