TIME: 11 AM… DAY: SUNDAY. Even as most people were lazying around and planning to spend the day with their families and loved ones… Free Press goes on a dissection mode and brings TWO TALES of one city
The day and date coloured red on the calendar did not matter for the hardcore Covid warriors who were on their jung. The scene at Super Speciality Hospital, one of the biggest COVID-19 facilities in city, was different… it resembled a battle field albeit without smoke and the rattling guns, but the seriousness and the gravity was the same as a team of doctors were busy meeting COVID-19 patients and taking stock of their health status.
While a 65-year-old woman was shifted from ward to ICU as her oxygen saturation was decreasing, the 55-year-old man was happy to know that doctors have planned to discharge him in a few hours.
Not only the doctors, but paramedical staff, housekeeping, security and all were busy in their work to keep things smooth and to make the patients comfortable.
With the number of COVID-19 cases increasing continuously in the city, the allegations of medical negligence on the doctors, especially in COVID hospital, have also been increasing.
To put a check on the same and also to know about the condition inside a COVID hospital, Free Press reached the wards and ICU of Super Speciality Hospital and took a note on patients’ as well as doctors' mental status who are fighting the war tirelessly for the last six months.
Superintendent of hospital Dr Sumit Shukla said that they are ready to start hospital with full capacity as COVID hospital.
“The hospital was started in a hurry as a COVID facility due to increasing cases. Initially, it had only 60 beds but now we can start with a full capacity of 400-bed. At present, about 121 patients are admitted in the hospital,” he said.
Dr Shukla also informed that the hospital has been developed as a state of the art facility for treating cardiac, nephrology, neurology, and organ transplant patients but started as COVID facility due to increasing cases.
The hospital also holds a counseling session for family members to inform them about the patient's condition and health status.
We will go to sleep for at least seven days: Dr Kothari
ENT specialist Dr Shenal Kothari, who was on duty at Super Speciality Hospital, said that she has been working for the last six months. “What we need now is a sleep of at least seven days. Working in COVID hospital is exhausting and the main challenge is wearing PPE kit with other stuff for eight hours. You cannot drink water, take calls, or even rest,” she said, adding “We have even missed important calls and messages from the family.”
However, seeing patients recovering motivates her to work till all these ends.
COVID merged all specialties in one
Not only the experts of respiratory medicines, but the doctors of other expertise including ophthalmology, ENT, pathology, physiotherapy, surgery, community medicine and others are working with the common goal to get the patient recovered at the earliest.
Dr Radhika Rai, Dr Apanhuti Gautam, and Dr Minal Soni, working in Super Specialty Hospital’s ICU are some of the examples who belong to different specialization but came on the same platform due to COVID-19.
The doctors also appealed to people to join hands in arranging Remdesivir and other life saving drugs for poor patients to give them a new lease of life.
Pinky |
Patient’s testimony
35-year-old Pinky, who was admitted to the hospital in critical condition, said that she has got new life in the hospital as she was unable to breathe at the time of admission.
“I was admitted 10 days ago in critical condition. Four hospitals had denied admitting me excusing unavailability of beds. I was admitted to the hospital with SpO2 level below 50 but with doctors’ help, now I recovered and will be discharged soon,” she said.
The superintendent said that the patient was overweight and bringing her back to normal was a challenging task.
Similarly, a 72-year-old woman too shared the same experience as she was on bipap support for 10 days.
