The Place Not to Be

 

Last week the janitor of the building I live in in Vienna called to ask me if I would like to contribute to a wreath for the funeral of a neighbour who had died the previous week (on my birthday, actually). I knew that that nice old lady, the prototypical nosy Viennese neighbour who spent most of her time looking outside the window, had moved into a nursing home last summer, but as I had not seen her or talked to her for months I had no idea about her physical condition. When I asked what she had died of, I learnt that she had died of Covid, contracted in the hospital where she was taken after injuring herself from a fall on the way to the supermarket right next to the nursing home. This made me really sad as it is one of many stories I recently heard of elderly people who had to go to hospital for something completely unrelated and then caught the virus in those hospitals. It is really infuriating that those very places where you should feel safe and in the best hands, such as nursing homes and hospitals end up being "death traps" for helpless patients who had no choice. By using public transport or going to the shops during a pandemic you put yourself at risk and maybe (assuming you are able-bodied or computer-literate and financially well-off) you could have avoided that by walking or using your car instead, and having everything delivered to your doorstep. Nobody forces you to go skiing or ice-skating during lockdown, either and you know that it is a "frivolous" activity that might end up in you getting infected. Going to hospital for some treatment is rarely ever something you choose to do "for fun" and you usually expect to leave those places in a better condition than before. Well, this really has not been the case, recently and that's a shame.