Personal experience: "I was refused rehabilitation because I have no registration..."

Actress Natalya Druzhinina, who was on the verge of death, described on her blog the story of her coronavirus disease:

“Dear friends and fellow citizens! I am writing this post because I cannot help writing, looking at how many of you are careless or skeptical about the situation with coronavirus. There will be no edification. I want to describe what happened personally with me and my family.

On April 7 evening I felt a slight discomfort and the temperature rose to 37.2. The next day, there was aches in the body, as in the case of flu, and discomfort in the throat. I called the doctor to the house, came, prescribed medications for sore throat. Then I feel deterioration. Tried closer to the night to call an ambulance... Do not go. They contacted a doctor-consultant by phone, and recommended taking paracetamol, if it doesn’t help, then call back in two hours. She accepted what was recommended and went to bed. The day is getting worse ...

Smell disappears (a sure sign of the presence of a virus) and a slight cough appears. I’m calling the doctor again ... Now she is appointing to take a coronavirus test and do a lung CT. On April 11, they take a test and go to the CT scan. Bilateral pneumonia is detected and, without releasing from the CDC, they call an ambulance to move to the hospital. (By the way, only a CT scan detects this viral pneumonia, while an X-ray will show that everything is clean and listening to a doctor’s breath is also clear.)

That day I arrived at the Veterans Hospital No. 3 (on Startovaya Street), converted the day before to treat patients with COVID-19. On April 10 and 11, about two hundred patients were brought to this hospital. The ambulances stood in line for several hours. It was all with me. Appointments for treatment were made only the next day, i.e. on the eleventh I had no treatment, and the disease is progressing. At first I thought it was good that in a hospital under the supervision of doctors they would heal faster. Early rejoiced ...

There, in the Hospital, everything flows smoothly and slowly. The treatment, the same for everyone, is prescribed the next day. Necessarily antiviral Plaquenil or Kaletra and antibiotics. This is good for those who have a smoothly running illness. But my situation was rapidly deteriorating. Every day I said that I was getting worse ... It is useless ... The attending physician, looking at me indifferently, continued the treatment “like everyone else” and refused any of my calls and requests. I’m a competent, familiar doctor who has been dealing with such patients for two months, i.e. she has experience, speaks on the phone to urgently do CT and review the treatment program. It was already the fifth day that my condition worsened, the temperature was growing, it was already stable above 39 ... Breathing became harder and was half-conscious. Kulikov came once a day and said that I wasn’t the only one. Prescribed glycine and did not appear again. And to all my requests, to call the doctor on duty, they refused me.

On the sixth day, when I could no longer breathe without oxygen, I could not get up, the readings of oxygen sharply went down, from 96 to 86 ... They told me that I was fine, once again refused help and did not call the doctor on duty ... But I was lucky with a friend ... A doctor from Nizhny Novgorod ... She wrote and called all authorities, even the Ministry of Health. On the sixth day, according to the order “from above”, the doctors on duty came to me and ordered me to do an urgent CT scan. Done. Stage 3 pneumonia with extensive lung damage ...

After another half day Kulikova came, still calmly stating the results of CT, she said that she would consult with a pulmonologist about revising the treatment program. It was assumed that another day would be lost. There, in this clinic, everything is done slowly, and the disease progresses rapidly. On the evening of this day, a second miracle happened, thanks to which I am now alive ...

By order of someone, again, “from above”, they take me to intensive care unit. Here begins the real salvation. In resuscitation, teams of resuscitation doctors from different cities work. 4 people, usually men. Including military doctors. I want to talk about them separately. These are highly qualified, best doctors who work professionally, harmoniously, quickly responding to the situation, using complex honey. technicians. I have never heard that they argue among themselves ... All their actions are coherent, focused, professional. They even speak in the same even, calm voice. From the eyes, through the mask, it is clear that there are a lot of young people... All the professionals are of the highest class. They saved me.

I was unconscious, on the ventilator, for two days. And after that, for another week I saw how they work ... Like in a war ... Like rescuers in a fire ... Without losing control of the situation even for a minute. Despite their extremely uncomfortable costumes, in which it’s difficult to move, it is hard to hear, the glasses are fogged up, there is no ventilation, they are hot... This is how they work in emergency mode for 12 hours: you must not drink and eat, you must not go to the toilet ... This suit is worn during hours. In such conditions, doctors are now working. And for those who do not see this, it seems that the whole situation with the coronavirus, if not invented, then in any case, is greatly exaggerated.

My story is not over yet. So, resuscitators are working at the limit of human capabilities, saving people every day ... Not even all of them can be saved. Each day, one of the curators (checking the situation) comes and resuscitators quickly and clearly report on each patient. So I found out, during a report to the head doctor of the hospital. Sklifosovsky, that a team of resuscitators from St. Petersburg literally dragged me ... Where can I find them now? How to thank them? I don’t even know their names and didn’t see their faces ... God grant them all, these doctors, health! If I could reach out to our president, I would very much ask that all resuscitators be given the title Heroes of Russia. This is not pathos ... So it really is. Unfortunately, despite such efforts, in many people the body cannot cope with the disease ... In resuscitation, most people are 65+ ... Around me, 2-3 people died a day. I am writing this especially to those people who think that age-old people have been deliberately locked up in their homes, having thrown them out of society ... If not for this action, there would have been hundreds of deaths in the country.

All this time, from April 12 to 30, my 80-year-old mother was in the intensive care unit of another hospital, because I managed to infect her. When I was transferred from intensive care to the ward, I was informed that my mother was dead. April 30 she was gone ...

I couldn’t even say goodbye to her ... 2 people were buried in a closed coffin: the eldest son (his aunt died on April 18) and his father. Miraculously managed to order a funeral service in the cemetery. At least they gave me the opportunity to listen on the phone ... Now I can only pray ... At this time my youngest son was treated (and still is) ... He also became infected, but he has pneumonia of the 1st degree, and he was allowed to be treated at home under the supervision of doctors.

Now I'm at home ... I was literally pushed out of this Hospital, half-untreated. When I asked if I could be sent to the rehabilitation center, which is now in Moscow, they sharply said “no,” referring to the fact that I did not have a Moscow registration in my passport. I said that there is a registration for 10 years, there is a Moscow MHI policy. They refused. They pushed out quickly, in a very weak condition ...

At first they didn’t even want to give a car for delivery, all for the same reason - there is no Moscow registration. But I said that at the moment there was no one to meet me, and they agreed to deliver me on a general basis. We did not begin to look for the result of the last test, done on May 2 ... Before that, there were 3 positive tests (April 12, 14 and 24). They wrote to me quickly on the extract that they took the last test on May 8 (which actually was not!) And that he was still at work. There were no recommendations or advice on how to treat me further, either... I asked. They said that I will come under the control of a doctor from the clinic, everyone will say there. I drink a cough syrup and pills. All. This is my personal story with coronavirus ... and the Veterans Hospital No. 3. I ask myself: please take the recommendations seriously! At the beginning of April, I also thought that THIS would not directly affect me ... But it “drove” the whole family. God forbid anyone! I wish you all health!”