Nurse reveals painful stories of coronavirus

Muscat: Keen on celebrating a birthday with their loved ones, an Omani family decided to gather together, forgetting the rules over social distancing and meeting in large numbers.
COVID-19 would remind them of that in a very sombre way: two brothers who turned up for the celebration tested positive for the disease and died soon afterwards.
This is just one of the many painful COVID-19 stories shared by Fatima bint Mohsen Al Balushi, a nurse at the Directorate General of Health Services in Muscat, on how the disease has severely affected families in the country.
She spoke to Oman TV about one of the painful stories that she witnessed during her duty: “One of the very sad stories is of a family that decided to meet for a party. Men and women attended, and about 10 people were infected by this party. Two of them were sleeping in intensive care. Unfortunately in this story, the death of a brother and his sister on the same day, aged around thirty years old and both of them did not suffer from any diseases. Days later their cousin died.”
"We find stories in the Investigation section on a daily basis, some of which are very tragic, some of which are strange because of the recklessness of some, and I will list some stories to take from them the lesson and the sermon like a family of about 50 people gathered, 35 to 40 of them were infected with coronavirus disease, 5 of them in intensive care and the youngest of whom was an 18-year-old boy. Unfortunately, two people died from this family,” she said. "A woman was infected with the coronavirus because she was in contact with the neighbours on a daily basis who were from different places and after a while she was infected with the virus and was in intensive care. Unfortunately after that she passed away.”
“One of the stories that affected me is the story of an infected resident who mixes with his family members, his wife, children and his old father. Every day, I check on his health and his family, and he answered with a very sad voice: 'please pray for my father,' as he greatly regretted that he was the cause of the virus transmitting to his father,” she said.
Among the stories is also a woman who attended a solace, Fatima Al Balushi recalled, “She was infected with the virus, then transmitted it to all of her house’s family and her sister's husband, so far, in intensive care. Another one also is a person who was infected with Corona from his workplace and did not abide by the procedures or health instructions, then he mixed his house’s family and the infection was passed on to all of them, and his wife was in intensive care for eight days.”
"There is another infected young man who did not adhere to the health isolation and we used to follow him from the operations centre as the investigation team. It turned out that he was sitting among his friends and he was answering our call with disdain — 'I am now sitting with my friends in the village.'"
Among the stories she shared, "There was also a person who was in contact with his infected brother and did not adhere to the health procedures. He attended a meeting at his workplace and transmitted the virus to four of his colleagues and also to his daughter.”
“A young man who came from abroad and was very committed to the procedures and health instructions, wearing a mask and using a sterilizer in the plane and the airport, and went to his family’s home. On the second day, the family decided to hold a party on the occasion of his return and the family invited their relatives. The young man, the son, got coronavirus disease after the party,” she added
Fatima Al Balushi said also, ”A casualty, infected person, who was not committed to health isolation. He attended a family gathering of four families. He was aware of his infection and attended the gathering. Unfortunately he transmitted the virus to 25 people. There was an infected father who did not listen to the advice of the health operations centre and took his children to visit their grandfather. After a while it became clear that one of his sons was infected and the virus was transmitted to his grandfather. Unfortunately, the grandfather died.”
Fatima Al Balushi recalled, "A 10-year-old girl was infected with the virus when she went to the supermarket next to her house and you know that children do not care about precautionary measures and health instructions as she went without wearing a mask so the infection passed on to her from the supermarket and then passed it on to all her family members including elderly people.”
Fatima Al Balushi concluded the interview by saying, “As a message to everyone, it is our responsibility to confront the disease of COVID-19, by adhering to isolation procedures, not mixing, violating the tips and guidelines of the investigation team, and I advise everyone to wear a mask, use a hand sanitizer, wash their hands with soap and water, and maintain two metres distance between family members, friends and colleagues, and not to attend gatherings, parties, and the like.”