In the past few weeks, a little ritual has established itself in my everyday work: three times a week – usually on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – my cell phone rang shortly after 4 p.m. and Steffi Patzkowski answered. The 39-year-old works as a physiotherapist in the intensive care unit of the Barmherzige-Brüder-Hospital in Munich, where she does breathing and movement exercises with seriously ill corona patients – an important, unfortunately often invisible job. My colleagues Johanna Feckl, Sophie Kobel, Lisa Sonnabend and I asked Patzkowski and other employees in intensive care units to write a kind of diary to tell us regularly about their stressful everyday life in the fourth Corona wave – about the beautiful ones, but also about the painful ones Moments (SZ Plus).
After her shift, Patzkowski always called from the car (with a hands-free system, of course). On the way home, sometimes the clicking of a blinker could be heard in the background, she told vividly, openly and often touchingly about her working day: about people who were able to sit again for the first time after weeks in a coma. From a patient who smiled on Friday and suddenly died on Monday. And because of the burden of so many pointless dying, there would be a cure for the virus in the form of vaccination. “It hurts every time,” said Patzkowski once about the many dead. In her free time, she sometimes takes refuge in fantasy novels. “Everything will always be fine in the end.”
Today, shortly after 4 p.m., my cell phone rang again. It was Steffi Patzkowski’s turn, one last time. Because our diary project ends with the start of the Christmas holidays, and Patzkowski finally has a few days off to recover from work in a state of emergency. For her and everyone else in the intensive care units, this year was a tough one, again. And winter has only just begun. A few days of vacation are just the thing.
THE DAY IN MUNICH
Omikron discovered in Munich wastewater. The virus mutant has now been detected for the first time in several samples. One researcher calls it “worrying”. There is also no good news when it comes to vaccination.
Supreme woman from the construction. The Green politician Anna Hanusch is to become the head of the municipal building department. It is therefore also clear that the parliamentary group in the town hall will have a completely new dual leadership.
Rosenheimer Platz: Second suspect turns himself in. A 17-year-old breaks down bleeding and dies. Shortly before, a drug deal in a backyard allegedly broke out. Now a 15-year-old has been arrested.
Students at the Technical University of Munich: “Swimming is the only sport that is essential for survival”. During the corona pandemic, swimming lessons were canceled at primary schools. To prevent a generation of non-swimmers from growing up, students come to the aid of the teachers.
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