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Pandemic: NHS nurse breaks down as she remembers first coronavirus patient to die in her care
An NHS nurse choked back tears as she remembered her first ever patient who died within hours of being diagnosed with coronavirus.
In Pandemic, a new BBC documentary about life around the world during the coronavirus outbreak, which has now claimed more than 149,000 lives.
Dr Amie Burbridge provided the voice from the UK who tracked her past year of life, and admitted she initially brushed off coronavirus as it was ‘thousands of miles away so it didn’t seem real or relevant’.
But it didn’t take long for the first cases of Covid to make their way to the UK, and within weeks she was dealing with her first Covid patients.
Dr Amie told cameras: ‘I remember my first individual who was diagnosed with Covid-19, and it was like “Oh my God, it’s come, it’s arrived.”
‘It was quite a shock that first case because it was quite early on actually. I can’t remember the exact date.’
‘We didn’t really know how to manage it because nobody did. There wasn’t any research, there wasn’t any evidence, a lot of the stuff we did in the early stages turned out to be wrong,’ she continued.
‘Some of the treatments that we tried, because we didn’t know. I went from having a conversation with a lovely, lovely individual, and within two hours she’d been transferred to the intensive care unit, she was intubated, she was ventilated, and she died.’
As she tried to keep herself together, Dr Amie added: ‘I did absolutely nothing to help her, apart from give her false hope to her and her family. Saying “Oh, it’s absolutely fine, we’ll give her some oxygen, you’ll be fine” and she died.
‘That was my first patient who died. I remember her hair, her make-up, what she was wearing, her name. Everything.
‘I just felt like I was a bystander, and I felt like that in a lot of cases. Because people just deteriorated quickly and died.’
She later added that she thought it was unfair that she was the only person often in the room with a patient as they died, after family and friends were banned from being with them to prevent the spread.
The first of a three-part series, Pandemic follows people from around the world as they came to terms with the effects of the virus.
Among them is Wuhan food blogger Xie, who got married just days before the Chinese city went into lockdown.
Initially considered the start point of the coronavirus spread, the entire city was placed on lockdown for three months before reopening on April 8, 2020.
Alongside her husband, Xie later slams Donald Trump for labelling Covid-19 the ‘China Virus’ and his lack of wearing masks or putting in precautions.
Vladimir, from Colombia, was seen removing himself from his young family in order to work in the Mayor’s office to stop the spread of the virus.
Pandemic continues next Thursday at 9pm on BBC Two.
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