Volunteers and health workers are the ones people rely on

More than a yr since they began tending to COVID-19 sufferers, healthcare workers have remained the assist that the households couldn’t supply to sufferers. Doctors, nurses, ward boys, ambulance drivers and mortuary workers have calmed agitated sufferers and reassured terrified households as they proceed their work. Many of them must keep away from their households and kids. These tireless people who work behind the screens have earned the appreciation and gratitude of sufferers and their households.

In the pandemic that relentlessly makes its manner via cities and cities, people the healthcare workers tended to have discovered the significance of those unsung heroes and heroines.

‘Like chasing villains’

K. Sreemathy, an entrepreneur in Chennai, is all reward for the ambulance driver who transported her mom to the Government Stanley Hospital and stayed together with her till she was admitted to a ward.

“My mother’s oxygen level fell from 92 to 87 last Saturday around 4 a.m. From 2 o’clock, we were scouting for a bed and our friend urged us to check the State government’s website. My mom stays with my brother and sister, both of whom had tested positive. My sister in Thiruvanmiyur and I called the 108 ambulance service. Seeing her condition, ambulance driver Paal Pandi and his assistant Vivek said she needed a bed with oxygen supply and drove us to Stanley. These guys were amazing. All the way to the hospital they put her on oxygen support, and by the time we reached Royapuram her oxygen saturation rose to 92. We did not know how to go about it. They were with us until the ECG and chest X-ray were done and even until we were brought to another block. They were godsend to us,” she remembers.

She says, “Their professionalism is amazing. Be it driving the ambulance like they were chasing villains in a James Hadley Chase novel. They don’t have much support structure, but they are doing a wonderful work.”

Nallusamy, a retired bus conductor who was handled at the Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital, Salem, says he thought of looking for remedy at a personal hospital however his household prevailed on him. His private expertise has elevated his confidence in authorities services.

A resident of Woraiyur is all reward for the crew of health workers who ferried her to the Tiruchi authorities hospital.

“They spend at least 15 hours of their day transporting patients. Sometimes more than one patient is brought to the government hospital at a time owing to a sudden spike in cases. While patients requiring emergency medical attention stay calm, it is the asymptomatic young patients who argue and pick quarrels with health workers. A man travelling with me demanded that he be dropped back home. But the staff handled it well, calmed him down and explained to him the seriousness of the situation,” she says.

A affected person discharged from the hospital final week says: “We can see that they have had a hard time over the past year. A young nurse who was looking after me said they had lost count of the hands of patients she had held as they took their last breath. They need far more appreciation than they are getting.” The nurses in the COVID-19 wards have been working relentlessly for the previous yr. From being apprehensive, they’ve taken it of their stride.

P. Tharakeswari, a workers nurse at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, says final yr when instances started pouring in they might not go dwelling for a number of days. They made video calls to relations. “It was a tough phase in the beginning. Now, I am used to wearing PPE. We hear that the virus is more virulent in the second wave. But we are not afraid to do our service.”

The nurses at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital, Tiruchi, are exhausted. Twelve of them are deployed in every shift of six hours. Each day, 48 nurses are on COVID ward responsibility. On a given day in a ward of 500 sufferers, every nurse is answerable for 40-50 sufferers.

For M. Vatsala, a workers nurse at the Tirupattur Government General Hospital, the hardest half shouldn’t be having the ability to hug her son. “My son comes running to hug me when I return from work. But I cannot touch him. This is the hardest part. Though my children are at home, I am not able to spend time with them,” she says. “We have become like mothers to the patients. We do all types of work… We even change the urine bags and the dress of patients. At the end of the day, we go home with body pain,” she provides.

“I don’t mind becoming tired, but I ensure I give my best and I will continue to do it,” she says. Ms. Vatsala says nurses like her put on PPE and work in excessive warmth. “We find it hard to even go to the rest room and even have food.”

Staying secure

Emergency medical technician S. Saravanan says he could have transported 1,500 sufferers since March 2020. “We ensure all support for patients until they reach the hospital,” he says. On a day, roughly 20 sufferers are transported from throughout the district. According to him, none of the sufferers he has transported to date have died on their technique to hospital.

“Please cooperate with the government. It is not an easy task to change PPE after every trip,” says Mr. Saravanan of Salem district. His household has been understanding. They will depart his garments exterior the home. He will clean up and anticipate an hour earlier than coming into the home.

The pandemic has taken its toll on the bodily and psychological health of mortuary workers as nicely, says C. Perumal, who has been working at the mortuary of the Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai, for 14 years.

The variety of instances dealt with by the workers elevated considerably in the previous yr. Initially, the workers had been afraid to the touch the our bodies. “Then we realised that we must perform our duty to society. Today, we are continuously dealing with bodies of COVID-19 patients without fear,” he says.

It is disheartening to see the households who misplaced their beloved ones to the an infection, he says. “They cannot even touch the bodies of their dear ones. But we all believe that through public cooperation we can easily contain the spread of the pandemic.”

Hearse drivers are front-line workers, too, however their service is barely acknowledged. The drivers say they comply with security protocol throughout and after transporting the deceased.

P. Navinprabhu, district programme supervisor of the free hearse service in Coimbatore, instilled confidence in the drivers and allotted them responsibility in shifts in order that they might relaxation and self-quarantine. Staying away from household for a number of days at a stretch and transporting the our bodies of COVID-19 victims is a problem that they had not skilled earlier, they are saying.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, our team is doing a systematic work. None of the drivers of 14 mortuary vans in Coimbatore district has contracted the virus. All the drivers have also been vaccinated,” Mr. Navinprabhu says.

Behind the workers are senior health officers who stay involved about their subordinates falling unwell as it might result in a workers scarcity. A block medical officer in Tiruppur says round 25 nurses deployed at the three major health centres there have been recurrently deputed to COVID Care Centres in the Tiruppur Corporation. The workers nurses couldn’t afford quarantine after they returned to the PHCs owing to manpower scarcity.

“When cases are this high, these difficulties are inevitable,” the officer says, as the district stories practically 500 instances every day, expressing aid that no frontline employee in the block has contracted the virus throughout second wave.

Eight of the 15 medical doctors in the block have been roped in for COVID-19 responsibility, inflicting a scarcity of medical doctors attending to different sufferers. “Cooperation from the public is the most important thing. Without that, we cannot do anything else,” the officer says, declaring that many proceed to attend household occasions in massive numbers with scant regard for the protocol.

(With inputs from R. Sujatha in Chennai, Vivek Narayanan in Tirupattur, Vignesh Vijayakumar in Salem, Wilson Thomas and R. Akileish in Coimbatore, Kathaleen Antony in Tiruchi and P.A. Narayani in Madurai)