Faceless doctor and his narrative: How COVID crisis has taken a toll on the medical sector

Death is the major tune in hospitals across India right now and this doctor, who works at one in Mysore, has seen his fair share in the last year.
Representational Image. (File Photo)
Representational Image. (File Photo)

CHENNAI: When you X-ray your lungs, the colour you are most likely to see is black. In end-stage pneumonia, one of the most common COVID-19 related complications, the X-ray looks white. Why? When the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is severe, almost the entire lung becomes white as it’s full of fluid.

For one doctor who has been doing non-stop COVID shifts since the pandemic began last January, seeing that particular image is an all too familiar foreboding, an indication of the virus claiming another victim. The doctor, who spoke to the paper on condition of anonymity, has become numb. "Used to it now, unfortunately," he says.

Death is the major tune in hospitals across India right now and this doctor, who works at one in Mysore, has seen his fair share in the last year. "Quite a lot. Can't really put a number on them," he says. But that’s just one side of the story. That India's health infrastructure is close to breaking point is known. What's not been published in detail is the toll it’s taking on the healthcare workers.

While some can afford to stay at home, doctors have had to move their home to work to meet the excess demands unfairly placed on them. The burden is so much that once their shift is over, they just have relief on their faces.

"It’s a mixed feeling. On the one hand, you are exhausted because of all the dehydration (because of the huge PPEs) and fatigue. On the other hand, you are so relieved that the shift is over and you can rest a bit," he says.

That in itself is not a given. He corroborates stories of doctors being asked to do double shifts. "When we had COVID spikes, we refused to do any more than six hours in the ICU, because you work with huge PPEs which are quite suffocating to work with in long hours. So there were four shifts a day. Sometimes, if we were short on personnel, we would combine two night shifts (for example 9.00 pm to 3.00am and 3.00am to 9.00am into a 9.00 - 9.00 am)."

That's before you throw in the task of fighting with the management to ensure minimum standards of human rights are met. "We actually fought with the higher-ups to ensure we don’t have too much exposure by having fixed shifts and only managing one ward/ ICU at a time, involving all departments (because no non- Covid admissions)," the doctor, who is in his final year of MD, reveals.

However, limiting exposure is a bit like sticking plaster to stop a knife wound. For one, this doctor, who works in a government set-up, himself caught it during the first wave. He is well aware of that danger but says all he can do is carry on 'with my job'.

"Initially, we were scared. I think around half of all the residents caught it, couple of us required oxygen but all of us recovered. We know that there’s a chance of us catching the disease at any time but almost all of us have been vaccinated and we take full precautions. We don’t think about the chance of being infected and just carry on with our jobs the best we can."

And he, like many others, makes the observation that more young people are ill. "One major difference we have seen during this wave is how there’s suddenly a larger proportion of younger patients being affected compared to last year. We have seen people in their 20s and 30s with no co-morbid conditions die due to severe pneumonia which is a little scary."

Even if it looks like the hospital is being gripped by the killer virus, there is one high point. "When I inform relatives that their fathers or mothers or sisters or brothers or wives are recovering, you can see the relief on their faces. Honestly, that’s the most satisfying aspect of this job at least in my opinion. The next two days, he will be on night shift. He will either see more images of lungs looking white like sheet or inform relatives that their family is making progress.

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The New Indian Express
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