Jennifer Nepomuceno, COVID survivor
“I am Jennifer Nepomuceno, COVID-19 survivor”
by Babe Pañares
Jennifer Nepomuceno sounds like a survivor. She has a steel to her voice that tells you hers will not be a typical COVID-19 sob story. She is curt in her answers – no drama, no flair, and only turning soft when talking about her two beloved fur babies: a German Shepherd and an aspin.
She wears her recovery from the novel coronavirus as a badge, a triumph over a life-threatening disease, and rejects the intolerance of the fearful.
“Use my real name. I did nothing wrong,” she says with the grim determination of someone who looked death in the eye and did not blink.
A range of symptoms beset Jennifer after contracting the highly contagious disease, which still has neither vaccine nor cure. Her predicament was the stuff of nightmares to anyone who dreads being touched by the deadly pandemic.
On March 30, the 27-year-old homemaker had a splitting headache, but thought nothing of it as she did not have fever. She, however, tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
She languished in bed the next evening, feeling tired and having trouble breathing, after a morning spent repacking relief goods for Manila residents.
Jennifer eventually went to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) to have herself checked. “Pinauwi ako ng PGH. Ayaw nila ako i-confine kasi madami na silang COVID patients.” So she headed back home to her husband and two dogs.
But on April 1, this generally optimistic person saw herself manifest other COVID-19 symptoms. “Nawalan ako ng gana kumain. Nag-diarrhea ako kahit walang laman ‘yung tiyan ko. Nawalan din ako ng pang-amoy.”
At a hospital in Taguig City, Jennifer was tested for the dreaded virus. “Mababa din daw ‘yung white-blood cell count ko. Baka kaya mababa ang immunity ko.”
Strangely, all her symptoms disappeared the next day, but she went on home quarantine while waiting for her test results.
Nearly two weeks later, she transferred to the Ninoy Aquino Stadium (NAS), a new COVID-19 treatment center, leaving behind her small family, and the nosy neighbors who railed against her presence upon learning she was positive for the virus. (“Nung nalaman nila na may sakit ako, kahit di pa naman sure na COVID, kung ano-ano ang posts nila sa Facebook ko. Sobrang bastos. Yung iba, sinasabi pa na dapat umalis na lang ako.”)
On April 14, Jennifer became the first patient to be confined in the converted, 112-bed quarantine facility.
Already asymptomatic by the time of her NAS confinement, she found her worries tempered by the first-class service she received from the facility’s frontliners.
“Ako ‘yung first patient nila. Mag-isa lang ako n’un, pero hindi naman malungkot. Mabuting-mabuti ang trato nila sa akin,” she tells Powerclub in an exclusive interview.
“Masarap ‘yung pagkain, may merienda pa. ’Pag 6 a.m., may exercise session."
“Allowed ang cellphones, unlimited yung wifi, at malakas ang signal.” It meant the world to her, staying connected with her loved ones.
On April 21, after twice testing negative for the virus, Jennifer became the facility's first COVID-19 survivor to be sent home. By April 30, she was one of four patients successfully discharged from the NAS, joining over a thousand patients who have recovered across the country.
“Hindi ako dapat ma-discriminate. Bakit ako mahihiya? I did not do anything wrong,” she states, every inch the survivor who walked out of the quarantine facility healthy and healed.
She is one of the lucky ones. As of May 28 after over 70 days of an enhanced community quarantine, more than 930 have died and close to 16,000 have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Philippines.
The NAS accepts COVID-19 patients who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. The facility was completed by private partners Prime BMD and Bloomberry Cultural Foundation Inc. of the Razon Group, and energized by power distributor, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) with internet connectivity provided by PLDT.
Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso underscores the crucial role of private-sector partners such as Meralco in the fight to contain the spread of the pandemic.
“Meralco has helped energized the ‘We Heal as One Center’ at the NAS,” he affirms, “where patients from Manila are its principal beneficiaries.” Meralco did this “in less than 24 hours, with help from the Bases Conversion and Development Authority and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).”
It upgraded NAS’s existing electrical capacity to accommodate the increase in electrical load and ensure uninterrupted power supply.
It also energized Manila's new Manila Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office headquarters at the Paraiso ng Batang Maynila, along Quirino Ave.
The power firm enhanced electrical systems for temporary treatment centers identified by the DPWH, which included the Philippine International Convention Center and the World Trade Center, both in Pasay City.
While the sites are being utilized as temporary quarantine facilities, Meralco also monitors them 24/7.
“We at Meralco are one with the government in providing support to our country’s frontliners, as they care and nursed back to health those who are afflicted with COVID-19,” assures Meralco President and CEO Atty. Ray Espinosa. “We will do our part by ensuring fast, adequate and safe energization.”
He adds, “Meralco continues to keep up the good fight and sustain our mission to keep the lights on for our brave frontliners and afflicted patients.”
As of May 26, Meralco has contributed 37,840 protective personal equipment worth P12.8 million to fight the spread of the pandemic.
Its #KeepingtheLightsOn hashtag links to a website for customers who want to ask Meralco for help. It is also the company-wide battle cry, because over 1,967 employees are on lockdown and another 3,650 are on the skeleton force, going out daily to ensure continuous electric service.
The Meralco family helped its own with A Day To Give and Share A Leave, raising P26.24 million for workers on a daily rate basis.
With initiatives from stakeholders such as Meralco, the hope lives on for more Jennifer Nepomucenos to come back home safely.
To learn how you can contribute, visit the One Meralco Foundation’s Help From Home Campaign.
Story originally posted on Power Club.