Medics suffer mental trauma months after Covid-19's first wave

It has been eight months since he last treated a patient with COVID-19, but Spanish nurse Ricardo Belmonte still feels anxious when he recalls the first wave of the pandemic at the intensive care unit of Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron Hospital.

Early last year patients were pleading with him to save their lives and he had to live apart from his family for three months to protect them from infection.

"A feeling of anxiety has stayed with me all this time. I have been overcoming it with the help of my family, talking with other colleagues," said Belmonte, 50.

The coronavirus and associated disease, COVID-19, had an even deeper impact because his parents contracted it and it killed his 90-year-old father.

"It makes me angry not having been able to take care of him," Belmonte recalled, unable to hold back the tears. He has not been able to embrace his mother for almost a year.

The emotional toll of treating COVID-19 patients is under increasing scrutiny, as overworked medics around the world relive their experiences of overcrowded hospital wards and high death rates.

- Reuters