BENGALURU: Life has not been the same for this warrior in white ever since the coronavirus outbreak. She enters the ward and tenderly tends to the patients knowing fully well that she herself could be at the risk of contracting the virus.
“This is our choice...this is our profession...we are here to treat our patients and free them from the virus,” says a gritty Savitri S Kadam, a frontline staff nurse at KC General Hospital, who has been working at the COVID-19 ward at the hospital.
She has her morning meal at 7 am and reaches the hospital. There she dons the PPE suit, which she says, is quite suffocating.
“I can’t think of eating or even drinking water until our shift is done. By the time I get done it is 3 pm. For more than six hours we are without food or water and can’t even use the washroom,” she says.
But that is the least of her worries. Savitri has been away from her family just to ensure that her patients are well taken care of even as she ensures that her family stays safe.
As being in close contact with the patients every day is also a risk to her family, she sent her family to her native Dharwad and stays alone at home.
Savitri, who is serving as the in-charge of the COVID-19 ward, said, “This is war, a fight against coronavirus, and we nurses are like soldiers. No matter how much risk we face, we need to fight this out and protect our patients.”
Presently, at KC General Hospital, they have five COVID-19 positive patients and eight patients who are quarantined in the wards, and these patients are the responsibility of the nurses.
Savitri says there are five nurses responsible for the ward and each works in three shifts, with she herself working in the morning shift from 8 am to 2 pm.
“Once I enter the ward, I put on my PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) after which there is no removing it until the shift is done. Meanwhile, we can’t go out once our work starts. We have to be there throughout till the shift is done. Just outside the ward we have a space to sit and we stay there and I keep checking on the patients even after the shift to see if they need something. The doctors visit all the patients and stay there for around an hour or so, but here, we nurses need to be there for more than six hours,” she says.
After a hard day’s work, when she reaches home, she is greeted by silence. “My husband and children are at a risk because of me. They did not want to leave (for Dharwad). But I also can’t leave my patients. So I asked them to go to Dharwad. It is difficult to stay without them, as after returning home from a tough day at work, you need someone to talk to. But I have none. However, it’s for my family’s and my patients’ sake I had to send them to Dharwad. Similarly, even the other nurses who are at the COVID-19 ward have isolated themselves in separate rooms. One of my colleagues said how her three-year-old son asks her “Mummy, can I come inside the room? I want to see you.”
Wearing the PPE is the most difficult, Savitri says.
“I pray to God to give me the stamina and strength to make my day easy while I wear the PPE. I have my morning meal around 7 am and head to the hospital. Once I reach the hospital we need to freshen up and put on our PPE suits, after which I can’t think of eating or even drinking water until our shift is done. By the time I get done it is 3 pm and we have to update the nurses in the next shift on what needs to be done and then I get home by 4 pm, after which I eat my second meal. We can’t wear the PPE for more than 30 minutes, but here we need to wear it for hours, and we have no choice,” Savitri says.