SURVIVING Covid-19 is not just about enduring the two-week-long gasping for breath, the high fever, the chills, and the loss of smell and taste.
For former Anak Mindanao partylist legislator Ariel Hernandez, it’s also about what happens afterward. Even when one secured a clean bill of health, the recovered patient must face mostly distrustful, even hostile neighbors and a family that would stay away and not even talk to him or her inside their home.
“Fortunately for me, I was able to talk to my family but my office mates didn’t show up. And after my 28-day quarantine in one of Cagayan de Oro City’s temporary treatment management facilities, I’ve communicated with fellow patients, one of whom had to seek work in Davao City after his family won’t talk to him following his recovery,” Hernandez said during today’s press briefing.
Now a special assistant to Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) chief implementor Carlito Galvez, Hernandez said he wanted to share his experience to encourage more people to seek medical attention in case they experienced Covid-19-like symptoms.
“And I also want to appeal to the public not to discriminate against Covid-19 victims because they need our understanding and our help,” Hernandez said.
During the press briefing, Hernandez recounted that he was infected with Covid-19 after a trip from Manila.
“I experienced sore throat and chills but it went away after two days. I stayed at home and I talked with Rocky (Paul Douglas Calingin, overseer of City Hall’s Operation Tabang) who advised me to undergo testing. When I took a bath I couldn’t smell the shampoo and soap. I underwent a test at a private hospital and two days later, the results (confirmed my fears),” he said.
Hernandez said he drove along with his wife and son to a city TTMF where they underwent quarantine.
“My wife and son tested positive but experienced only mild symptoms, they had no fever and no problem sleeping (during their quarantine). But I had trouble sleeping, I felt uncertain and especially vulnerable. It took me 23 days at the TTMF and five days (at Northern Mindanao Medical Center) to recover,” he said.
During his quarantine, he kept busy writing and talked with fellow patients who also coped with their confinement.
“What’s really hard is not just the physical suffering but the mental anguish experienced by the patient who is isolated and must find ways to cope with the loneliness and the high uncertainty, of not knowing whether he/she will recover or not,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez was quarantined at one of the city’s TTMF just as it started operations.
“It isn’t perfect but the facility and the care of patients are more than adequate. Maayo mag-atiman ang siyudad, gi-atiman ka gyod,” said Hernandez, who revealed that he received a call from Mayor Oscar Moreno who asked about his condition and assured that he will be cared for.
It took Hernandez four swab tests before he tested negative of Covid-19. Now fully recovered, Hernandez advised the public to be careful and not be paranoid by complying with minimum health standards as repeatedly emphasized by the government.
“We can work and protect ourselves at the same time (from Covid-19),” Hernandez said.
To help patients quarantined at the city’s isolation units or temporary treatment management facility, Hernandez proposed that volunteer groups be set up to send letters of encouragement to them if only to boost their morale and motivate them to recover faster from the illness.
“And while we should protect ourselves we should not discriminate against positive and recovered Covid-19 patients. The physical suffering they endure and survive is difficult enough but sometimes the mental anguish cuts deeper than the actual illness itself,” Hernandez said. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)
