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Dr. Saandhra Sebastian, a first-year resident doctor from Delhi narrated the horrific scenario that she has to endure in the hospital every single day in the wake of the corona virus pandemic and urged citizens to "wear masks correctly" and "not crib about not being able to step out." Her interview was published on the social media, and actor Abhishek Bachchan has reacted to it.
"I'm a first year resident doctor; the first death I ever witnessed was on March 30, 2021, as a Covid patient was admitted into the ICU. He was critical, but since he was in his 40s, I thought he'd pull through.
The next day he succumbed, and I went numb. My seniors reassured me by saying, '2020 was much worse, but 2021 has superseded 2020. Now, around 5 critical patients come in everyday and 2-3 of them die on a daily basis,"Dr. Saandhra said. She also narrated that she "felt dead from within after a 22-year-old died of Covid-19 in the emergency ward.
In the first week of April, a 22-year-old was admitted; he had to be intubated in the emergency ward. I never saw him conscious, his chances were bleak. His 50-year-old parents would ask me, 'Will he get better if we feed him fruits? and then they'd say, prayers can do miracles. But when you're in the Covid ward, nothing works and on day 4, he passed away. His parents cried bitterly, she added. Adding that she refrains from giving "false hope" to the patients' families and she said, "now if somebody's critical, I indicate the family by saying things like, 'pulse rate is dropping and it could get serious. 'I'm at least not giving them false hope and I’ve now learnt to lie to my patients when they ask me, 'Will they be okay? I always tell them they'll get better. I don't want somebody's final moments to be spent in anxiety.
"In the past 2 weeks, I've witnessed the worst. The last words of one of my patients before being taken into the ICU was, “I have a 4 and 11-year old kids, who'll take care of them if i die, I want to live,” but a few hours later, I had to tell her kids that they wouldn't get to even see their mother’s body one last time. When the youngest one yelled, I want to hug Mumma, 'I didn't know how to react."
“Looking at all the dead bodies,” I sometimes wish I'd never been born. I want to give everybody a glimpse of the past 2 weeks of my life.
I’ve been telling people that their young son has died, lying to patients, telling them “theek ho jaoge" (you'll get better), when I know to my bones “Vo theek nahi honge” (they are never getting better)… I hear breathless women crying in anguish all night, watching people breakdown in front of me...
Every day, I see mothers standing before us with folded hands asking us to save their children’s lives, looking at packed bodies and telling myself to stop thinking and to go on with my work. Working as hard as I can, wishing other healthcare workers would do the same for my parents too if they were to be hospitalized with Covid. Coming back from my duty which I now feel I’m forced to do and crying about all that I am forced to watch. I think about how I could have been a little more patient and a lot more loving to people who are suffocating to their deaths. I’m spending 6 hours in PPE and all the while anxious about being exposed and anxious about dying just like our patients, does not exactly leave you the sweetest person. To think that the pain I feel as a spectator is not even a quarter of the pain that our patients and their relatives feel.
Trust me, the lockdowns are not difficult...You haven't seen the horrors we see… I wish I could show you videos of the horror I see everyday, just to scare everyone enough for them to stay inside.
Saying that “staying home is difficult” is the understatement of the century. I do not want to see this pain, none of us do, so "DO NOT PUT US THROUGH THIS."
Do us a favor, I am not asking you to stay home, I understand that not everyone has the luxury to do that...but just at least do it for the other people around you, wear your masks when you are out.
God have mercy...