SHIVAMOGGA: Her dedication to severely ill Covid-19 patients at McGann Hospital in the district has earned her a prefix: MIC, short for Medical Intensive Care Unit. For the past year, she’s been known as MIC Shobha.
The 42-yer-old nurse has been working at the hospital for 14 years, and between August and November 2020 and from April this year, she’s been deputed to look after critically-ill Covid patients.
The oldest child of her parents, Shobha K is single, and has two younger sisters and one brother. When she was first assigned Covid duty, she had to rent out accommodation. Later, with the help of hospital staff, she was given quarters. “I am not scared about treating Covid patients. I feel terrible when I see them. I feel it is my responsibility to treat patients properly,” she says.
Shobha started her career as a nurse in Bapuji Hospital in Davanagere in 2001. She then worked with HIV positive people at the AIDS centre in Sagar for a couple of years. After a year-long stint at Ramaiah Hospital, she joined McGann Hospital as a staff nurse.
Shobha draws strength from her colleagues in hospital. “When doctors are doing their duty fearlessly, I am also not worried. All our staffers and doctors are very supportive. I treat Covid patients like normal patients,” she says.
Despite this positive attitude, working in the MIC unit is tough emotionally, as patients are in bad shape when they’re brought in. “Families fear admission to the MIC. But the MIC is where patients are the most closely monitored, and more than 90% of these patients have recovered. However, it is really difficult to save people who arrive in the last stage. MIC has now become my first home,” she says.
As a child, Shobha grew up watching her parents help people and one day, she read a book about Mother Teresa and decided that she wanted to help other people.
Dr S Shridhar, Medical Superintendent at McGann Teaching District Hospital, told The New Sunday Express, “Shobha is dedicated, confident and courageous when it comes to treating coronavirus patients. She risks everything for them.” Chandramathi Hegde, who retired last month as nursing superintendent, says that Shobha never refuses to come in during an emergency, and is a role model for others.