“I remember admitting the first four COVID-19 patients in mid-March. Since then, we’ve seen around 9,500 cases in this hospital,” says Dr Deepak Kanna, MD, Respiratory Medicine at the Omandurar Government Multispeciality Hospital in Chennai. The 35-year-old doctor has a six-hour duty daily for seven days straight. A week in quarantine later, he gets back to work for another seven days.
“These six hours are really packed at the hospital… new admissions, discharges, rounds and monitoring medicines for patients, and ensuring we don’t contract the virus,” he says.
“Even if we still have a long way to go in the battle against COVID-19, the thankful faces of those leaving the hospital, keep us going,” states this doctor, who adds, “It’s depressing for us, doctors, to still see people not following safety precautions. We don’t want to see a rise in the number of patients anymore. We don’t want to be in PPEs anymore.”
On National Doctor’s Day, today, we captured his routine at the hospital, to give an idea of what it is like for a frontline warrior fighting the pandemic.
Getting ready for the dayThere are four shifts (8am-2pm, 2pm-8pm, 8pm-2am and 2am-8am) for doctors, and Dr Deepak is on the 2pm shift this week. The doc, who stays in the hostel on the hospital’s premises, gets ready by masking up first. And he gets a dose of the news before starting off for his duty.
Safety first, so PPE kit is a must As soon as he enters the hospital, Dr Deepak wears the PPE kit over the scrub. “There’s no way we can remove it for the next six hours. We can’t eat, drink or use the restroom as long as we are wearing it. Add to that the irritation caused by sweat and glasses fogging up,” he says.
Giving hope and saving lives The doctor begins his day by doing the rounds and checking up on the patients. “You cannot take any writing material inside the ward as they can easily become a medium for virus transmission. So, we check the vitals of patients while on rounds, keep the findings in mind, come back to our designated seating area and write them down on case sheets,” he informs.
A quick break to re-energiseAfter doing the rounds and updating the case sheets, Dr Deepak takes a short break to refresh. And what better way than catching up with loved ones. “I’ve sent my wife and kid to my native place in Rajapalayam. I missed being with them for our wedding anniversary and my kid’s birthday two weeks ago. But at least, I am at peace because they are safe,” he tells us. But using phones with the PPE suit on is challenging, he adds. “All important updates and instructions come on our phone. So, we have to peer though plastic covers and our goggles to read the messages. In such cases, low screen visibility and poor touch sensitivity are problems,” he states.
And it’s back to the roundsIn the second half of his shift, he does the rounds again to ensure that patients are on the recovery track, and returns to his desk to fill in the updated findings.
Day ends, but battle continuesFinally, his shift ends, but his body bears the marks of the stressful nature of his job in these testing times.