İnci Batuk, Masis Kürkçügil on Covid-19: Good Spirits is the Most Important Factor

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"We didn't think we could possibly have the disease. Maybe, it was where we made the mistake. We thought it was just an ordinary flu. If we had thought that it was coronavirus, we would have directly gone to the hospital. The treatment could have been started earlier. But, we didn't do it."

Art director İnci Batuk-Kürkçügil and his historian-writer husband Masis Kürkçügil contracted the novel coronavirus (Covid-19).

Discharged from Taksim İlk Yardım Hospital in İstanbul two weeks ago after a 13-day treatment, they are now in house quarantine. They have spoken to bianet about the disease and their treatment process:

'It is an advantage that we didn't have a second disease'

"At first, we thought that it was a just a normal influenza. The symptoms were mostly fever and malaise. We actually thought that it was swine flu.

"After some time, the flu deteriorated further and further. Then, we thought that it was something different. As you know, tests do not always give accurate results. So, we had a CT scan.

"Our doctor called us and said that Covid-19 was seen in our CT. 'You both have healthy bodies, you don't have any other disease, you will get over it,' the doctor told us. First, we were upset. We wished that we had gone there earlier, thinking that it might have been detected much earlier.

"We were hospitalized immediately. It was an advantage that we didn't have a second disease or smoke. We didn't have time left for apprehension.

'Moral support helped us a lot'

"The doors are closed at the hospital, you cannot go outside. You are in quarantine, but since we were in the same quarantine area, we didn't get bored much. We continued our daily conversations.

"Our friends called us all the time, our phones couldn't stand it. Fortunately, they called us, because the arch enemy of the disease is your good spirits and the support that you get from the ones around you. We received great support in that respect.

"We stayed in the hospital for 13 days. The first two days were bad in terms of health, but we completely recovered in the last two days. As soon as we were hospitalized, our friends brought us books. We sometimes paced up and down in the hall by turns. We were not in a state to be bored.

"There were several patients in the area where we stayed in the hospital. But as far as we learn from the doctor, a majority of them are now discharged.

"Everyone is talking about the virus, but the virus has not yet been fully defined. It is like a blind person describing what an elephant looks like. I cannot take the floor and talk about this issue, either. New information comes about the virus at any moment. Some say people should be quarantined, other say it should last for 28 days, for instance.

"I mean, I don't want to spread unscientific knowledge on a virus, about which new information keeps coming. How can we talk about an issue that we don't know? We have only recounted our own experience. There are physicians, they have spent their years for this job. We cannot talk through our hat based on what we have heard from a couple of scientists.

'People get more ignorant as they watch TV'

"One needs to trust doctors in that respect. People should do what doctors tell them to do. We do the breathing exercises recommended by our doctor.

"Have we fully recovered? No, not fully. We keep staying home.

"As a last word, we would like to say the following: Yes, there are a lot to tell about the health system, neoliberal policies and the like. But, citizens should also know their responsibilities.

"A wrong policy was pursued about curfews. People were said all of a sudden that there would be a curfew. And they did extra shopping as if they would consume them all at the weekend. To quote Marx, 'Ignorance never yet helped anybody.' People get even more ignorant as they watch TV." (EMK/SD)