Watch: Mumbai Doctors Battling COVID-19 Share Their Experiences

Watch: Mumbai Doctors Battling COVID-19 Share Their Experiences

Mumbai doctors share their experience while working treating COVID-19 petients. 

Video Editor: Deepthi Ramdas

Clocking hours of duty in COVID-19 wards while working under stressful conditions, Mumbai doctors have been overwhelmed over the last few weeks. As of 1 May, India’s financial capital recorded over 7,600 COVID-19 cases and the numbers only seem to be increasing.

Faced with the pandemic that has arguably hit the city health care systems the hardest, doctors share their experience in this time of crisis with The Quint.

Dr Shivang Shukla “We have been allotted COVID duties for 6 hours and the next duty comes after 12 hours. Our hospital has been designated as a COVID hospital in Mumbai and has two wards. It has a positive ward and a suspect ward. My duty was in the suspect ward. Last night, we had around four new admissions on top of 38 odd patients who were already admitted and 14 of them were positive.”

Also Read: This is How a PPE or Personal Protective Equipment Kit Works

Distinguishing symptoms of COVID-19 from that of tuberculosis is the challenge that TB specialist Dr Pradeepkumar Kapsikar is faced with daily. With most COVID-19 symptoms mimicking that of TB, he needs to be extra careful.

“Every day, I see around 60-70 TB patients and I don’t know how many of them are infected with coronavirus simultaneously with TB. The symptoms of TB and COVID are so similar that it is very difficult to differentiate only on clinical grounds as to how many TB patients are having or not having coronavirus. Given the condition in Mumbai, they should consider screening each and every febrile (ie with fever) patient over the possibility of them being infected with coronavirus,” he says.

Also Read: India May Need 27 Million N95 Masks, 15 Million PPEs By June

Donning Multiple Layers of PPE Kits

To prevent exposure, doctors and nurses in government hospitals have been placed on rotational shifts. These shifts are anywhere between 6-8 hours long but there is one big challenge.

“The PPE kits that have been provided to us, the quality is 90 GSM at the sleeve and 50 GSM at the front. So, the PPE kit is very, very heavy and once you put it on and go inside the wards, the environment is so hot that you sweat so much that it becomes really difficult to move around,” said Dr Shivang Shukla.

Once PPE kits are donned, doctors cannot eat, drink or use the toilets till their shift ends.

Dr Shailesh Agrawal“Once you wear this kit, even if you want to go to the washroom or eat anything, you have to remove the whole kit, dispose it and then wear a new kit when you’re done. In this scenario what can happen is, if doctors go outside, they can spread infection to others. Second, these kits are expensive. They cost Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 and there’s a shortage of PPE kits. So, we need to save as many kits as possible.”

Also Read: PPEs, Masks: How Protected Are India's Frontline Medics?

Fear Exposing Our Families to COVID-19

Fearing that he could infect his 8-month pregnant wife, Dr Pradeepkumar Kapsikar, like every doctor on active COVID-19 duty, has been maintaining social distancing even at home. He also worries for his brother and sister, both of whom are doctors serving at government hospitals in Maharashtra.

The fear that he could contract the infection and pass it to his pregnant wife got even more real when his colleague tested positive for coronavirus recently.

Dr Pradeepkumar Kapsikar “Last week, a doctor working with me started showing COVID symptoms. He tested positive and was admitted to the same corona ward where other patients are being treated. After my colleague tested positive, I too was tested. I was kept under quarantine but by God’s grace, my report turned out to be negative. I understand my family’s worry.”

Quelling the worries of anxious family members has become routine now for doctors.

Dr Shailesh Agrawal “There’s a lot of anxiety among my family members, especially my mother. I have been a doctor for many years, but this is the first time she told me that if you can skip going to work for a day, skip it. She has never told me this before. Obviously, she is scared because I go and see COVID patients. She fears that I may contract it but it is my duty. I tell her that this is my job and I have chosen this job.”

At a time like this, incidents of violence against doctors and other medical staff can be extremely demotivating, says Dr Kapsikar. So, what motivates doctors to keep working under such strenuous conditions? “During the duty when our patient becomes COVID negative and becomes fine, it really lifts our spirits and motivates us to do better work and serve our patients and our nation when it is needed the most,” suggests Dr Shivang Shukla.

Also Read: ‘Don’t Have Enough Protective Equipment’: AIIMS Docs on COVID-19