By Dr. Shyam Sarvodey, Paediatrician

A month ago, as we emerged from the lockdown, positive cases began to soar and one fine morning, I received a frantic call from the ER (Emergency Room) to attend to a 54-day-old infant. Being the attending Paediatrician, I fastidiously donned my PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and showed up at the Hospital.

To my horror I found the baby very sick and deteriorating by the minute. I zealously set forth attending to the baby. Within the hour interventions of the team had borne fruit, as the baby seemed to be stabilising. 

Once the frenzy in the ER had settled, to my horror I realised I had inadvertently caused a breach in my PPE! I was flippant to what had just transpired until a few days later when I received news that the baby I had treated earlier had tested positive for COVID-19!

I sheepishly realised that I had encountered a ‘High Risk’ exposure by every count. I was forthwith expected to isolate myself from work and family until my swab test was due one week later. 

Though as a family we had derived a consensus regarding responding to a plausible eventuality of someone in our doctor household getting infected, things played out very differently when the situation was actually upon us. 

When I explained to my wife about the emerging situation and urged her to move out to live with my parents, at least until my swab test results, she went from a mood of denial and defiance to that of acceptance over the next hour, though not before landing a nasty one on me, “ … would you leave me alone too, in case I turned Positive?” My parents, who too were on the same page as her, finally relented after much cajoling. I fully understood that their brief intransigence was a result of panic and concern for my safety, as I would have to be facing this staying alone.

The next few days of my quarantine period were spent in contemplation of the implication of an unfavourable test result, both on my contacts and myself. I also kept a watch for any semblance of COVID-related symptoms while keeping myself busy attending to routines, making video calls, reading books and watching movies, more to quell the disquietude in my head than to be entertained. I realised that loneliness can make the mind play strange tricks on oneself.

The week had passed by and the day of my swab test had finally dawned. I drove to the swab collection centre situated at K.R. Hospital premises. On arrival, I met with Dr. Savitha, Professor of Paediatrics, MMC&RI, who assigned a junior colleague to accompany me to the makeshift shelter set up as a swab collection centre. 

What was evident upfront was the sheer number of patients who were queuing up to give their swabs. The PPE-clad Group-D workers were putting up a struggle to maintain the floundering social distancing discipline of the people lined up.

It was heart-breaking to so see another line with scores of doctors and nurses who were exposed in the line of duty scampering-in to give in their own samples for the test. What impressed me even more was their keenness to return to their clinical duties rather than the outcome of their results.

It caused me great indignation to witness the sordid disdain some of the people in the regular queue displayed towards the prioritised testing for Health Care Providers (HCP). It appeared that irony seemed lost on a few of these trouble-makers, that this was legitimate measure to ensure the speedy return of health care workers to their duties, who would then facilitate the treatment of those very people grumbling in case they tested positive. 

Amidst the confusion, the doctors and paramedics nonchalantly went about their swab collecting efforts. Mine was done snappily and an acknowledgement was sent to me via SMS.

I got back home, then began the wait in anticipation for the results. The mood of the gated community wherein I reside had turned sombre as the first reports of a few other residents having turned positive came to the fore. A couple of days later I received a phone call from the District Health Office, I was summarily informed that I was indeed ‘COVID Positive.’ 

Even before I could process the news and its implications, I received a flurry of calls from the administration which included a Counsellor who attempted to assuage my apprehensions. I also received a tele-consult call which went about a detailed questionnaire in order to check the ‘Risk Stratification’ of my current illness and eligibility for home quarantine.

Once the news was broken to my immediate family members, a pall of gloom descended on them. Though belonging to a family of doctors wherein it was understood that the illness would likely have a benign course in most people with no co-morbidities, its elementary of human nature to over intellectualise situations giving rise to ifs and buts especially when it involves one’s own kith and kin. 

Over the next few days I had to constantly assuage their fears and anxieties by reassuring them. The irony was stark considering that the one who needed the counselling had turned counsellor!

On the following day, my apartment was barricaded by the authorities and a customary home visit by a doctor was arranged. After examining me I was declared eligible for home quarantine, as I was indeed lucky to have had only mild symptoms. I was handed out necessary instructions accordingly.

Over the next few days there was a regimented monitoring of my well-being which would entail myself maintaining a scrupulous record of my vital parameters (body temperature, oxygen saturation and heart rate) and its appraisal through daily tele-consults. It was very impressive how the administration braced up to the challenges and got their act together.

Food and basic necessities were taken care of by family members and neighbours in the community. The next few days were spent answering phone calls made from concerned well-wishers. My floundering habit of general reading had seen a revival. Subject webinars helped me remain in touch with my profession. By now I had adjusted well to the ‘New Normal’ in my daily routines. 

Likewise I couldn’t help but reflect upon the vicissitudes of doctors over the last four months as a result of the pandemic. Detractors of the early lockdown enforced by the Government seldom seem to countenance the benefits of the timely measure which did help in ‘flattening the curve’ thereby ensuring that our tottering health care infrastructure got enough time to up its game to face the upcoming challenges of the pandemic.

Flitting back to my situation, it was just a matter of time before the final day of isolation arrived and lo and behold, my repeat swab test came negative and was declared cured. The barricades were lifted and thus ended my banishment.

Looking back in contemplation, I can’t help but seek a silver lining in all that transpired, borne by the fact that at least the baby I strived to save did manage to survive after a prolonged stormy course at the Hospital.

As I finally resumed my clinical duties alongside scores of many COVID-afflicted HCPs after successfully fighting the disease I couldn’t help but appreciate the selfless doctors and paramedics who are out there risking their lives, continuing to strive hard to uphold the highest traditions of this noble profession of ours.

I urge the readers not just to spare a thought but also say a silent prayer for many of my esteemed doctor colleagues who while attending to COVID patients made the ‘Supreme Sacrifice’ of laying down their life at the altar of duty. My heart goes out to them…!