Citation

Čivljak R, Markotić A, Capak K. J. Glob. Health 2020; 10(1): e010349.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Edinburgh University Global Health Society)

DOI

10.7189/jogh.10.010349

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

... At the end of the fourth week of the COVID-19 epidemic in Croatia, a total of 206 cases had been confirmed, with 49 newly diagnosed on 21 March 2020. When we thought that nothing worse could happen, on 22 March 2020, the citizens of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, home to a quarter of the total Croatian population, were awakened at 6:24 am by an earthquake of 5.5 magnitude on the Richter scale, followed in the next 24 hours by 57 aftershocks. Due to extensive property damage, several hospitals had to be evacuated, including the UHID, where there were 86 patients at the moment, including 22 COVID-19 patients, 15 of whom were in the ICU. This additional misfortune has jeopardized the safety of us all, especially the most vulnerable members of our society: children, the elderly and the sick. A total of 27 persons were injured during the earthquake, of whom one, sadly a 15-year-old girl, died of her injuries.


We as HCWs were expected to remain clear-headed, gather all our strength, knowledge and skills, and provide our patients with the best of what was possible, and sometimes even the impossible. But we also remember the scene around our hospital buildings, where the old and young, staff and patients, corona-positive and negative, were scattered on the grass and the parking lot, shivering from the cold and fear.

Nevertheless, we survived that, too, and we will continue to survive, even when faced with greater challenges. We have demonstrated and proven that we cannot do without one another: physicians without nurses, patients without HCWs, HCWs without non-medical and support staff, parents without children, and children without parents.

In addition to property damage, we were quite apprehensive that the earthquake would accelerate the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic in Croatia since the earthquake, which left many homeless and fearful of earthquakes to come, triggered migrations to other parts of the country...

Language: en