Nurse S. Kannagi was not able to light a candle along with fellow nurses on International Nurses Day that fell on Tuesday. She is under quarantine at a hostel in Todd Hunter Nagar in Saidapet.
Ms. Kannagi had completed duty at the COVID-19 ward of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital three days ago. “I asked for the posting and ended up being in a ward that had the highest number of patients,” she says of her experience. Her earlier experience at the Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine in Tambaram helped.
Ms. Kannagi’s duty began at 7.30 a.m. and stretched up to 2.30 p.m. She would have breakfast before leaving for work and lunch, around 3.30 p.m. after returning to her hostel.
The personal protective equipment (PPE) would make her sweat. “It is not like the protection we got for HIV/AIDS, which was just one unit. Besides, the air-conditioning would be on in the surgery room. Here, we had no fan, let alone AC. The N-95 mask has left scars at the back of my ears. We sweat profusely inside the PPE making it uncomfortable to walk in. It is worse since I wear glasses. When the sweat flowed down my eyes I would stand and shut my eyes. The sweat would fog up my glasses and the goggles,” said the 56-year-old.
Ms. Kannagi took it upon herself to educate a family of six that came to the ward. “I told the man to be careful. He is a private company employee and spread the infection to his wife, two children and his parents. I told him repeated infection could reduce a person’s immunity,” she recalls.
Another man, whose wife who had tested positive, wanted to take her back home. “They had two children aged one and three. The man wanted to take his wife back home. No amount of explaining helped. He left with his children, saying he would return to his hometown. It is so sad that people don’t understand the magnitude of the infection,” she rues.
