Madrid | March 20, 2020
Katy de los Reyes is the physician who coordinates health care in Envera's Care Services. Together with her team, she watches over the health of more than 150 people in residences and day centers in Madrid and Colmenar Viejo. But in the state of national alarm in which we find ourselves, when the closure of occupational and day care centers has been decreed, her great concern are the residents who remain under the care of our organization 24 hours a day: 83 people with intellectual disabilities, including adults, elderly and major dependents.
Hardened in the war economy and the scarcity of resources during her years as a doctor in the Cuban health system, she has used the weapon of prevention as the first and great measure to avoid contagion and has drawn on her experience to address the need, as in the case of the demand for masks: if we don't have them, we make them ourselves, although for now that front is covered.
This family doctor tells us that she has already faced, "like my colleagues in Cuba, epidemics such as cholera, dengue, Ebola... We were given ten cloth masks, made of green or blue fabrics used in operating rooms, which we had to wash with 90-degree water and soap to eliminate germs, changing them every two hours. I can assure you that they are effective. And those masks, when we don't have them, are going to be crucial for the workers and to avoid infection of the most vulnerable. At Envera, for the time being, we have all our needs covered and we have resources because we got our act together in view of what was happening in Italy and we got ahead of the game. Not only did we buy masks, but we also closed a week before the authorities ordered the passage of visitors as well as excursions and activities outside our centers in Madrid and Colmenar Viejo".
At Envera, we have already begun to manufacture masks in anticipation of what may happen. And we also know how to waterproof gowns or make protective goggles with plastic folders, "so that ultimately, in case there are moments of great difficulty, we will not lack anything and we can continue to serve our people, who are the first and last reason for everything we do here".
The doctor, who has been in Spain for four years, confesses that she never thought she would experience in our country, the first world, something like what is happening. "I don't remember any situation as serious as this one. In Cuba we lived through cholera, which was very difficult and hard, but we received 3 or 4 cases in a center, something manageable; the same with dengue, but you knew that you were going to have coverage to attend to serious patients. Due to the rapidity of the Covid-19 contagion, that is no longer the case. I am terrified of it entering my country," he explains. They are not going to be able to cope in Madrid, so look over there. Here they didn't prepare, they were too confident.
Dr. Katy's mother, like her deceased father, is a doctor. She, now retired in Cuba, has also started making face masks in her country. Just as we do now at Envera. "The love for my profession was instilled in me by them. Total dedication to the sick. When faced with an epidemic, we worked for 50 hours, rested for six, and then went back to work again, non-stop, without respite. I am trained in this way: I received 60 euros a month in salary and I gave everything".
His experience in dealing with epidemics is also backed up by the time he directed the International Health Control Program in Cuba's Boyeros with seven health centers. "I controlled the cases that could arrive from Venezuela or Africa, with the aim of early detection in view of the health situation in those areas, we filtered all the cases, established quarantines and did analytical follow-up of all of them".
The doctor explains that "a lot of research is done there". And that is the method she has followed with our residents to prevent the coronavirus infection from wreaking havoc: for the past fifteen days, everyone's temperature has been taken twice a day.
We leave Katy to continue working. A long day of "research" and caring for the people who live with us awaits her. Their families can rest assured that they will not lack anything. Rest assured," the doctor says goodbye, "that I will be by your side no matter what happens. I will never leave you. I only ask God to give me a lot of health for all the work that lies ahead. I am happy taking care of these extraordinary people at Envera. They can count on my love and dedication. We will get through this.
