Delhi Doctor shares experience of first day of working in COVID ward: 'Duty comes first'

It's almost going to be a year since the world was introduced to the COVID-19 Coronavirus, and it has been eight months since the entire planet, including India, has been under a lockdown. While India is visibly recording a higher recovery rate of COVID-19 patients, the same cannot be said for the other countries who are preparing to undergo a second lockdown as virus deaths surge. 

In all the chaos of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, several leaders, organisations, personalities have come forward to offer their thanks to the frontline warriors. Warriors who have led the fight against the virus through different professions, battling different challenges. 

While COVID-19 ignited fear amongst people, the virus also scared doctors, who are at the frontline dealing firsthand with COVID-19 patients. As scary as it might be for us to find out that one of our relatives or family members has contracted the COVID-19, it's equally difficult for doctors to walk into a COVID ward for the first time managing patients.

Gaurav Kumar, a doctor posted at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi described his experience of working during this pandemic and treating COVID-19 patients daily. Posted in a COVID-19 isolation ward, Dr Gaurav works in an alternate 12 hr shift at the hospital. He works for 15 days and is then under quarantine for a week, like all other doctors. 

While the government has ensured a hotel room for doctors, Dr Gaurav shares that it can get completely 'boring' sometimes, since they don't venture out 'unless absolutely necessary'. Touting that 'duty always comes first', doctors have avoided going back to their homes and visit their families. The RML doctor quipped, "I have a responsibility to treat patients while also protecting others from acquiring the infection."

Recalling his first day of duty in a COVID-19 ward, Dr Gaurav shared how a usual day turned into one with uncertainty and fear. 

It was a usual day. I was looking after my patients in the casualty when I got a letter informing that I've been posted in the COVID-19 ward from the very next day. My jaw dropped to the floor, but somehow, I managed to get back to normal. When the first day of my duty in a ward treating COVID-19 patients came, I was filled with uncertainty. I ate my breakfast and geared up to head to my destination. 

As I reached the ward, I met my exhausted counterpart who was on the night shift. I took a handover from him and he left. The phone was constantly ringing with people enquiring about the health of their family members. But before I enter the ward, the nursing personnel assisted me in wearing the PPE kit. From face shields to goggles, from cover suit to shoe covers, I was covered like an astronaut. 

Stress and anxiety filled me when I saw patients were lying on the bed without any attendants. On some moments, some of these patients left for their heavenly abode without meeting their loved ones for one last time. It was honestly heartbreaking to break the news to their family members. My work inside the ward is to take rounds, assess the patients' general and systemic condition and provide necessary instructions to the nursing staff. 

As time passed, I started feeling uncomfortable. The goggles started feeling hazy and it was very difficult to look through it. The N95 mask started hurting me. It was at that moment when I missed my duty at the General OPDs, since that was an easy task compared to this. 

It was finally 8 pm and I finished my shift. My colleague, on a night shift walked in and honestly, it bought me a sense of hope. I took my PPE kit off (haunting task for me), gave a handover to my colleague and left, hoping for my next shift to go better and the pandemic to end soon. 

(image: Representational/File)