Stepping Stone Hospice patient recovers fully from Covid-19
“When I woke up, I was partially paralysed, one of the effects of the virus. But not even that frightened me as much as the fact that I couldn’t see nor talk to my family,” she said.
A mere two weeks after being diagnosed with stage three lung cancer, 50-year-old Katrien de Beer from Elsburg, Germiston, tested positive for Covid-19.
Her journey since March 19, when she was placed in isolation in the ICU ward in the Netcare Union Hospital, where she spent her days and nights on a ventilator, can only be described as severely traumatic.
Katrien is currently being cared for in the Stepping Stone Hospice In-Patient Unit in New Market Park.
Though she has fully recovered from the dreaded virus before being moved to the Hospice, she has not fully come to terms with what has happened to her and finds it difficult to talk about her experiences, not just as a lung cancer patient, but as a Covid-19 patient as well.
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“I still cannot believe what this year has brought to my doorstep,” she said.
She describes herself as relatively healthy, but started coughing quite a bit in early March this year.
“Treatment for sinus and bronchitis did not help, and it was only once further tests were done that I was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer.”
A few days before her second chemo session, Katrien developed severe stomach cramps. It was suggested that she gets herself tested for Covid-19 and it was at the second chemo session that she received the news that she was positive.
“All I can remember was that I was moved in a wheelchair to the ICU. I woke up three weeks later not knowing what has happened to me. I was told that I was on a ventilator, fighting for my life.”
Katrien, a mother of two sons and grandmother to three, said that her biggest concern at the time was that her family couldn’t visit her and she feared that they didn’t know what was happening to her.
“When I woke up, I was partially paralysed, one of the effects of the virus. But not even that frightened me as much as the fact that I couldn’t see nor talk to my family,” she said.
Katrien spent another two weeks in isolation until she was given the all-clear and was then moved to Stepping Stone Hospice on June 10.
“Though I was very scared to come to the Hospice initially, I cannot tell you how dramatically my health and my mental state improved since being admitted here,” said Katrien.
“Though there is also restricted visiting hours here at the Hospice, my family can visit me at least once a day. The nursing staff, physiotherapist and the psycho-social teams tend to all my needs, and I can watch the little birds in the garden outside my room.”
According to Sister Margi Bollman, the care services manager at the Hospice, Katrien has shown remarkable progress since admission. “We had to be sure that she recovered fully from Covid-19 before we could admit her. We continued with the specialised care she needed and it is heart-warming to see how the sparkle in her eyes started coming back.
“She has been through a lot and I am grateful that we as a team at Stepping Stone Hospice can now assist her on the rest of her journey,” said Bollman.
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