Dr Sanjay Oak, Chairman of the government-appointed task force for COVID-19 management, on a lighter note said that he is leading the fight against COVID-19, so he has to get it. Dr. Oak was hospitalized last week after he tested positive for coronavirus. He is recovering and has been discharged also. He continues to work for almost four hours daily.

Doctors like him are at the forefront fighting against coronavirus and are also fighting with the dilemma of caring their patients as it even risks exposing their loved ones. Many of the doctors find it very difficult to keep their emotions aside while treating their colleagues and relatives.

600 doctors are infected up to now in Maharashtra, according to the Indian Medical Association. Out of them, 150 doctors are still on treatment and almost 11 doctors have succumbed to the infection. However, no public data is available on the number of immediate family members of the doctors are infected.

An intensivist, staying in Malad, treated a number of COVID-19 patients in his hospital but he lost his septugenarian mother in the last week. The doctor said that that he doubts that he could have been the source of the coronavirus infection to his mother. As the healthcare system of the city is strained, doctors are forced to violate medical ethics, which discourages giving treatment to their own family members due to the fear of professional objectivity would be compromised.

Dr Gunjan Chanchalani, head intensivist in Bhatia hospital, said that they lost an uncle of one of their colleague to COVID-19. As he was not improving, they got several doctors to venture on treatment. While treating someone known we at times tend to overdo it. Dr. Chanchalani has seen deaths of relatives of his two colleagues. She said that it is depressing when we see people known to us die. They have been continuously working for the past three months. They can’t come to work depressed as it affects other colleagues too.

Even though having a doctor in family can help in early diagnosis and treatment but several people say that it become tough to treat family and friends.

ENT surgeon Dr Chittaranjan Bhave succumbed to COVID-19 on 1st June in SL Raheja hospital. The hospital’s medical director Dr Hiren Ambegaonkar recollects it was so hard to see his colleague and batch mate lose the fight against the COVID-19 battle. Ambegaonkar said that they tried everything to save Dr. Bhave. A scan showed that he had developed acute respiratory distress syndrome, so they put him on a ventilator and administered Tocilizumab. But on 28th May, he suffered a renal failure and required dialysis.

Ambegaonkar’s wife is also a gynaecologist and both of them sleep in separate rooms, due to the fear of infecting each another. Many front-liners are getting infected with COVID-19 that has blurred the ability to stay professional. He further said that he is treating his own nurses, ward boys and security guards. These are people whom we worked previously and it is so difficult to see but have no other option.

Dr Shahid Barmare, general physician also said that when they treat their own relatives, it becomes very difficult. One is scared as we know all the complications that can arise. Due to COVID-19, the insecurity and stress level has become very high.

Internal medicine specialist Dr Vaibhav Kubal, says that both his parents were tested positive and at first he tried treating them at home for 10 days. He would drop groceries at their house weekly and he suspects the infection must have transmitted that way. When his father’s fever continued beyond 10 days, he had to be hospitalized and both were high-risk patients because of their age.

Besides treatment, doctors themselves are facing the challenge of getting a hospital bed. A retired gynaecologist, who was chairperson of National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers, said that he was looking for a vacant bed for 2 days for his 93-year-old diabetic father who tested positive for COVID-19. He had all the contacts but nothing worked initially and when he was admitted, they couldn’t enter the isolation ward. There was no communication and it is very distressing to be unaware of the situation of your loved one.

Source: The Indian Express