The ventilator was also stopped for two minutes during Remembrance Day

REMSBEEK – Hospitals also participated in National Remembrance Day on May 4. “Of course we turn off all equipment for a while,” says nurse Inge Bister from the Intensive Care department.

On May 4 at exactly 8:00 PM it became quiet in the Netherlands. During the National Remembrance Day the war victims were commemorated. There was no music on the radio for two minutes, the trams did not run and many motorists put their cars aside for a while. Almost everyone silently commemorated the war victims. ICU nurse Inge Bister explains how the commemoration of death went in the hospital.

“It’s quite a job to make it really quiet here. Some beds have a lot of equipment. Ventilators, heart monitors, morphine pumps. All those devices hiss and beep. That sound is of course very inappropriate during Remembrance Day.”

At Mr. Zwartjes’ bed, the nurse shows a breathing machine: “The device pumps oxygen to the patient’s lungs in a fixed rhythm. I don’t know if he can hear me, but I had already explained to Mr. Zwartjes what we were going to do for Remembrance Day. Just unplug for a moment, so that we can commemorate in silence. That’s just a matter of respect.”