Words: Words John Archie B. Balmes
Lyrics Khryzztine Joy Baylon

For every frontliner who succumbs to death or suffering, a song of heroism deserves to be sung.

When the deadly novel coronavirus came to our homeland, those Filipinos dressed in white suits and scrubs became our own heroes who offered themselves to fight an enemy we cannot see. They bear vulnerability, and most of them suffered to the illness in which some have surrendered to death.

Healthcare professionals became our beacon of hope. Our media men served their purpose as a herald of knowledge even though they faced their darkest night. 

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But have we ever carved their titles on stones and included their names on our prayers?

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As I write this literature, I have realized that it’s not the lack of wisdom about the imperceptible virus that built the adversary we are trying to endure today— it’s the long time undervaluing the relevance of public health and undermining the efforts of our frontliners in this time of crisis.

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By following the protocols of quarantine and the measurements of proper hygiene, we, as the common people, have already contributed to the fight our healthcare workers have been leading. But as time went by, we seem to forget to give them the proper credit they deserve. Even up to this day, some of them still encounter discrimination in their community. We haven’t expressed a choir of tangible support for them.

We haven’t done much for them. So, for each ill or fallen frontliner, a tale of valor deserves to be told. A song for their heroism. An aria of agony and hope.

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Now, will you sing a song with me for them?

AN ONSET OF CRISIS

March 08, 2020.

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It was an ordinary summer day for everyone. People are listening to news shows about the new coronavirus inhabiting each nation’s territory. Cases are going up in the world, and it was just one month away since the Philippines recorded its very first case of the disease. As it is an ordinary day for Filipinos, we continue our daily personal businesses. Until, Patient 21 was admitted at Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium in the district of Tala in Caloocan City.

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Patient 21 became the first COVID-19 case in the province of Bulacan with no travel history abroad, hence, an outcome of community transmission of the virus outside Metro Manila.

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As this news abruptly spread in the neighborhood, everyone was shaken onto their feet. Counteractive measures are presented, lockdowns and quarantine restrictions are implemented. Everything, every moment that’s in a momentum of play was paused—as if the world has stopped. Even before we know it, the fear of the virus has already consumed everybody’s mind. We became defenseless against the mental distress this pandemic has brought. But I thought, what more for our healthcare workers and professionals who are primarily exposed to this virus? Especially to those who handled the first cases of COVID-19?  

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From the pre-pandemic era, the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium, generally known as Tala Hospital, serves as the principal referral hospital for leprosy patients and the premier training and research center for leprosy care and management in the country. But now, as the virus enters their area, Tala Hospital does not only focus their discipline in mainly treating patients with Hansen’s disease but also with patients contracted by the novel virus. Before the admission of Patient 21, Tala Hospital had already made their doctors, nurses and hospital staff equipped with the correct knowledge on how to handle the pandemic hurdle.

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When the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in the Philippines last February 2020, previous contacts of the first patient were headed to Tala to be swabbed to determine their COVID-19 test status. To handle this situation, DJNRMHS had organized an orientation for the donning and doffing of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to prepare their nurses and hospital staff. With relish, all of the swab results of the patient’s contacts turned out negative.

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But the real onset of the crisis has just begun.

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Tala Hospital was assigned to have a COVID-19 center as the cases of the coronavirus continue to grow.

Preventive controls were applied in the hospital, from the traffic flow, proper use of PPE, to the proper treating and segregation of patients from clean to dirty areas. Perimeters around which patients are admitted or swabbed for COVID-19 are labeled as dirty, while areas covering non-COVID related conditions are marked as clean. Seminars and training are also provided by the management for the hospital staff, and spontaneous orientations for nursing attendants and nurses every time of their pre-duty on the COVID Ward. The management have their own manual operations aside nationwide COVID protocols. 

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For all of this, those people that had sacrificed time and soul to combat this unseen foe are no other than our healthcare workers—the nurses, doctors, and hospital employees.

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Julie Ann Talimban, a 29-year old Infectious Disease Nurse, and Aisha Jowhara Gacuan, a 30-year old COVID Ward Nurse, have both assisted and handled the early cases of COVID-19 in the Tala Hospital. Both have reflected the untold bravery of our frontliners in facing the virus, and exhibited the hope we wished for a better future, whose tales deserve to be heard—tales of two unsung heroes. 

 A TALE OF TWO GALLANT

“Every one of us is not ready.”

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Julie Ann Talimban has been working in the Tala Hospital for five years now, and currently consign as an Infectious Disease Nurse. Before the COVID-19 reached the Tala Hospital, Talimban was trained in San Lazaro Hospital to handle the COVID tests but since the strain of the virus is novel, they didn’t perceive COVID-19 as an infectious disease. She never thought that there would be more catastrophic aftermath as she goes through the eye of the storm.

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“Our first patient which is Patient 21, last March 8, I was part of the team who handled her. By that time, my fear of COVID is not on its height because the first batch of suspected cases we tested last February came out negative. We were not all afraid yet because of that. But when Patient 21 tested positive, and after I experienced symptoms of the disease after 24 hours of attending to her, that is when I felt scared,” Talimban stressed when she told her story of handling the first case in the hospital.

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After experiencing the symptoms, she and her team were admitted at the quarantine area to condition themselves for a COVID swab test. While admitted, they all had anxiety and panic attacks. Given that the first attribute of COVID is novelty in which almost no study has conferred explanations about the disease that time, Talimban and her team has met the peak of their fear and dread. What if the virus can reach them? They’re in the same building where Patient 21 was admitted, can it be passed through inhalation? Is it airborne? These are just the questions that rampaged their heads as the terror of COVID fed on their minds. 

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Gladly, their results turned out negative, but Talimban knows that this is just the start of their duty as frontliners.

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Aisha Jowhara Gacuan has worked at the Tala Hospital for eight years now as an Emergency Room Nurse. Since COVID-19 happened, Gacuan was now assigned as COVID Ward team leader, regular and in-charge nurse. Gacuan came from a family of medical technologists and physical therapists but as a child it has never occurred in her mind to follow the family tradition. But as time went by, she learned to understand the bearing of working at the health sector. It is her faith that was tested by the pandemic in these difficult times. 

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“On my first time in the COVID Ward, while I was wearing my PPE for almost four hours that time, I felt like I’m crying. In my mind, I wanted to get out. I can’t do it. That is the time when your emotions start to mix up. You cannot breathe, but still deep inside you know you will persist because of your patients. I continue working because of my patients,” Gacuan professed as she shared her experiences while attending to her patients wearing protective personal suits.

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It was in no secrecy that it’s difficult to do basic health services while in scrubs and PPEs. It was one of the challenges of the pandemic that our healthcare professionals have to endure. Gacuan wears her PPE for four to six hours straight. Once she doffs out from PPE, another COVID ward nurse will take her position inside the facility. They can only wear their PPEs for six hours maximum and once the PPEs are soaked, they have to discard it for contamination and infection prevention.

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Wearing a PPE is like taking a sauna bath in a very high temperature. So, one would wonder, how do nurses perform their duties in that suit? How do they take simple blood pressure? How do doctors operate?

Sometimes, if protective goggles are moistened, they will have to wait for a couple of minutes until they can see through the goggles again. 

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A five-minute basic health service before, like a simple electrocardiogram (ECG) or IV insertion, might take now 15 to 20 minutes to do. Worse, if their PPE gets suddenly sodden, they have to call for an immediate sub while undergoing a procedure on their patients.

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As the ballooning of the COVID cases takes its shape, trials and challenges of the pandemic kept coming to our healthcare workers as well as to COVID-19 patients. In terms of work nature, a lot has changed—from personal acuity to job loads.

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Gacuan described what she had with her patients. Since relatives are not allowed to visit patients and nurses took a lot of days to get back to their family at home, Gacuan and her patients shared a connection like a family.

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“Every time we get in, we give everything for our patients. We talk to them; we tell them stories of what’s happening outside. Sometimes when they see you, they become happy because they know that you are there for them. They don’t have anyone to talk about what they feel. Some of them do not know how to use mobile phones so they don’t have any means of communication outside. We were the only ones with them inside that ward,” she said.

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Her patients are her motivation why she did not give up on this fight. There are times that she felt exhausted to the point of wanting to go home, but every time she thinks of her patients, she was driven to continue her duty. 

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“I have a purpose to fulfill, so I will not surrender,” she said.

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Also, there have been tremendous shifts on the work capacities of healthcare workers. Talimban explained the things they had in the pre-pandemic and what changed in the on-going pandemic era.

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“In the hospital, you have the seven-day duty straight. After the seven-day duty straight, you are headed to the quarantine facility for 14 days. After the 14 days, you have a seven-day rest. In that seven-day rest, post medical check-up after quarantine is included. Then you have your pre-medical before you enter again your duty and the orientation for the updates. That’s our life in the pandemic,” Talimban expounded their routine as COVID ward nurses.

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Before, nurses and nursing attendants are one call away when they’re needed, but now, it takes a lot of time to prepare just to assist the patients. They do CCTV monitoring to check on their patients unlike before that they do it personally. Regarding their work affairs, time with their colleagues becomes less and less, the same way with the encounter they had with their families. For Talimban, their life changed in a rapid turn and these ordeals of pandemic have given birth to an obscure trauma.

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“As a healthcare worker, our trauma on this crisis is our trial. While walking in the street wearing your uniform, people will get away from you. I remember people asking me, ‘Uy, na-admit ka raw?’ [Hey, have you been admitted to the hospital?], ‘Uy, ilan na ‘yong pasyente?’ [How many are the new patients?]. It was cruel. I just wanted to take a break, I just hope that people will stop this and pray for us instead. It was tough for us because the job of a healthcare worker is no joke, it is difficult for all of us,” Talimban exclaimed.

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Even though they faced a great deal of challenges, the Tala Hospital did not fall short of support for these heroes. The Tala made sure that they have enough supply of resources for their hospital employees, from the N95 masks to PPEs, even for the food of the staff and their lodging.

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This should have been the standard of how healthcare workers are treated in their field. The proper use of donations and proper management sums the responsibility of the institution for their constituents. But above all, support from the government is what our frontliners need. Not only ethical support, but concrete sustaining solutions. Afterall, there are many more tales of suffering outside that need to be heard.

AN ARIA OF HOPE AND HEROISM

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“I’ve always wanted to work in the health sector, so my family gives their full support to me. As I said, my lolo is a leprosy patient so I love taking care of the people. I love giving my both hands to other people, to the community;  to give them the proper health service. This is the right time to do our duty, to serve our country and to serve our fellowmen,” Talimban said on why she continues as a healthcare worker during these dangerous times.

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To work in the public health sector requires an enormous effort and a great passion to put. The day of a healthcare professional is spent half of their soul attending to their patients, and the other half for their families and loved ones. But this should not be taken to be romanticized. As they perform their duty in our community, we owe it to them to partake our own responsibility on this pandemic.

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“I want myself to be there, to be at the end of this crisis. I want to be with the people who fought at the very end until we become victorious of this pandemic,” Gacuan stated as she hopes for the future.

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COVID-19 is part of our system now. As the sun sets at the west, our frontliners only wish for our support to help them win this pandemic crisis. This novel virus has turned a lot, making ourselves feel different from doing what we used to do. COVID-19 has taken a lot from us. Our freedom, even life itself.

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But COVID-19 also taught us that we take things, philosophical or actual, taken for granted. Our current situation made us look at the importance of public health and to the effort of our healthcare professionals.

Even without the COVID-19, our healthcare workers have always been called as our unsung heroes. This should not be taken lightly for their heroism speaks more than just words of hope. Their suffering echoes our country’s agony. 

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As their tales are told to our children, a song deserves to be written for them.

So, will you sing a song with me?

Bayani Ka ng Bayan Natin
(based on the tune of The Hanging Tree of James Newton Howard
and Jennifer Lawrence)

Nakabalot ang buong katawan,

Init ay hindi iniinda

Mga mata na halos nangungusap

Nais sabihin kami ay pagod na.

Sa bayang puno ng pighati,

May mga bayaning nagbubuwis

Kanilang buhay para tayo'y masagip

Mga frontliners na magigiting.

Kayo... Kayo...  Ang tunay na bayani

Dapat kilalanin at saluduhin

Tinataya sariling buhay para sa'min

Sa pagsugpo sa Covid-19

Bayani... Bayani...  Bayani ka ng bayan natin (2x)

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