Irfan Masrat, 35, a mother from Srinagar’s Natipora area, offered to stay round-the-clock with her COVID-19 positive daughters, one four-year-old and another seven-year-old, for 19 days and described nursing them as “the most traumatic experience of her life”.
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Ms. Masrat was crestfallen when the two minor daughters in the family tested positive for COVID-19 on March 26. It was just two days after the test on Ms. Masrat’s 58-year-old father-in-law, who had returned from Saudi Arabia on March 16, turned out to be positive.
“My daughters are very much attached to their grandfather and would spend time with him. When the test reports came positive, it shook the earth beneath me. My kids were down with a disease which has no cure and no medicine to rely on. The word ‘positive’ sounded unbearable,” Ms. Masrat said in an interview.
She pledged to be with her daughters, whose bodies were hosting the novel coronavirus but without any major symptoms, in the isolation ward of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial (JLNM) Hospital for 19 days.
“It comes naturally to mothers to shield their children. I wished I could have contracted the virus and that my children could instead have been safe. My elder daughter did feel feverish for some time but it subsided with paracetamol. It was traumatic to wake up every day and pray that no COVID-19 symptoms should take over my kids,” said Ms. Masrat, who would sleep on a bed nearby in the quarantine ward wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) even through the night.
Always in a mask, she worked on a routine for her children and took all necessary precautions: disposing of used tissues, changing masks and ensuring hand hygiene.
“I prepared them mentally as if I was infected with the virus and they needed to stay away from me. I did not even touch or hug my four-year-old daughter. My daughter kept asking ‘if she was well why isn’t she allowed to go home’. It was painful. But they cooperated,” Ms. Masrat said.
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Ms. Masrat’s family was split up by the COVID-19 infection. Her father-in-law was in the Chest Disease Hospital battling the virus and other family members were isolated in a quarantine centre set up in the National Institute of Technology. She was all alone nursing the kids in the JLNM hospital.
“The staff, including doctors of the hospital made us feel comfortable. They joined me in my prayers for my children’s well being. I took it as Allah’s test on us. Thankfully, we passed it with all patience,” she added.
Given what she had experienced, Ms. Masrat appealed to all family members of COVID-19 positive patients to stick to the social distancing rules and take precautions. “We should take this disease seriously and ensure it does not enter our homes,” she added.
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Tabasum Shaw, Deputy Medical Superintendent of the JLNM Hospital, said the minor girls were counselled on not touching surfaces. “Toys, crayons and drawing sheets were provided for distraction and to prevent any mental trauma,” Dr. Tabasum added.
The medical official said the mother was also tested before being discharged from the hospital on Monday, with all the staff members joining to cheer them as they left.
“The father of the girls has also tested negative. The girls will now spend 14 days in home quarantine,” she added.
