For Delhi’s doctors, the battle is also personal

Facing social stigma and hostility in their neighbourhoods, the risk of infection at their workplaces, the fear of potentially exposing their family and friends

Facing social stigma and hostility in their neighbourhoods, the risk of infection at their workplaces, the fear of potentially exposing their family and friends to diseases, and staying quarantined after working in isolation wards for long hours are just some of the challenges health care workers are contending with as they care for people diagnosed with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Hindustan Times profiles some of Delhi’s Covid heroes.

HT Image

Shashi Gandhi

It’s been just five days since Shashi Gandhi returned to his second-floor flat in northeast Delhi’s Jhilmil after a month. He worked in the Covid-19 ward at Lok Nayak hospital for 14 days, which was followed by 14 days in quarantine.

He lives with his wife and two sons.

By the time he was posted in the ward in mid-April, his family was already prepared; the 2,000-bed hospital had been turned into a dedicated treatment facility for the viral infection. “We all knew we will have to work in the Covid-19 ward, so we were prepared, as were our families. They just asked me to stay safe and come back soon. When I reached the room the hospital had allotted to me, I found a nice surprise. My children had made a gift pack for me with biscuits and chocolates. I don’t know when they slipped it in my bag,” Shashi said.

After work, he would video call his family every day. But a video call was not enough on April 27, which marked the 12th anniversary of his marriage with Mandeep. “I did not know what to do, so work ended, I decided to go home. But I did not go up to my flat. I just sat in my car downstairs and spoke to my family from afar. I left some chocolates for them and left,” he said.

When in the hospital, he said working in personal protective equipment (PPE) was one of the foremost challenges. “It just gets so hot inside the coverall. We would be drenched in sweat after taking the PPE off after our shifts. I started going to work in shorts and t-shirts, which I would wash after duty each day,” he said.

He is likely to be posted for the next round of Covid-19 duty in the last week of this month. However, this time around he will be able to get home sooner. The Delhi government on Monday said a 14-day quarantine is not required for health care workers after their Covid-19 duty, unless there is a breach in PPE.

Shashi’s wife admitted that they were scared, but their pride in Shashi’s work overcame that. “This is a new infection and we hear about what is happening in the city. But I also feel proud that my family is contributing in the fight against Covid-19.”

Dr Gopal Jha

Patients at the Maujpur and Baburpur mohalla clinics in northeast Delhi welcomed their doctors back last week after a two-month hiatus. The doctor couple working in the clinics had been diagnosed with Covid-19 in March.

Dr Gopal Jha (51) was the first health care worker in the city to test positive for the viral infection, on March 21. His wife, Dr Alpana Jha (49), tested positive a few days later, along with their daughter.

He was also part of the first cluster of cases that were reported from Delhi. His colony in Dilshad Garden was also one of the first containment zones in the city.

“I was a little apprehensive on my first day back. I kept wondering whether patients would be scared to come to my clinic. Everybody in the area knew that my wife and I had the infection. But the reception we received was quite the opposite. My regular patients actually came just to ask about my health and well-being. It was nice to talk to them again,” Dr Gopal Jha said. Now, he counsels everyone coming to his clinic about maintaining social distance and maintaining hygiene.

The clinic was sanitised and kept ready for him while he recovered from severe symptoms of the disease at Safdarjung hospital.

He was discharged in the first week of April.

He started developing symptoms the day after he got a call from the district authorities asking him to get tested at Guru Teg Bahadur hospital near his house, after one of the patients he had referred there tested positive. He was moved to Safdarjung hospital when he started getting high fever, cough, loose motion, and had to be put on oxygen therapy for breathing difficulties. His wife and daughter had mild symptoms.

“At first I developed a mild fever, which I thought could be because of all the stress. It was a new disease and we did not know much about it. Then, the fever shot up a day later and I started coughing two days after that. Then came the loose motions. I had loose motion and high fever for all 14 fourteen days. The worst was the feeling that I could not breathe. The doctors had to put me on oxygen, after I told them I was feeling a little breathless,” he said.

“I did not expect I would have the infection. I had maintained social distance when the patient came in for a consultation. She must have been in my clinic for no longer than five minutes, and I cleaned all the surfaces after she left,” said Dr Jha.

Even after his experience with Covid-19, he says he is not scared of it. “There are reports from other countries of people getting the infection again. I was not scared the first time around, and I will not be scared if I get it again. I will continue my work here,” he said.

Dr Srishti Prakash

Dr Srishti Prakash worries constantly about returning home after work. She is a postgraduate student in the gynaecology department of Safdarjung hospital, one of the busiest departments across hospitals in the city. Around 50 of her colleagues have so far tested positive for Covid-19.

She lives in a joint family with 12 others in a three-storey Ghaziabad house. The family includes her elderly grandmother, who has diabetes, and grandfather, who had prostate cancer. The elderly, and those with co-morbid conditions like diabetes, hypertension, kidney and heart disease are at an increased risk of developing severe Covid-19 symptoms.

“When I am at work, it is like any other day. We just have to maintain social distance, wear masks, gloves and gowns properly. My only fear is carrying the infection home with me,” Dr Prakash said. Her last round of Covid-19 duty in the super-speciality block — where Covid-positive women deliver — was in March, and her next is likely to come soon.

“The hospital arranges accommodation for those on Covid-19 duty, so I do not have to go home till I am sure I do not have the infection. But when I work in the other wards, there is a persistent worry, because most of Covid-19 patients generally are now asymptomatic,” she said.

Every day, before leaving the hospital, she cleans her cellphone, pens, and anything in her bag that might have been exposed, with cotton and sanitiser. When she gets home, she first takes a bath and washes the clothes she wore to work, before meeting any other family member.

“Everyone is staying home right now because of the lockdown, and it scares me that I might be the one to bring the infection home. So, whenever I feel like I might have been exposed to someone with the infection, I stay back in the hostel with some of my friends,” Dr Prakash said.

Dr Aditi Puniya

Dr Aditi Puniya found out she was Covid-positive at 2pm on April 24. By 4pm, people in her colony and all her friends knew about the diagnosis. The resident welfare association of the colony in Ghaziabad where she lived had put up a notice everywhere letting people know she had tested positive, and an NGO had tweeted about it.

“I was surprised. I was getting calls from everywhere about the diagnosis. I don’t think there was any malice behind what the RWA did, they probably just wanted to inform people and did not know what to do,” said Dr Puniya. She is a postgraduate student working in the department of paediatrics in Jag Parvesh Chandra hospital.

Her sister tested negative and was put up in a quarantine centre in Ghaziabad, while Dr Puniya was admitted to a Covid-designated hospital.

But it was not all bad. When her sister returned from quarantine, a neighbour started giving them food thrice a week. “We were not very close earlier; we would just greet each other when we met in the lift or lobby. But we have become very close now. My sister got back home before me. The neighbour called my sister to the balcony and gave her food. She still continues to share food with us,” Dr Puniya said.

Many of her colleagues weren’t as lucky. She first started feeling ill, with a fever and shortness of breath — on April 19, and the head of her department asked her to go back home and get tested as a precaution. When she tested positive, the hospital started contact tracing.

Several members of staff were asked to go into quarantine. “Some of them had very bad experiences, with people not coming close to their house. Our area was declared a containment zone after I tested positive, and groceries were delivered to our houses. But for many others in non-containment areas, getting groceries became difficult during home quarantine, and their neighbours did not help,” she said. Her colleagues stepped up and started bringing groceries to all those who had been quarantined.