Published 14:09 IST, July 26th 2020
Amitabh Bachchan sings in 'CoviD ward, Hospi', says 'patients after release are tempered'
Amitabh Bachchan wrote that he sang in the 'CoviD ward, Hospi', his term for the isolation ward, adding that patients after release are 'tempered' mentally.
Over two weeks since being hospitalised for COVID-19, Amitabh Bachchan has been keeping his fans updated with his social media posts. Big B has been conveying his gratitude to fans, well-wishers and mainly the Almighty from the isolation ward at Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai. In his latest blog, the 77-year-old penned his thoughts on the state of mind of a COVID-19 patient, during treatment and after discharge.
Amitabh Bachchan in his blog on Saturday wrote that he sang, ‘eyes shut in attempted sleep’ in the isolation ward, ‘in the darkness of the night and the shiver of the cold room.’ Big B shared that this ‘freedom’ will continue when he knows, in the will of the Almighty, there will be a release, perhaps referring to his discharge.
He termed the 'after care' as the most ‘deciding and most valuable time on recovery’ in the patient life. The multiple National Award winner stated that he was ’quite astonished’ by some of the ‘more basic behaviours’ after the discharge, as he went through the various research on it.
Bachchan opened up on the ‘mental conditions and the effects of the disease’, something he described as ‘trivial’ but certainly a factor, and that matters of the mind are mostly not hidden. The Piku star stated that state of the patient put in an isolation ward was sparked by not being able to see another human for weeks.
And this even extended to the care-givers, the doctors and nurses, as they too were covered in PPE kits, making the patient clueless about their features and expressions, he stated. Bachchan termed them as ‘white beings’, ‘almost robotic’, as they ‘deliver what is prescribed and leave’, as the longer the stay, the higher were the chances of contamination.
Bachchan also stated that there was no ‘hand of assurance’ from the doctor who was ‘governing’ the guidance, care, mapping and reports, and that it was being done via FaceTime. He termed it as ‘best’ given the circumstances, but still ‘impersonal’ and calling it ‘remote treatment’ because there was no other way.
The megastar also cited psychologists on treatment having an impact ‘psychologically, mentally.' He added that the patients were ‘tempered’ with, given to ‘mind talkers’, as they tend to be afraid to go out in ‘public for fear or apprehension of being treated differently', treated as one who ‘carried the disease’, calling it ‘pariah syndrome’, something that put them in ‘deeper depression and in the loneliness that they have just come out of.’
Bachchan also wrote that chances of a low fever for three-four weeks even the virus had left the system could not be ‘ruled out.’ Coming to the ‘long and short of it’, he shared that we were yet to find a’ fool proof methodology’ for COVID-19 , and that every case was different and every day a symptom was under observation and research. He also asserted that that it was the first time that not just the entire realm, but the entire universe was ‘handicapped’ and that trial and error was never in ‘greater demand’ than it is now.
Bachchan recently denied a media report that claimed he had tested negative for COVID-19. Son Abhishek, daughter-in-law Aishwarya and granddaughter Aaradhya too have been hospitalsed for COVID-19.
Updated 14:09 IST, July 26th 2020