Syeda Sakina Fatima and Syeda Saima Fatima celebrated their first birthdays on June 27. These two babies are among the 254 born last year at the Trauma and Emergency Care Centre (TECC) on Victoria hospital premises during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Karnataka. Over 50 of them have turned one.
TECC nodal officer Asima Banu, who is also the infection control officer at the facility, recalls the anxiety during the early days when they were learning to handle pregnant women infected by COVID-19, most of whom were from containment zones with heavy viral load.
When the first two COVID-19-positive pregnant women from Padarayanapura, a containment zone then, delivered through C-section at TECC on May 8, hospital authorities had scrambled to realign nursing and Group D staff, and guide them on infection-control practices.
“The Septic OT was converted into a labour room and the C-section was done in the Major Operation Theatre. Many COVID-19 mothers, who delivered at TECC, are still in touch with me and share the progress of their babies’ growth,” said Dr. Banu.
Geeta Shivamurthy, Medical Superintendent at Vani Vilas Hospital, said of the 254 babies born at TECC, only three tested positive for COVID-19. “It was a challenging situation for our team of doctors from Vani Vilas, who conducted the deliveries at TECC wearing PPE kits. It was a new experience as guidelines were evolving. By July 2020, we had completed 100 deliveries of COVID-19 positive mothers,” she said.
The 150-bed Hajee Sir Ismail Sait Gosha Hospital at Shivajinagar in Bengaluru is now a dedicated facility for COVID-19 infected pregnant women.
Although the curve of the first wave had begun to flatten by February-end 2021, there was a rise in the number of COVID-19 positive pregnant women turning up at hospitals. It was then that the Karnataka government converted the 150-bed Hajee Sir Ismail Sait (HSIS) Gosha Hospital into a dedicated facility for infected pregnant women.
Hospital Medical Superintendent D. Tulasi Devi told The Hindu that the number of infected pregnant women has been on a decline since the beginning of June. “We have 15 COVID-19 positive pregnant women now in our hospital, which is attached to Bowring and Lady Curzon Medical College and Research Institute,” she said.
“A total of 587 pregnant women had been admitted since March. Among these, 306 women delivered at the hospital and the rest, who were in their first or second trimesters, were administered necessary treatment and discharged. As many as 45 women delivered pre-term,” Dr. Devi added.
First and 100th birthdays
Marceline Saldanha, 100, was the first among four from her family to recover from COVID-19 in June 2020.
The first birthday of some babies born during the first wave of COVID-19 coincided with the 100th birthday of a gritty woman, who overcame the coronavirus in nine days at Victoria hospital last June. While doctors had celebrated her 99th birthday in the COVID-19 ward of TECC, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren celebrated her 100th birthday on June 18 this year through video conference.
“After being discharged from the hospital, I have not had any medical issues in the last one year. I still carry out my routine activities on my own without help from anyone,” said Marceline Saldanha, the oldest person in Karnataka who was the first among four from her family to recover in June 2020.
