Day: September 10, 2020

Today morning, as the usual laziness crept in, I could'nt get up from my bed. I clinged myself to my so called addiction - my phone. I pinged  my friend, Dr.Ruby, who is an anesthesia pg at Manipal.  I started with the usual enquiries whether she is fine and all. And  to my surprise it was  "I can't understand that myself". I asked what was happening to her.Yes, its the Covid duty at the Intensive Care Unit( ICU).The long eight hours in PPE made her lose her self underdstanding of how she even felt. Without basic elixir and munchings,she survive like this at her duty days. Without even letting herself measure  her input/output charting, she managed to check that accurately for her patients. 

PPE or the Personal Protective Equipment is not just a coveroll or a fabric,but can make us sweat like hell and can make us  fatigue. Being myself a dentist, who used it for shorter intervals for my cases, couldnt tolerate the  discomfort inside. Sweating all over your body and there is no option to switch on the ac/fan is the worst feeling one could have . Even your  clothes start to wet and that disgusting situation cannot be explained! Survival in such cases do exist because its not only  the body, but also the  mind that you have created  from the day you take the Hippocratic oath,it's in your blood that you will dedicate yourself for your patients, leaving many of your personal things. And sad to realise that dedication and sincerety are not perceived sacred at times...

This Covid-19 situation of 2020 not only showcases doctors as the warriors but also nurses, assistants and all other medical professionals.Because of their tolerance and survival that they impart make us live amongst this menace. Our warriors have written an ode to the coronavirus at this moment not with their hands, but with their hearts. Eventhough they sacrifice a lot for us, have you ever taken a minute to look back and ponder over what we have done against doctors. The violence ,both physical and verbal caused by the public is increasing day by day.

I have recently came across a news article that made me realise the dedication and sincerety in the field.Dr. Sanket Mehta, an anaesthetist saved the life of a 71 year old patient who required urgent intubation for ventilator support. According to doctors, intubation of a collapsed patient has to be done within three minutes or else it could damage the brain permanently. And the commitment and sincerety to his profession reflected  by Dr. Sanket Mehta is to be appreciated so well because ,even though he was admitted in the same ICU ,just two beds away, due to COVID 19 and was on oxygen support, he didnt loose a second to rescue the critically ill patient. 

And this can appear as a small news somewhere in the newspaper and the public fails to see it. They raise hands against doctors. According to the United States Department of Labor, Workplace Violence is defined as any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site.Many incidents are arising where the doctors are assaulted by the patients relatives. The misconception of the people about the doctors make them behave very bad.This  attitude needs to change first. With the transformation from the government to private sector, people believe that doctors are money minded and are not trustful. Whatever truth ,they tell the patient's kin, they cannot accept the reality and misunderstand things with the view point of fradulence.

And even in this fight for the covid 19, many doctors and health care professionals are acquiring the disease  too and is suffering very badly. We should never forget the dedication they have put into this .Just think, what will we do if all the doctors stopped working since they fear the risk of their lives..It is high time that the public should understand the difficulties and sacrifices faced by the doctors and other medical professionals and try to behave accordingly because they are the ones who sacrifice their personal happiness for the wellbeing of all of us...Just be a human and give respect to that great profession!!!