Junior doctor working in A&E whose boyfriend was diagnosed with Covid-19 warns the ‘unusual’ virus can ‘wreak havoc’ on young and healthy people
- Madeleine Openshaw works in A&E department of a hospital in a major UK city
- Is currently training to be a GP but redeployed to help frontline NHS services
- Missed first day back at A&E as boyfriend displayed symptoms of coronavirus
- Tested positive meaning she is now in isolation for 14 days and caring for him
- Warns deadly virus can ‘wreak such havoc’ even in young and healthy people
- Learn more about how to help people impacted by COVID
A junior doctor has warned Covid-19 is not confined to the elderly and infirm and can ‘wreak havoc’ in young, healthy people – after her boyfriend battled the virus.
Madeleine Openshaw, who works in A&E department of a hospital in a major UK city, is currently self-isolating and caring for her partner, who is now on the mend.
She said it is a ‘very unusual virus’ which can present itself with a wide variety of signs and symptoms, making it difficult to manage.
Writing in British Vogue, she told how her boyfriend – who works in mental health at a different hospital – was diagnosed with pneumonia when they went to A&E, but did not need to be admitted.
Madeleine Openshaw (pictured) told how she is currently training to be a GP, after six years at medical school and two years of basic hospital training, but was called back to A&E
‘It’s worrying to think that Covid-19 can wreak such havoc in a young and healthy person; it was an important reminder to me that this isn’t a disease entirely confined to the elderly and infirm,’ she wrote.
Madeleine told how she is currently training to be a GP, after six years at medical school and two years of basic hospital training, but was called back to A&E.
She explained: ‘I was meant to be starting paediatrics last week, but instead, like thousands of doctors across the country, I have been redeployed to help staff the frontline services that are seeing a surge in demand because of coronavirus – A&E, intensive care, and acute medicine.’
Madeleine said her hospital – coincidentally where her grandparents worked as doctors during the Blitz, where her parents met here at medical school and where she was born – has been planning for the pandemic since January and currently has enough personal protective equipment.
While morale there is ‘good’, she highlighted that this is not the case in many other hospitals across the country, which are low on PPE and supplies of oxygen.
When her boyfriend began showing symptoms of Covid-19, which manifested in a mild cough, aches and pains and exhaustion, her hospital tested him and it came back positive.
She is currently on day nine of isolation and remains symptom free, and admitted to feeling ‘guilty’ at first that she couldn’t return to work.
When her boyfriend took a turn for the worst, they contacted NHS 111 and followed their advice.
Madeleine said she worries she will have some catching up to do when she does return to work, as other than her boyfriend she hasn’t yet had to deal with an acutely unwell patient with the virus.
‘It is a very unusual virus, it hasn’t yet learned how to behave in its new human host and can present with a wide variety of signs and symptoms, all of which will take some getting used to managing,’ she added.
Last month Madeleine wrote in The Guardian that she hopes the pandemic makes people realise how important the NHS is and that she ‘couldn’t be prouder to feel part of it’.
She urged people to follow government advice and stay home, and to continue clapping for the NHS and care workers every Thursday evening at 8pm.