COVID hospital nurses and staff share their experience

On entering the PPE donning and doffing area of Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh’s biggest Covid hospital, it is obvious how hard doctors, nurses and support staff are working during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India.

Sukhchain Kaur, 48, works as a senior nursing officer at PGIMER. For the past one year, she says she has been managing a roster of 200 nurses apart from handling the intensive care unit (ICU).

Kaur says, like others, she has not been given any leave since the start of coronavirus pandemic. Even her weekly off is not guaranteed since the hospital is full of critical Covid patients. She struggles with high blood sugar levels.

Kaur lives with her husband, two children and elderly in-laws. Protecting them and herself from Covid-19 has been a big challenge in her life, she says.

Discomfort of PPE kits
Sukhchain Kaur and other nurses at the hospital spend six hours every day in a personal protective equipment (PPE) kit.

As per protocol, she cannot go to the washroom or eat anything while wearing the PPE kit. In case of difficulty, the nurses have been asked to use diapers to manage.

“Wearing a PPE kit for six hours is painful and can result in skin rashes, nasal congestion, cold and fever, ” Kaur says.

“Neglecting family”
“I have been neglecting my family for the last one year. I do not feel like speaking to anybody when I reach home. But they have all been cooperating with me. We are all waiting for the pandemic to be over so we can go on a holiday,” Kaur says.

Another senior nursing officer in the hospital, Minakshi Vyas, was compelled to send her 11-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son to her parents’ home as she was unable to take care of them for the last two months. The second wave of the pandemic has added to her responsibilities.

“This time we are getting seriously ill Covid patients. People are scared. They require more attention and care as compared to patients during the first surge. We have had to convert all the wards into high dependency wards,” Vyas said.

Learning to live with virus
Vyas also stated that although she was scared during the first wave of the pandemic, now her fear has vanished as she knows “how to fool the virus”.

“The virus has brought many changes in my personal and professional life. But the first wave was scarier. My maid had left, there was no transport and everything was shut. This time we have learnt to live with the virus. It is simple. Cover your nose and mouth and sanitize your hands,” she said.

Higher fatality rate among the young
However, during this second wave of Covid-19, Vyas has observed that patients between the ages of 25 and 40 years are losing their lives. In Punjab and elsewhere, there is a higher fatality rate among the young this time.

“There are tears in our eyes when we see the death certificates of young Covid patients. It is very painful,” Vyas says.

Tapinder, who wraps and packs deceased Covid patients’ bodies, was getting a kit to wrap a body when he told India Today, “I have been packing the bodies of the dead for the last five years, but it has become very hectic since last year.”

India registered almost 3.8 lakh fresh Covid-19 cases and 3,645 Covid-related deaths on Thursday, according to the Union Health Ministry’s data. More than 2 lakh people have died of the virus in India so far. India Today