Farooq Bandy
One may not be a Yogi Aditya Nath supporter, but the mechanism put in by his Government can be considered one of the best to fight the pandemic and worth to be emulted.
At the stroke of midnight on March 13, 2021, I was admitted in a hospital in Uttar Pradesh after my COVID-19 RT-PCR test came positive. I was informed by the concerned doctors on phone at about 10.45 in the evening and advised to get admitted in the hospital.
When I reached the hospital, the building in which the COVID ward was established was locked from outside and a hospital employee was waiting for any emergency case. Before opening the gate he clicked my picture on his cell phone. Another man came from nowhere and also took the pleasure of clicking my picture on his mobile phone. After jotting down my name and address, the gate was opened; I was advised to follow the staff member, who thankfully carried my small bag in which I had put some medicines, clothes, etc. After climbing the staircase, which at that time I felt very cumber some, we reached the 4th floor of the building, I was taken to a ward and was advised to lie down on a bed. Two members of the medical team, who were attending the patients, came to my bedside and started my check up. They took my ECG, inserted a cannula in my right hand. After some time they left the ward. As it was midnight most of the lights in the ward were switched off, I could not see the other patients.
While climbing the stair case, my heart had started beating very fast, rather galloping.
All the stories heard and read in newspapers or social media about COVID-19 patients were dancing before my eyes and were constantly scaring me.
However the only consolation I had was that my admission in a hospital can help to keep my other family members safe.
I could not sleep for whole night as I was feeling nervous.
Next morning, after having a brief nap, when I looked towards the other side of the ward, I found the number of patients admitted in the ward to be very less, two female patients only. It gave me some consolation.
During the day another medical team arrived in the ward and prescribed some medicine and I.V. fluids, thus started my treatment.
Prior to my admission in the hospital, I had fever, mild headache and had lost my appetite for about a week. I didn’t have classic symptoms like flu , difficulty in breathing or shortness of breath, soar thought body ache, fatigue, etc, that we read in newspapers or on social media. However, when there was no let of from high fever, on the advice of a doctor, various medical examinations were conducted but that could not lead us anywhere. Before a day of going for COVID-19 test, the chest X-Ray showed some lung opacities and finally it was decided to go for a COVID-19 test.
On third day one of the patients was discharged and only 2 patients were in the ward now. No new patient had been admitted in the ward since my arrival three days earlier.
On fourth day, depression was building up in me as I was waiting for some serious complications, like acute cough and breathing problems.
When a doctor arrived to checkup me, I expressed my position and requested her if the hospital can arrange for a psychiatrist or a psychologist who can advise on my depression issues. After about one hour I received a call from a psychiatrist and after listening to me she referred me to a psychologist. After talking to the psychologist I had some relief and started consoling myself for any adverse situation. The psychologist, who was also a lady talked to me daily on my mobile till I remained hospitalized. Later I came to know through her only that she had been given task to call each patient admitted in the covid ward for their support. Soft spoken and very polite, her daily conversation for one or two minutes helped me a lot to keep my morale high.
The gradual inflow of patients, some with serious and some with mild symptoms again affected my mental health and I felt some uneasiness. However, with the help of the psychologist I overcame that phase also.
Meanwhile, I was worried about the COVID-19 tests of my family members, my close contacts, and had a sigh of relief after learning about their negative tests.
After 10th day of my hospitalization, I again tested positive and same was the result after 14th day.
During last few days of my stay in hospital, a very serious female patient was admitted late in the evening. She was put on oxygen and some drugs were administered to her. The medical staff remained there up to mid night and after locking the door of ward they left the scene. I was surprised to notice that not a single doctor was among the medical team to attend her. Previously also I had noticed that whenever a new patient would get admitted no doctor would come and instead they would be contacted on cell phone by the attending medical staff to seek advice, but at the time of admission of a serious patient, the logic of their conspicuous absence could not be justified.
At about 3.15 a.m. suddenly I woke up due to the loud screaming of that serious patient. As her bed was just opposite my bed, I could see from the monitor her oxygen level which was constantly slipping downward. What I could see, during the night, her oxygen mask had got somehow disturbed and she could not breathe properly. When I saw her oxygen level reaching 35, I and one patient tried to contact the medical staff but could not as their cell phones were either switched off or not reachable. Other patients were disturbed but helpless. At about 5.am, medical team opened the doors of the ward and helped her to readjust the oxygen mask and we had a sigh of relief.
On day 15th I was advised to go for home quarantine for 7 days. Thus on 15th day I was discharged from the hospital .I met my family members, though from a distance, after two weeks. I isolated myself in a separate room.
SWOT analysis of the hospital where I was admitted.
The hospital is that of private Medical College and very famous in the area.
Some of the wards of the hospital, in a separate building, have been designated by the Government as COVID wards and some of the administrative control also lies with the government. The designated COVID wards have been equipped with all the necessary facilities required for the treatment of the COVID-19 patient. The Medical College staff as well as the staff from the Govt Health Services jointly attends the patients admitted in these wards, as I have been given to understand. On the basis of what I have seen inside these wards, they can be compared with any other private hospital situated in some metro cities.
However, there are some weaknesses also.
Soon after the breakout of the pandemic last year, not only common people got scared but the frontline workers also. The fear of contracting the virus despite all the precautions took the toll of these frontline workers, specially belonging to the medical fraternity and in desperation many of them left the job to save themselves and their families. These types of concerns are still manifest in the working of the medical staff in these wards, with the result the patient care is the causality.
The modern equipment provided to these wards is not being utilized properly and the main reason can be the inexperience of the staff there. This situation may be arising due to the rotation of the staff after 15 days as a single team can’t be asked to work permanently in these wards. It would have been better to provide necessary one day’s training to the staff of these equipments prior to their duties in these wards, if not to all but to some tech savvy and concerned staff members. This will not only help in to improve the patient care but also the life span of these equipments also. Quality of food and the cleanliness of the wards can be enumerated its other weaknesses. COVID-19 patients admitted in these wards may be having some other complications also, like sugar, B.P., liver, heart, etc. There is a need of a dietician who can suggest the food to be provided to a particular patient. But apparently there is no such system presently prevalent and all the patients are left at the mercy of the supplier of the food. The worst part is the supply of tea. The hot tea is being provided in a polythene bag along with a disposable cup, whereas, providing of any hot food in a polythene bag is not recommended by the medical faculty, and it is considered injurious to health.
The pandemic has provided a good opportunity to this hospital to serve the people of the area in a better way as this is the only COVID-19 designated hospital in the district. It can also improve the image of the hospital in the whole area for future and with its strong infra structure and modern equipments, it can be a torch bearer for private hospitals of the other adjacent districts also.
The threats are causal approach of the persons monitoring the day-to-day working of these wards. The administration must have considered every aspect for the better care of patients before opening the gates of its wards for the patients. They must have also learned many new things from the day-to-day functioning and accordingly changed its strategies for implementation. If there is any laxity it may be because of not so serious approach of the implementing team.
One may not be a Yogi Aditya Nath supporter, but the mechanism put in by his government can be considered one of the best to fight the pandemic. During my 15 days stay in the hospital, I was getting calls on my cell phone from the Chief Medical Officer’s office after every 2-3 days enquiring about my health and any difficulty like constant supply of medicines, regular visits of the doctors, food, and cleanliness of the ward. I twice received calls from Luckhnow office of the Medical department also. When I was sent home for seven days quarantine , every morning a person from CMO’s office would call and after enquiring about my health, advising me to call that number in case of any help. The policies adopted by the Uttar Pradesh Government for COVID-19 containment are worth to be studied by other State and UT Governments and its strong points are worth to be emulated. Yogi Government’s measures can be termed ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 3-T’s policy, i.e., Trace, Test and Treat. Back home in J&K, after a person tests positive, they only call received from the COVID monitoring team is an enquiry about the pasting of the warning poster and afterwards they forget about the affected person.
I am recuperating after testing negative and can consider myself lucky to have survived, unlike many not so lucky. Still the panic of contracting a virus that is basically untraceable and incurable and no one knows the long term irreparable damage it does to ones immune system is stressful.
I would like to end my ordeal with a beautifully written Instagram message by a US comedian, Ali Wentworth, after testing positive. “…. And I continue to recover I am stuck by what has become the dehumanization of this plague. People are dying. People are suffering. People are hungry. People are scared. We have to shed all ideological, religious, social, economic barriers and grab each other’s hands and move forward united. As people, we can isolate to help others particularly the incredible health workers and all the courageous and selfless people on the frontline, but that does not mean we should isolate our hearts.”
For those who do not still believe that the COVID-19 virus is real or think it as a rumour or a part of some conspiracy, my request to those is to understand that this is a deadly virus spreading like wildfire throughout the world. Please follow the guidelines and save yourself, your family and the people around you.
Take care and stay safe.
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