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VIRUS OUTBREAK GREECE HOSPITAL VOLUNTEERS

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VIRUS OUTBREAK GREECE HOSPITAL VOLUNTEERS

More than a century ago, the Sotiria hospital in Athens was built as a public sanatorium for patients with a feared infectious disease that spread through coughing and killed indiscriminately — tuberculosis.

Now Greece’s main hospital for COVID-19 patients, it’s also the focus of a hands-on training program for dozens of medical students who volunteered to relieve hard-pressed doctors from simpler duties while gaining a close peek at the front lines as medical history is being made.

When the Sotiria — which means “salvation” in Greek — was designated to lead the country’s coronavirus response in March, medical staff quickly found themselves too busy to properly carry out ordinary duties at a major Athens hospital that treats all kinds of patients. That’s when two doctors and professors of medicine at Athens University thought of seeking help from volunteers.

The program was initially designed for graduates in medicine, but so many students, mostly in their final year, asked to join that it ended up running with them — 56 young men and women from Greek and Slovakian medical schools.

“They underwent rigorous training, and were assigned specific duties and peripheral jobs,” said Garyfallia Poulakou, an assistant professor and contagious disease expert who organized the two-month program together with Kostas Syrigos, a professor of medicine and medical oncology.

“Under no circumstances were they to enter the so-called Red Zone with the COVID-19 patients,” she said. “They proved to be fearless, and the experience for me was very, very positive.”

The students carry out mundane but necessary jobs at the hospital’s pathological clinic, such as attending minor operations, taking blood samples and handling paperwork. In the COVID-19 section, their duties included taking delivery of blood samples in the safe zone and talking to relatives who were not allowed in to see the patients.

Anna Karagiannakou, 21, a third-year student at Safarik University in Kosice, Slovakia, said she has gained vital insights into what being a doctor fully entails.

“Although I wasn’t allowed to help treat coronavirus patients, I saw this as an opportunity to provide assistance with other tasks and gain experience at a historic moment in crisis conditions, the like of which I may never encounter again,” she said.

Medical students Afroditi Gerodimontaki, left, Michaella Alexandrou, center, and Dimitra Siakalli examining patients patients at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 7, 2020)

Medical student Michaella Alexandrou holds the hand of a patient as her colleague takes blood test at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 7, 2020)

Medical students Afroditi Gerodimontaki, left, Michaella Alexandrou, center, and Dimitra Siakalli examining a patient at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 7, 2020)

A plastic flower is placed on the pocket of the medical student Afroditi Gerodimontaki next to her volunteer card at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 7, 2020)

Medical students watch internal medicine Katerina Bakiri, right, as she operates a minimally invasive procedure on a patient at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 6, 2020)

Medical students Eleni Fyta, left, and Adamantia Papamichail keep note from a blood test of a patient at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 6, 2020)

Internal medicine Sofia Prappa holds a paper with medical tests as medical student Nikolaos Katsanakis takes a photograph at the COVID-19 Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 8, 2020)

Medical student Konstantinos Koufatzidis, foreground, takes from internal medicine Sofia Prappa the blood tests of patients at the COVID-19 Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 8, 2020)

Internal medicine Charalambos Birbilis, right, examines a patient as his wife and medical students Afroditi Gerodimontaki, center, Michaella Alexandrou, left, and Dimitra Siakalli look on at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 7, 2020)

Internal medicine Vassilis Maravitsas tests a patient for COVID-19 following the recent protocol at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 7, 2020)

Medical students attend the morning meeting with the doctors of the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 6, 2020)

Medical students Nikolaos Katsanakis, top left, Ilias Sinanidis, top right, Anna Karagiannakou, bottom left, and Konstantinos Koufatzidis pose at the entrance of the COVID-19 Clinic at Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 8, 2020)

Medical student Nikolaos Katsanakis poses at the entrance of the COVID-19 Clinic at Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 8, 2020)

Medical student Ilias Sinanidis poses at the entrance of the COVID-19 Clinic at Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 8, 2020)

Medical student Anna Karagiannakou poses at the entrance of the COVID-19 Clinic at Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 8, 2020)

Medical student Konstantinos Koufatzidis poses at the entrance of the COVID-19 Clinic at Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 8, 2020)

A medical student checks the CT of a patient at the COVID-19 Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 8, 2020)

Internal medicine Anastasios Kollias, left, keeps notes as ICU consultant Marios Karvouniaris looks on as their colleagues examining patients inside the COVID-19 Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 8, 2020)

Medical staff chat on a balcony as a cat stands outside doctors’ office at the COVID-19 Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 8, 2020)

Internal medicine Konstantinos Kyriakoulis, left, stands on the window of the patients room as he listens MSc student at Athens University (EKPA) Maria Adami, at the COVID-19 Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 8, 2020)

Medical student Adamantia Papamichail, left, shows notes to internal medicine Katerina Bakiri at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 6, 2020)

ICU consultant Marios Karvouniaris, left, next to wall and internal medicine Agamemnon Bakakos, center, show medical students a CT of a patient at the COVID-19 Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 8, 2020)

Medical student Eleni Fyta takes blood test from a patient at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 6, 2020)

Katerina Bakiri examining a patient as medical students Nikolaos Syrigos, left, Eleni Fyta, center, and Adamantia Papamichail look on at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 6, 2020)

Medical student Anastasia Gkiala, right, helps internal medicine Vassilis Maravitsas to operate a minimally invasive procedure on a patient the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (May 6, 2020)

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