ARIYALUR
Tik Tok video clips of a 25-year-old woman, the district’s first COVID 19 positive patient, narrating her experience at the hospital and thanking the doctors and nurses for their care, have gone viral in social media.
At the Ariyalur GH, as the only positive patient, the woman spent time watching and making Tik Tok videos among other things. Her followers increased from around 50 to 26,000 during her stay at the GH.
The woman was working at a store in a mall in Velachery, Chennai when she contracted the virus from one of the customers, she claims. “In the last few weeks, several tourists from abroad visited our store. It must have been one of them,” she says. She had taken up the job in Chennai only three months ago.
On May 19, she travelled back home in Ariyalur, days before the Janata Curfew. “I felt feverish and had a terrible headache for at least two days. On March 20, my dad took me to the GH and I was immediately admitted there,” she said.
The hospital staff were supportive and took good care of me, she said. They gave her new sets of clothes to wear as she could not go bring any from home. They also gave me several sheets of paper so I could sketch and write poetry. I asked for a diary in which I could pen my thoughts and they immediately obliged, she said.
“The women doctors understood my needs and arranged sanitary napkins too,” she added.
The last few days of her stay were the most difficult as a patient in the adjacent room committed suicide, she says.
“It affected me a lot. I saw a nurse screaming and running. I could not sleep for nights. The doctors gave me psychiatric counselling and ensured my well-being,” she said. They also brought her wool and knitting tools as a distraction.
In the video, the woman thanks the hospital for providing healthy food during her stay. “They told me that I was underweight and so gave me protein kanji, fruits, eggs every day. Even when I was discharged, the Collector gave me a large box of dried fruits which would have been very expensive. I am grateful for all their love and care,” she said.
She also urged the public to stay indoors and listen to the authorities.
