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In 2020 and 2021, the young physiotherapist Leandra Alainz worked on the front line in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in Rio Grande do Sul. At just 23 years old, the professional worked during exhausting days in Intensive Treatment Units (ICU), to try to save the lives of patients infected by the virus. Three years later, now the mother of a two-month-old baby, Leandra is on the other side of a tragedy and needs help.
Leandra, her husband and their 2-month-old son are among the victims of the flood that devastates Rio Grande do Sul. Residents of Canoas, in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre. The family lived in a house in the Harmonia neighborhood, one of the most affected in the region. Last Friday (3), the couple left the residence with just two backpacks and a pack of diapers.
“We thought water would come, but it wouldn’t create height, just distance, especially because Canoas is a flat city. But when we saw the announcement of the emptying of our neighborhood, we were warned that we needed to pay attention. Suddenly we hear a lot of car noise, and our street is quiet. My husband said he would take a walk around the court to see what the situation was like. When he left, a guy said ‘it’s bad, it’s going to flood, we have to get out’. When I heard this, I already took two backpacks with the baby’s clothes, a pack of diapers, with minimal clothes. We thought that the next day we would come back to clean the floor and everything would be fine”, reported Leandra.
The family had no idea that the water would reach the roof of the house. However, a few days after leaving the place, they realized that all their furniture, clothes and belongings were submerged in the floods.
“We never believe that something will happen to us, in this sense. That a tragedy will happen at this level. We realized that we were far from the dike, which leaked. We thought it would leak some water, but it would never flood an entire neighborhood, that never crossed our minds”, commented Leandra.
Shelter at the in-laws’ house in Porto Alegre
After leaving her house in Canoas, the physiotherapist went to her in-laws’ residence in Porto Alegre. On a two-hour trip, the family saw the scale of the tragedy with several neighborhoods and part of the capital of Rio Grande do Sul underwater.
In the family’s house, which was not affected by the flood, Leandra, her husband and baby are sheltered, however, they lost everything in the house.
“We won’t be able to stay in that house, too much humidity destroyed everything. I don’t even know if the house is capable of holding it, because it was very simple. The baby has nothing left in his room, we lost everything. It was the crib, it was the dresser, everything in the room. That’s why we decided to crowdfund. We spent nine years planning everything for our baby’s arrival and in two months we have nothing left”, lamented Leandra.
For anyone who wants to help Leandra and her family, the contact number is (51) 9206-5769. On social media, the physiotherapist shared the fundraising link.
Heroine in the Covid-19 pandemic
Physiotherapist Leandra was featured in articles on Portal RIC during coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. The young woman used social media to share moments in ICU beds, which sometimes ended with medical discharge, but generally did not have a happy ending.
Leandra’s texts caused great commotion amid the struggle the world was experiencing in the face of the devastating virus. One of the physiotherapist’s reports, about the moment of intubation, reached more than a million people.
“When we have contact with a patient at the time of death we become human, we stop automatic. When someone is dying, no one is worried about how many hours we’re going to do, we’re not worried about how many treatments we’re going to do, we don’t think about whether we’re going to stamp their folder, how many times we’ll have to visit their bedside. We are worried about whether he is cold, whether he needs anything, whether the side he is lying on is comfortable”, wrote Leandra at the time of Covid reporting the state of the medical unit.
The messages given by Leandra portrayed the reality of hospitals and the struggle of health professionals to save as many people as possible. See some of the texts published by the physiotherapist.
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