Covid One Year On: West Midlands paramedic remembers thinking "this will shake the NHS"
We've been speaking to a frontline worker
Last updated 5th Mar 2021
Since the first patient tested positive for coronavirus in Birmingham 12 months ago, thousands more have lost their lives across the West Midlands.
We're taking a look at the last 12 months and how the region has changed.
Read our interview with Director of Public Health for Birmingham City Council here.
Our Chief Reporter Megan Jones has been speaking to paramedic Karina from West Midlands Ambulance Service who's been working during the pandemic and also caught coronavirus back in March 2020.
When did you hear about the first case?
I remember, I'd had some time off, I came back and I remember hearing colleagues hearing about it.
I remember thinking this is going to be something different, this is going to shake the NHS.
How did you feel?
Scared.
It was the unknown.
I have young children at home, I have a vulnerable mother, I didn't want to bring it home.
We didn't know what was going to happen.
We didn't know the risks.
When did you start wearing PPE?
We were lucky, the Ambulance Service got us PPE early on.
Then it became we needed to wear PPE regardless.
We had good access to PPE.
Do you remember the first patient?
I went to a lady who had traveled back from Spain, she was very poorly by the time we got to her, I remember feeling helpless.
I found all the treatment I was giving her, wasn't helping.
I remember thinking this is different.
How did it escalate?
It then became all day every day.
We were going to really poorly people.
I remember thinking 'how are we going to cope'
What have you been doing to cope?
For me, it's yoga and meditation which has really helped.
What I also want to mention is, what the public did, I don't think the public realised how much that impacted our morale.
It was amazing, even just the claps on a Thursday.
We had gifts given to us, cakes, flowers, cards and lovely letters.
I really don't think people understood what that did, they kept us going.
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