Shaved Heads, Adult Diapers: Life as a Nurse in the Coronavirus Outbreak

In Hubei Province nurses and doctors have pleaded for more masks, thousands of health workers have been among recent confirmed cases of infection and several have died. On Monday, medical workers in the nearby city of Wuhan wrote a letter to The Lancet medical journal asking for help and describing the conditions at hospitals as “more difficult and extreme than we could ever have imagined.”

Ms. Zhang echoed some of those concerns. “I worry about being infected, I miss home,” she said. Now that her assignment on the front line has ended, she is waiting out her own 14-day quarantine at a nearby hotel before she returns home to her family.

When this is all over, she said she looks forward to seeing her family again, taking a nice long bath and eating meals cooked by her mother, who on three occasions during the assignment made her meals including dishes of potatoes, carrots, lamb kebabs, scrambled eggs with chili and even rib soup. Ms. Zhang picked them up from the sidewalk outside her family home while her mother watched from a safe distance.

She also looks forward to her wedding, at which she says she plans to wear a wig. She has put down a deposit for a dress but hasn’t picked one out yet. She tries to be upbeat, especially when she talks to her fiancé. Their wedding day is scheduled for April 24.

“I hope I will not have to delay it,” she said.

Wang Yiwei contributed to reporting from Beijing.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/business/coronavirus-china-nurse-menstruation.html