Pictures from inside a Spanish care home revealed how the elderly have become even more vulnerable during the coronavirus crisis.
The pandemic that has gripped Europe has heightened the fragility of those relying on social care, stripping away the safety nets that kept them fed and healthy and exposing them to a daily threat of infection that they know could kill them.
Barcelona’s visiting health care workers and emergency medical personnel have been pictured as they tend to Spain’s house-bound elderly.
Care homes have been hit hard by the spread of the virus, with high death rates as resources have become even more stretched.
Authorities in Madrid, the hardest-hit area of Spain, acknowledged that deaths in care homes could be five times higher than official counts.
Maria Perez Gomez, 70, was visited by medical workers at her home in Barcelona. She reluctantly called them after suffering breathing problems, a cough and a fever. ‘Please leave me here at home, don’t take me to the hospital’, she begged the doctor. She added: ‘Tell me, doctor, that I don’t have the virus’
Nurse Isabel Solis, 46, wearing a converted garbage bag apron for protection, walking along a corridor lined with paintings made by Enrique Pastor, 86, during a home visit in Barcelona. Pastor’s full-time caregiver tested positive for the virus, leaving his wife to care for the bedridden Pastor without knowing if either of them has COVID-19
Josefa Ribas, 86, who is bedridden and suffers from dementia, being attended to by nurse Laura Valdes during a home care visit in Barcelona last week. Ribas’ husband, Jose Marcos, fears what will happen if the virus enters their home and infects them
A home care doctor performing a physical exam on Felicidad while her son, Joan, holds her arm at her home in Barcelona. Felicidad had been admitted to the hospital after suffering a stroke but was sent home within a day and soon developed respiratory symptoms
Almost 3,500 people have died in care homes in the city during the outbreak, but their deaths have not been added to the official total because they were not tested before they died.
The number of people dying of coronavirus in Spain each day fell again today as the country registered 605 fatalities over the past 24 hours.
The overall death toll rose to 15,843 today from 15,238 the previous day, the health ministry said in a statement. The total number of coronavirus cases rose to 157,022 on Friday from 152,446 on Thursday.
In the northeasterly autonomous Catalonia region, of which Barcelona is the capital, authorities said that 31 per cent of care homes had residents with coronavirus symptoms, and that they had reported 511 deaths.
The elderly of Barcelona’s working-class Poble Sec neighbourhood, the generation who survived widespread hunger after the Spanish Civil War, were vulnerable before the outbreak took hold.
Drawn to Spain’s industrial heartland a generation ago, they relied in retirement on free lunches from neighbourhood social centres.
Leopoldo Roman, 85, lying in bed wearing a face mask as he waits for doctors during a home medical visit in Barcelona. Roman, whose leg was amputated years ago, has to pay for daily care out of his pension since the public system only provides for a social worker to come for an hour a day, three days a week
Gonzalo Garcia, 61, being examined by emergency medical workers after he suffered severe respiratory problems at his home in Barcelona on April 6. Garcia had been hospitalised with COVID-19 but was discharged after he improved, only to deteriorate in recent days. He is terrified that his second hospitalisation will again leave his 91-year-old mother home alone
Josefa Ribas, 86, who is bedridden, looking at nurse Alba Rodriguez as Ribas’ husband, Jose Marcos, 89, standing by in their home in Barcelona, during the coronavirus outbreak. Ribas suffers from dementia and Marcos fears for them both if the virus enters their home. He said: ‘If I get the virus, who will take care of my wife?’
Pepita Jove Puiggros, 92, holding the hand of home care nurse Laura Valdes during a visit in Barcelona on April 2. Puiggros lives alone and receives food deliveries from a social service agency three days a week, but the deliveries have become more unpredictable amid the pandemic
Many received medical care from the local clinic, where doctors and nurses make house calls. Social workers often bring them groceries.
But the coronavirus pandemic has exposed them to even greater risk of becoming ill or not being able to get food and medicine.
Visiting nurse Laura Valdes said after a day of house calls up and down the narrow stairwells of Poble Sec’s apartment blocks: ‘All the misery is coming to light’.
Catalonia, ranks only second to Madrid in Spain’s official count of virus infections and deaths, with nearly 30,000 cases and more than 3,000 dead.
Union leaders say many homes are failing to adhere to basic protocols such as separating healthy residents from those who have tested positive or have symptoms.
Army units have been deployed to disinfect care homes across Spain have discovered unattended bodies, as staff lacked the resources to dispose of them properly.
Home care nurse Alba Rodriguez putting on protective gear before visiting a patient in the Poble Sec neighbourhood of Barcelona. A pediatric nurse by profession, Rodriguez has gotten creative to try to protect herself, fashioning hazmat suits out of giant yellow garbage bags that she and fellow nurses wear over their scrubs as extra protection. ‘We’re like onions’, she said of the extra layers
Jose Marcos, 89, waiting at his front door for the nurses who tend to his bedridden wife once a week, in Barcelona last week. Marcos’ son drops off food at the gate, but Marcos doesn’t dare go outside on his own for fear he will be infected with the coronavirus
Gonzalo Garcia, 61, saying goodbye to his 91-year-old mother, Gloria, as he leaves for the hospital after suffering severe respiratory problems at their home in Barcelona. Garcia had been hospitalised with COVID-19 but was discharged when he improved, only to deteriorate a few days later, saying: ‘I’m drowning, I’m drowning, I can’t breathe’
Official data released last week showed that care home residents accounted for around 40 per cent of coronavirus deaths in the region of Castilla y Leon, and a quarter in neighbouring Castilla La Mancha.
As in similarly hard-hit Italy, Spain’s elderly aren’t usually being tested for COVID-19.
They also are not being admitted to hospital intensive care units, where coveted beds and breathing machines are prioritised for younger, healthier patients with a better chance of survival. Nationwide, only 3.4 per cent of Spain’s ICU patients are over 80.
As a result, Barcelona’s elderly are suffering at home, alone and more isolated than ever. Few know for sure if they have the virus, but the threat that they might catch it – even from the visiting medical teams they need – has only heightened their anxiety.
‘If I get the virus, who will take care of my wife?’ asked Jose Marcos, 89, as Valdes and other nurses checked on 86-year-old Josefa Ribas, who suffers from dementia and has been bedridden for two years.
Medical workers in Barcelona making an emergency home visit walk away from a man, moments after they confirmed he died of severe respiratory problems on April 6
Home care doctors, nurses and health staff take part in the morning meeting at a clinic in Barcelona. Many elderly residents of Barcelona’s Poble Sec neighbourhood rely on the clinic for their health care, even more now during the coronavirus pandemic
Vicente Lopez, 65, sitting at his house waiting to be examined by a doctor during a home care visit in Barcelona at the end of last month. Lopez is under quarantine, because his partner tested positive for COVID-19 and is in the hospital. Lopez relies on a neighbour to deliver groceries and basic supplies
Before the virus struck, Ribas’ nurses would be accompanied by social workers during their weekly visits to treat her bedsores. But those workers have stopped coming, either because they got sick, are observing stay-at-home orders or are themselves caring for loved ones.
Marcos’ son drops off groceries at the gate, but Marcos doesn’t dare go outside on his own for fear of infection. He tells a visitor that he survived the mass hunger that marked Spain’s post-war period, but wonders if he’ll survive this pandemic.
The home care workers themselves feel similarly exposed.
Alba Rodriguez is a paediatric nurse by profession but shifted gears to care for Barcelona’s elderly who are confined to their homes. She has had to get creative to protect herself, fashioning hazmat suits out of giant yellow garbage bags that she and her fellow nurses wear over their scrubs.
‘We’re like onions,’ Rodriguez said of the layers she wears. ‘Nothing is sufficient to protect you from the virus.’
Home care nurse Laura Valdes, 55, leaving an apartment after attending to her patient Emilio Casas, 86, during a home care visit in Barcelona last week. Casas receives a visit from nurses once a week and pays out of pocket for the help since he cannot stand up alone
Enrique Pastor, 86, lying in bed surrounded by the oil paintings he created as he waits for the doctor to examine him during a home medical visit in Barcelona. Pastor’s usual caregiver tested positive for the virus, leaving the bedridden retired port worker home alone with his wife
Paramedics tending to a patient who doesn’t have COVID-19 inside an ambulance in Barcelona. Medical crews have been doing extra duty during the coronavirus pandemic, checking on patients who are positive and not
The nurses know well there is a chance they might infect their patients during their visits, and they take all the precautions they can. Sometimes the elderly refuse medical care until it’s too late, because they fear visiting medics might bring the virus into their homes.
Maria Perez Gomez, 70, reluctantly called emergency medical services when she started having trouble breathing and developed a cough and fever. When the medics arrived, she begged them to tell her she wasn’t positive, though she suspected she was.
‘Please leave me here at home, don’t take me to the hospital,’ she pleaded. ‘Tell me doctor that I don’t have the virus.’
Gonzalo Garcia, 61, does have the virus and was hospitalised for it. He was discharged after he improved, and immediately went back home – to his waiting 91-year-old mother, Gloria. After a few days, he took a turn for the worse and had to call emergency services again.
‘I’m drowning. I’m drowning. I can’t breathe,’ he told the medic who arrived to check his lungs as he heaved on the living room sofa. All Garcia could manage was a raspy whisper.
Religious elements decorate a bedroom at Joan Olmedillo’s home in Barcelona last week. Olmedillo received a house call from visiting nurse Laura Valdes during the coronavirus pandemic