Longing for normalcy

By Kim Ji-soo

As the world enters a third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us have had our run-ins, from mild to severe to even fatal with the rampant coronavirus. The shock when COVID-19 first surfaced and spread; the angst when you went for your first PCR test; the joy when the vaccines rolled out; the fatigue of the pandemic prolonging; and the agony of people dying for lack of access to proper treatment, have all weighed heavily on people around the world. In addition, there was the sense of resignation when the Omicron variant turned out not to be a “Christmas gift” of peaking early as it did in South Africa and then tapering off, but continued its inexorable spread.

During the past two years, much of the coverage of the pandemic had been about the numbers, the daily infections, severe cases and death tolls. But when Korea eased COVID restrictions in November, and the numbers then quickly soared into the 7,000s and the number of critically-ill patients recorded in the 1,000s, photos of medical staff in ICUS appeared more frequently.

Then for me, COVID-19 struck closer to home. My sister and brother-in-law were infected. This is not to say that vaccination should be forcibly enforced, but they were not vaccinated out of fear of side-effects. Number wise, they belong to the 7 percent of unvaccinated adults aged 18 and over that make up 30 percent of the infected, and 53 percent of severe cases and deaths, according to the Central Accident Management Headquarters of the Ministry of Health and Welfare as of Jan. 3.

The symptoms began in early December. They had their suspicions but bet on that it was just a cold. Then it got too unbearable and they were hospitalized on Dec. 16 at one of the top university hospitals. They were in that sense lucky in that they could find a bed to receive treatment.

Once hospitalized, they were treated with Remdesivir, which was used to treat Ebola. A colleague, also infected, believes the Ebola drug saved his life. My sister slowly improved, but her husband’s lungs were severely damaged and he was quickly transferred from oxygen treatment to a ventilator and then extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). An alarm bell went off in my head when I heard ECMO, as it is used when the lungs deteriorate so much that the doctors opt for this treatment of oxygenating a patient’s blood outside the body, and then pumping it back in. It has a survival rate of 50-50.

After ECMO and receiving a high dose of antiviral steroids, my brother-in-law was able to leave hospital after 15 days. The doctor explained that his relatively young age and lack of underlying disease helped in his recovery. The recovery was unbelievably swift -- his lungs are still impaired though -- that a blurring ball of emotions of gratitude, rage and acceptance hit me. The beautiful irony was that while Christmas was ruined, we received the biggest Christmas present possible. I shared the story with others -- misery shared is misery halved. I realized others underwent varying degrees of the COVID-19 infection experience. It’s hard to fathom what they or people over the world have gone through, but kudos to all for doing your best to stay informed and protecting yourself.