I’m back like a bad penny. Handling COVID patients has been an absolute roller-coaster ride. Dizzying, terrifying, and then exhilarating. What a virus! We always were given to understand that the human species was the most brutal of nature’s creations. But boy, did this virus give us stiff competition! A few takeaways then, which should still be important.
1. The trick is early recognition: One cannot tire of reiterating this one simple fact. Any fever today is COVlD unless proven otherwise. COVID can be deadly in everyone, even in the young. And if you feel breathless, exhausted, or severely sick from day 9 to day 14 of the onset of symptoms, you need to be in a hospital — not in some club in Arpora.
2. The pandemic is slowing: With a great degree of cautious optimism, we can safely say the answer is yes. The 4-month whack that every community goes through, before things ease out. As Shekhar Salkar, my friend & virulent political opponent, tells you: the bed capacity in both the govt and private sector has started opening up. But as Shekhar points out, we party and throw caution (and our masks) to the wind, and we go back to square one. Normally Shekhar is not always right, but here he is spot on. From now on, if you want to mess up, there is nothing we docs can do for you.
3. The virus ain’t funny: With Remdesivir/steroids/heparin and plasma, we have managed to bring down the mortality and morbidity of COVID-19. No question. Of course, silly doubts have been raised on the efficacy of plasma and Remdesivir. The most powerful man on the planet got an antibody cocktail from Regeneron, Remdesivir (which the FDA now says is a frontline drug) and steroids. And if Trump could survive, so should we with the treatment Goa offers.
4. Long-term effects: This is now turning out to be the biggest challenge post-Covid. Lung fibrosis with a diminished capacity of lung function is easily the most dreaded. Even young patients who partied hard and fast develop this horrible sequale. There are some patients who can barely walk a few metres without getting breathless and incapacitated. And often times you could end up with heart damage, clotting issues, severe fatigue, prolonged fever… If you ask me, I may be going into a COVID ward daily with my protective gear and see my patients adequately protected, but I would never ever attend a wedding, birthday, public function till the end of 2021.
5. Lessons learnt: First, the way the medical, nursing and medical attendant community has responded to this crisis has been nothing short of heroic, even divine; particularly in the govt hospitals. The other big lesson I learnt is that compassion and love and simple human acts of kindness still prevail amongst us. Would you believe that Muslim plasma was possibly saving a Hindutva guy’s life? Or Hindu plasma saved a hard-core Islamist radical’s life? During COVID, this must have happened on countless occasions.
In some mysterious way, COVID helped us discover our inner selves, our capacity for empathy, our collective holding of hands and hearts in times of abject terror, the summoning of our reserve to serve selflessly.
