Healthcare Workers Risk Their Lives on the Frontline

KOMPAS/P RADITYA MAHENDRA YASA

Medical officers wear special protective clothing, gloves, shoes to glasses when simulating treating suspected patients and exposed to corona virus in Kariadi Hospital, Semarang City, Central Java, on Thursday (30/1/2020). Equipment according to operational standards is applied to medical personnel who handle a number of special cases such as the corona virus.

Healthcare workers, especially doctors and nurses, are at the forefront in handling COVID-19. However, when working to save the lives of others, their lives are threatened. They are at risk of contracting the novel coronavirus. The story of many healthcare workers at the Dr. Kariadi Hospital in Semarang, Central Java, has unveiled the problems. Two nurses have died, including NK, a female nurse in the geriatrics department. She died in the intensive care room (ICU) on April 9.

"Some patients were strong and they recovered and returned home. But why were our friends not such strong? At that time, we were really down, " Nur Cahyo Sasongko (33), a nurse at the ICU section at the Dr Kariadi Hospita said on Saturday.