Two nurses in their 30s have died after contracting coronavirus, and it has emerged that nurses and frontline health workers are being offered grief counselling and psychological support, with the loss of more NHS lives anticipated.
Areema Nasreen, a 36-year-old NHS nurse from Walsall in the West Midlands, who was believed to have had no underlying health issues, died shortly after midnight on Thursday in intensive care at Walsall Manor hospital, where she had worked for 16 years.
Tributes were also paid to another NHS nurse, named locally as mother of three Aimee O’Rourke, who is is believed to have contracted the virus before she died. She was described as “a wonderful friend and colleague” to those who worked with her at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother hospital in Margate, Kent.
Quick GuideWhat to do if you have coronavirus symptoms in the UK
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Symptoms are defined by the NHS as either:
- a high temperature - you feel hot to touch on your chest or back
- a new continuous cough - this means you've started coughing repeatedly
NHS advice is that anyone with symptoms should stay at home for at least 7 days.
If you live with other people, they should stay at home for at least 14 days, to avoid spreading the infection outside the home.
After 14 days, anyone you live with who does not have symptoms can return to their normal routine. But, if anyone in your home gets symptoms, they should stay at home for 7 days from the day their symptoms start. Even if it means they're at home for longer than 14 days.
If you live with someone who is 70 or over, has a long-term condition, is pregnant or has a weakened immune system, try to find somewhere else for them to stay for 14 days.
If you have to stay at home together, try to keep away from each other as much as possible.
After 7 days, if you no longer have a high temperature you can return to your normal routine.
If you still have a high temperature, stay at home until your temperature returns to normal.
If you still have a cough after 7 days, but your temperature is normal, you do not need to continue staying at home. A cough can last for several weeks after the infection has gone.
Staying at home means you should:
- not go to work, school or public areas
- not use public transport or taxis
- not have visitors, such as friends and family, in your home
- not go out to buy food or collect medicine – order them by phone or online, or ask someone else to drop them off at your home
You can use your garden, if you have one. You can also leave the house to exercise – but stay at least 2 metres away from other people.
If you have symptoms of coronavirus, use the NHS 111 coronavirus service to find out what to do.
Source: NHS England on 23 March 2020
Paying tribute to Nasreen, Toby Lewis, chief executive of the neighbouring Sandwell and West Birmingham hospitals NHS trust, said it was clear from experiences overseas – in particular Italy, where dozens of nurses and doctors have died – that health care workers were at risk.
“They are at risk not only from the patients we look after but from each other. There is additional grief counselling and psychological support being provided to staff because they are working in situations that are very different to those that they have worked in,” he said.
He added: “Will more healthcare workers pass away? With the greatest regret, I think that is a certainty. [However] it is our collective effort to try and minimise the number of tragedies that we see in the number of people who serve within the NHS.”
Donna Kinnair, the chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, raised concerns with the health secretary that nurse deaths were not being counted among the official coronavirus mortality figures.
On the BBC’s Question Time, Kinnair pushed Matt Hancock to release the statistics relating to healthcare staff. She said: “We haven’t even counted the nurses yet. I keep asking for the stats on nurses.” Hancock replied: “I didn’t know that, we will sort that out.”
Nasreen, also a mother of three, developed symptoms of coronavirus on 13 March, including aches, a high temperature and then a cough. She tested positive for the virus last Friday.
In a tribute posted on Facebook, her friend Rubi Aktar said: “She was the most loveliest, genuine person you could ever meet, she went above and beyond for everyone she met. I’m so grateful that I had the honour to call her my best friend, she saw me at my best and my worst and accepted my every flaw. I am so broken that words can’t explain.”
A relative told Birmingham Live: “The immediate family are devastated. Everyone is in shock this morning. She was always so full of life. She was devoted to her job as a nurse, she absolutely loved it.
“She passed away doing what she loved. I’m really sad for the rest of the family. She was a fantastic person.”
Nasreen qualified as a staff nurse in January last year and worked at the hospital’s acute medical unit. She had worked at Walsall Manor hospital since 2003, in housekeeping and as a healthcare assistant before studying to become a nurse.
Meanwhile, O’Rourke’s daughter Megan Murphy described her as an angel in a Facebook tribute.
She wrote: “Look at all the lives you looked after and all the families you comforted when patients passed away. You are an angel and you will wear your NHS crown for evermore because you earned that crown the very first day you started!
“Your Meggy misses you beyond belief. One day when I have children of my own I will tell your grandchildren about their GG (glamorous gran), which you wanted to be called, every single day.”
On Thursday, Murphy posted on social media urging people to shout her mother’s name during the 8pm nationwide clap for NHS staff, before her condition deteriorated further.
Friends and colleagues also paid tribute. Lucy Page wrote: “Aimee taught to me fight for what I believe in and gave me courage so many times to do it. I was even more lucky not only to be her friend but her work colleague as well and I cannot tell how many times I saw her fighting for what was right for her patients.
“Aimee loved all her three beautiful girls, friends and family so much and she would go to any lengths to protect them.”
“Life is so unfair. You were a wonderful friend and colleague. There will be a huge part of our team missing,” added Kayley Walke.
Areema Nasreen’s family requested that no picture of her was published.