“People avoid us, they look at us as if we were aliens,” 82-year-old doctor fighting COVID-19 | News from El Salvador

Infectious disease specialist Maria Bogoeva was said to hang up her uniform and withdraw from her post in a small provincial hospital in western Bulgaria when the coronavirus pandemic broke out.

A year later, despite her age, the 82-year-old doctor is still at the forefront of the battle against Covid-19.

He is part of a legion of senior doctors fighting “the horror” of the virus in the overwhelmed Bulgarian healthcare system.

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“My age? I don’t feel it. I want to work. If I saw that I am not useful, I would leave”, this energetic woman told AFP.

With her reddish hair, jewelery and determined look, she still cares about her appearance despite ‘daily stress’.

“Just because I work in the hospital doesn’t mean I’m leaving,” he admits with a smile.

The poorest member of the European Union is suffering from a shortage of medical personnel as young graduates migrate west in search of better career opportunities.

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That’s why Dr. Bogoeva feels she has no choice but to stay with covid patients at the municipal hospital of Dupnitsa, a community of 50,000 inhabitants, about 60 kilometers southwest of the capital Sofia.

Staying at home and doing nothing in good health when patients need their experience more than ever is just “unthinkable,” he says.

‘Would he let them die? The hospital had no other infection experts, and this is a health crisis, ”he says.

Many of Bulgaria’s retired doctors have made the same decision in the past year, some of whom are paying with their own lives.

“Natural Immunity”

Another colleague of Dr. Bogoeva from the infection ward at Dupnitsa Hospital, a doctor 15 years younger than her, feared for her health and withdrew after the first wave of the virus.

But the 80-year-old says she’s not afraid to keep going, despite wearing a simple surgical mask and a blue protector that is disinfected from time to time.

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“They forbid me to go near patients,” he says, waiting at the door of a room with sick people.

She decides which treatment to give based on the background information that the rest of the hospital staff gathers.

“I probably have natural immunity since I’ve had many infections throughout my life,” he says, before indicating that he thinks “there is no reason to be afraid” of the virus.

While he acknowledges there is something “inexplicable” about this virus and shudders at the “November horror” when he “saw more patients die than in his entire career”.

“People in their 60s, we couldn’t save them,” he complains.

The hospital overflowed, there were patients “in the corridors,” he recalls.

“The ambulances, the GPs begged us (to allow more patients in) but we were overwhelmed.”

“People avoid us”

He appreciates the current delay, with only six patients on his ward, but he knows it won’t be long.

A new wave with the new variants “is bound to come”, he says before saying with certainty, “We will fight it!”

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In the small town of Dupnitsa, she and other health workers fighting the virus often arouse more fear than admiration.

“People avoid us, they look at us as if we were aliens,” he says bitterly.

In those moments, Bogoeva takes refuge in the maintenance of her family, even though it is far away.

Her son lives in the United States with her two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren and her husband has moved to Sofia as the situation calms down.

“If I get infected, I won’t hurt anyone,” he concludes.