Is it really not a virus? Muscovites' family has had a severe "unknown disease"

Lyudmila Butuzova

Anastasia Kryuchkova is my Facebook friend. Komsomol member, athlete, activist. Muscovite defender from the renovation.

Last time we talked on March 2 - I congratulated her on her birthday, she said that in honor of “her holiday” she was preparing an article “Arithmetic of Losses in Moscow” for “NI”. That is, there was still normal life, the coronavirus loomed from afar, and it was not even possible to imagine what an ominous meaning this title would acquire very soon. And then somehow everything spun ... Every day, the numbers of the sick, Kommunarka, the first deaths ... Quarantine? Self isolation. There are fewer public contacts. The peggers in the social networks got it: well, I can’t already read who drank how much during this time and how cleverly circumvented the bans. Anxiety for themselves and for those who do not get in touch: what do they have? Yesterday I wrote to Nastya.

- Nastya, I have not seen you in the FB for a long time. Everything is good?

- Hello! Sick for almost three weeks. A relative died, buried. In general, apparently, we transferred the coronavirus, although the doctors did not take tests.

Now I'm trying to quarantine somehow to save the business, to support the children ... In general, the apocalypse for our family has also come. How about you?

The child had a temperature of 40.3, the elderly relative had a temperature of 39.4 before dying.

-Wow! From the category: they wanted to know, but were afraid to ask. There are a lot of such cases and it’s getting closer. So you have no idea if you had a coronavirus or not? And where did it go? What is a relative's post-mortem diagnosis? Pneumonia? And now - are you sick and become invulnerable? The main measure of protection - masks and gloves? I am writing so much about this pandemic now that it is already grinding its teeth. My husband and I are sitting at home. I’m used to it, I work on a remote site. Scared for him, he is at risk. In general, horror. I sympathize with you and send all sorts of support rays.

- Thanks! The official diagnosis of our grandmother - the heart could not stand it. Was it a coronavirus? Who knows. Tests have only recently become available, and on March 13, when this happened, I still didn't really think about coronavirus. We left for the cottage, in Moscow it is unbearable to walk, press the doorphone buttons and think how many guest workers have done this to you.

- Well, how so ... You immediately became isolated, much earlier than everyone was sent home. Does it not save?

-The child was the first to get sick, was visiting his grandmother on March 8, we were forced to pick up urgently, because the temperature rose to 39. Immediately called an ambulance, the doctor who arrived said flu, but do not miss pneumonia, since many fall ill since 3-4 day they discover pneumonia. If, he says, there will be a cough - go out to the Family Doctor for an X-ray.

The next day, the local police came, confidently confirmed - the flu, wait for the rest, you will get sick within 3-7 days. The temperature held for three days, rising to 40.3. A relative fell ill on day 4 in the evening, the temperature was up to 38, and a cough. She died that night, the last temperature on her thermometer was 39.4. None of the doctors - neither the ambulance, nor the next morning the doctor on duty at the clinic, who made out an extract from the medical history for the morgue, nor the medical examiners at the autopsy said a word about coronavirus. The official cause of death is the heart. On the 3rd day after her death, I got sick. Dry cough, difficult to breathe, temperature 39. I was sick at home, on the 9th day after the onset of the disease I myself ran to take an X-ray - there was no pneumonia The next day I came to the doctor - the cough did not go away. I was told acute bronchitis.

They didn’t even offer me to test coronavirus in a clinic, they immediately waved away the flu. And the fact that even after the end of the symptoms it can be contagious for many more days, not a word. As a result, I was sick for almost three weeks - coughing, weakness, slept 12 hours a day. It is surprising that in the midst of the harbingers of quarantine, at a time when hospitals were specially redesigned specifically for coronavirus, no attempts to really determine whether it is flu or just flu, to give recommendations to stay at home and not to contact anyone, were made. Not a single doctor. Only questions on duty - were not abroad? Not in contact? Then it’s just just the flu. It turns out that all official statistics are only statistics on those who have returned from abroad. And how many who have not gone anywhere have been ill or are still ill with a coronavirus - this is a great mystery.

- How to determine something yourself? In the morning, life is not sweet - is it a symptom or an outburst of fear?

“It all started with shortness of breath.” I thought it was an allergy (they were just taking apart the apartment of the deceased, there were two dust bags full of vacuum cleaner). But then the temperature was below 39, but it was easily lost by Nurofen. Figs knows him. Now I want to think that it was a coronavirus, and we are already out of danger

“ Now where are you?” In Moscow?

- No, we left for the cottage

- Sit back there. I hope you have everything (both medicine and food) and you will return to normal soon.

- Will hope.

- Take care of yourself!

OK. We are trying. There is no one to hope for at all

- Yes, as usual. And the 90s is on the doorstep. I don’t know how much this month will survive ...

End of correspondence