Medhi

Brief Outline:

Ethnicity: Middle Eastern
Background: Medhi is in his 30s and is Iranian. He is married and has a baby. He is currently a student. Medhi heard about Covid in March 2020 but experienced it himself when he and his wife developed Covid symptoms in January 2021. Medhi found it difficult to be away from friends but feels that it’s important to follow the government guidelines.

 

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Medhi first heard of Covid in March 2020 when a friend told him they couldn’t meet-up because of a new virus and lockdown. It wasn’t until January 2021 that Medhi had first-hand experience of Covid, when he and his wife tested positive for the virus. His wife had a high temperature and Medhi’s symptoms included coughing every two or three hours, loss of smell and taste, and a fever which lasted for just over two weeks. Medhi’s baby also had a fever for around a week, and he thinks might have been Covid, but doctors said that they were “fine”.
 
Medhi says he phoned 111 when his sick contained blood, and they told him he “must ring to 999 to bring [him] to hospital”. When the ambulance arrived, they told him he “must stay at home” because the blood wasn’t from his lungs and going to hospital would “be worse” for him. Medhi rested and took ibuprofen and paracetamol to try to recover.
 
When Medhi had to isolate, his friend’s son would go to the shops to get things for the family. Medhi talks about missing being able to spend time with his friends and celebrating, but it’s the “same for everybody”. Despite telling his friends, Medhi didn’t tell his mum that he had Covid because he didn’t want to worry her.
 
While Medhi feels that it is important to wear a facemask, lots of his classmates didn’t understand. He says that they didn’t know about the pandemic and coronavirus, so they weren’t following the rules. Medhi was concerned when his teacher said that there wasn’t “any reason” to worry about the pandemic, so he asked his teacher to send him the course online. Medhi sometimes found learning online a little bit difficult, but felt it was more important to follow the rules around Covid.
 
Medhi feels it’s important that people try to follow the government rules because otherwise you might harm others. He says that lots of doctors, nurses, and healthcare staff have died because of Covid so “we must follow the rules” and that “the people must control it”.

 

Medhi was preparing for a New Year celebration when a friend told him not to go out.

It was 17th March 2019, and it was nearly Iranian New Year. That day a friend of mine said, “So sorry from this day, today we can’t meet all your family, we should go to other, my house.” I said, “Why what’s happened? “It’s pandemic. The Covid goes up and lots of people die because of Covid.” I said, “What’s Covid?” he said, “Oh it’s a new virus. Nobody knows about this virus but lots of doctor and nurse study and work hard for-, knows about this virus but unfortunately lots of people died of because of this virus so we should stay at home, don’t go out, never, because our government have decided to lockdown.” And I said, “I haven’t heard of this word ‘lockdown’, what’s lockdown?” and he said, “Okay just stay at home, don’t go out.”

Medhi was very worried that students on his course were not wearing masks. He stopped attending and asked for online access.

I told them many, many times, “Please wear a mask.” But my teacher said, “Oh no worries, it’s not any reason to worried about a pandemic.” I said, “So sorry, I don’t know you. You don’t know me. We must follow the rules, we must wear a mask to avoid this virus. Don’t leave to virus.” So, I decided to leave the college and I said to my teacher in college please if you can send me to online course, I can’t come to face to face because I can’t stop the people to his mind, their mind because they don’t believe in the pandemic, to wear a mask.

Medhi didn’t speak with his family about having Covid to avoid worrying them.

We didn’t speak with our family because my mother has high blood pressure, so I worried about her. So sometimes she’d call to us, “Oh how are you?” “Oh I’m alright thank you. I’m busy so sorry, I can’t speak with you.” “Okay no problem, next time.”

Medhi contacted 111 when he noticed he had blood in his vomit.

I had a pain in all of, all of my body and I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t drink. Lots of vomiting, sometimes two days, two days, I had blood in my vomiting, so I ring to 111. The person said to me, “Oh you should, you must ring to 999 to bring you to hospital.” I called 999 and an ambulance came to our garden and they’re monitoring everything, and they said, “Oh no worries, this this blood is not from your lung. You must stay at home and if you go to hospital maybe will be worse for you.” So, I didn’t go to hospital and I just stay at home.