ATHENS, Greece (AP): Dressed from head to toe with protective equipment, doctors and nurses group around the patient, struggling to keep the man affected by coronavirus alive.
Just behind them, unnoticed and unheard of, a worker with the same protective equipment performs a completely different task: disinfecting surfaces, collecting waste in biohazard bags, discreetly advancing to beds, and life support machinery to scrub the floor.
Cleaners in coronavirus intensive care units present a daily glove of infection risks to ensure that ICUs run smoothly and are critical to preventing the spread of disease in hospitals. But their status as unskilled workers in a backstage role has left them out of public view.
Although medical staff are praised around the world for their rescue work during the pandemic, cleaners are rarely mentioned.
They feel “like the smallest gear on the wheel, like no one considers us,” it was said shortly before starting the meticulous process of putting on protective equipment to enter the ICU at Sotiria Thoracic Hospital, in Athens, the main COVID-19 treatment center in Greece.
She and her colleagues said the medical staff treated them well and praised the team spirit at the hospital. Cleaners with medical workers have also been included in the first wave of coronavirus vaccinations. But beyond the hospital doors, he said, the predominant attitude toward cleaners is “I didn’t see you, I don’t know you.”
Some people’s contempt for cleaners is so great that the two-year-old mother, 50, asked that she only identify with her initials, AB, as some relatives are unaware of her job.
“They will perceive it as something inferior, the fact that I am a cleaner,” she said. Some relatives would also question the risk of working in a COVID-19 ICU and the danger of transmitting the virus to their family, so he has avoided telling them what he does for a living.
Georgia Tsiolou, who as AB began work in Sotiria in January 2020, a few months before the pandemic hit Greece, said authorities often talk about hiring more medical staff and offering bonuses and long-term contracts for to nurses and doctors. But “for us, there is nothing.”
Since they all have a one-year contract, the cleaners don’t know if they’ll have a job after December.
“People only talk about doctors and nurses. Of course, it is good that they are talking about doctors and nurses, as they are the ones who are fighting the biggest battle against the pandemic, ”said comrade Anna Athanassiou, 55.“ But along with them, it is us. We may not know how to heal a person, but we help a lot on our way, with our work. We are a chain. I think that our work is absolutely necessary ”.
Medical experts agree and stress how vital cleaning is.
“I can’t separate him from medical work or nursing work. It is equally important, “said Antonia Koutsoukou, a professor of intensive care pneumonology, citing infection control, a major problem in hospitals and particularly in the ICU. Koutsoukou is the director of the University of Respiratory Disease Clinic. Athens to Sotiria.
At the start of the pandemic, hospital infectious disease experts trained cleaners on how to use protective equipment. Now experienced cleaners teach new recruits.
For the new ICU cleaner, Theodoros Grivakos, leading the team was a struggle. It includes a mask, goggles and visor, a hooded dress, double gloves engraved on the wrists and plastic covers engraved on the feet.
“I was a little scared,” the 28-year-old admitted halfway through his first ICU shift. “I was dressed. I got dizzy. I felt pressure. I didn’t feel well. “
A graduate in electrical engineering, Grivakos took on the cleaning job when he could not find work in his chosen field. After being initially assigned to park-like areas of the hospital, the sudden change to the ICU was a shock.
Working in an ICU, which is “an environment with greater stress and emotional pressure,” is different from any other job, Koutsoukou said.
Cleaners work very close to patients who could die suddenly, he said. “Therefore, they are also asked to arm themselves with great emotional strength and composure, and understand the importance of their own role in caring for the seriously ill.”
Some of the cleaners said they were unprepared for the psychological weight of the job, especially because the isolation of patients with COVID-19, who cannot receive visitors, often led them to establish links with hospital staff. including cleaners.
“It’s very emotional when you’re there. It’s hard, ”Tsiolou said.
The onset of the pandemic was particularly hard. Faced with a new virus that doctors knew little about, cleaners were afraid of getting sick or taking the virus home. Many moved away from their families or kept in touch.
For some, fear and stress turned out to be too much.
“There were a lot of people who were called to come to work, and they didn’t go because they were scared,” Tsiolou said. Many of his teammates quit smoking, leaving cleaners with little staff.
Those who stayed despite the risks say they expect some recognition of their critical role.
“People always think our sector is inferior,” said Athanassiou, who said she was saddened by public indifference. But the medical staff, he said, understood.
“They know we’re the same as them, too,” he said. “We’re in exactly the same danger, we’re no different.”
Grivakos compared attitudes toward cleaners to the treatment of ancient Greece to helots, a population subjugated to Sparta.
“They don’t talk about the (cleaning) staff because (we) are helots,” he said. “(We) are expendable, because one year you’ll be here and the next you might not be.”