Braving the new challenge

Medics are in an unenviable situation, dealing with an unfamiliar enemy as well as patients’ wrath

Doctors are trained to work in challenging circumstances in order to treat people. But with the outbreak of COVID-19, staying healthy and safe has become an altogether new challenge for all the medical professionals in the frontline.

And being a pulmonologist leaves one in the forefront of the action, as doctors with this specialisation are directly in touch with the patients in the COVID wards. The challenge is not in treating the patients, as the treatment is primarily based on symptomatic conditions, but it is in handling the patients, says Dr. Kothakota Raju, a pulmonologist at the GITAM Institute of Medical Science and Research, a government-nominated COVID hospital. Visakhapatnam district has recorded about 24 COVID positive cases and 23 were treated at GIMSR. Twenty-one have been discharged after testing negative.

"On the one hand we have to live with the fact that even doctors and medical staff are prone to infections, and on the other, we have to bear the wrath of the patients," he says.

"During the first phase of treatment, the patients were hostile and abusive. But we did not lose our cool and went on with our work and tried to convince them. They were even reluctant for a swab test. This was a big de-motivating factor for our nurses and the team of young doctors," he explains.

New disease

Since COVID is a new disease and the medical fraternity is still learning from experience, social media had a negative effect on the minds of the young doctors and nursing staff. "Social media reports gave us a bad feeling. But we had to convince our team and after three weeks of continuous work had to quarantine the first team of doctors and nurses," remarks Dr. Raju.

Though there was no shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), as the logistics team of the district gave us an uninterrupted flow of these, the news of doctors dying in other countries and the related social media posts, gave us a scary feeling. It took time to convince the nursing staff and the team of doctors. But now things are settling down after 21 successful discharges, opines Dr. Raju.