“It has really hit all of us hard.” A day in the life of a young Delhi doctor fighting a global pandemic...
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00:00I'm on a 24-hour duty today.
00:02You can see that the vision just drops
00:04because basically the suit is not allowing the exchange of any air between you and your surroundings.
00:16Okay, so this is not a good sight to look at.
00:25Hello, I'm Dr. Nandini Pasi, a second year radiology resident.
00:28So yes, it has definitely been quite a tough time for all of us since the start of this pandemic
00:35because obviously we weren't expecting such a thing in times of such medical and scientific advancements.
00:42But it has really hit all of us hard.
00:46But nevertheless, I feel blessed to be contributing my bit in tough times like these.
00:54I'm on a 24-hour duty today.
00:57That means from 9 to 5 p.m. I'll be in the department
01:01and thereafter in the emergency on call till 9 a.m. the following morning.
01:09I'll be getting into my PPE now.
01:11It's really, really important to cover yourself up completely and properly.
01:16You need to make sure that there are no leaks or breaks in your suit.
01:21The biggest challenge is, you know, working in them for long hours.
01:26So upon wearing it, we can neither drink and eat nor go to the washroom.
01:31And we usually have to wear it for a minimum of around five to six hours in a day.
01:39Now, usually the masks don't fit that appropriately onto your face.
01:44So we need to tape it, you know, to prevent any leaks from being present.
01:50It gets really uncomfortable for sure, but it's very necessary at the same time.
02:00So in the pre-COVID times, this much of dressing was enough.
02:03But not now, especially in a place like Delhi,
02:06you have to consider each patient to be a potential carrier
02:09and protect yourself as well as the patient accordingly.
02:13So right now I'll be seeing the OPD patients.
02:17These patients are basically not COVID positive.
02:22They either don't have the symptoms for it or they have a negative report.
02:26So we see them in the department.
02:28And if someone is a known COVID positive or if he or she has symptoms,
02:33raising suspicion for the disease, then we see them in the, you know, the ward,
02:40the isolation wards, that is for the protection of our patients.
02:45We try to separate the two categories as much as we can to prevent the spread of the disease.
02:52But we have to still wear a PPE even while we are seeing patients
02:56who are not presenting with any symptoms.
02:59This is because we know that many patients now they are presenting without any symptoms.
03:05And like they are carriers of the disease, they're spreading it, but they don't have any symptoms.
03:10Because there have been many instances when we've, you know, seen patients
03:15who were apparently asymptomatic, but upon admission,
03:20due to any reason when a report was done for them, it came out to be positive for COVID.
03:25So now it's better that, you know, we protect ourselves beforehand
03:30so that in the future, if any patient that we've scanned comes out to be positive,
03:36at least we are assured that we were well protected.
03:54So now as I'm going to the isolation ward to scan the known COVID positive patients,
04:00I would require a bit more protection.
04:03I would just, you know, seal up what I'm already wearing.
04:07I'll seal it up properly and add on this face shield, which is like a cover on, you know.
04:16It really gets difficult to breathe in it after a while,
04:22but, you know, protection is the most important thing right now.
04:26See that the vision just drops because basically the suit is, you know,
04:31not allowing the exchange of any air between you and your surroundings.
04:40So everything condenses onto this.
04:43So that is why it becomes really difficult to, you know, with your vision,
04:49to see things after a particular point of time.
04:52This is not a good sight to look at.
04:55All right, so it has almost been seven hours on duty.
05:05So I'll just now freshen up, have water, eat something.
05:14So I'll just now freshen up, have water, eat something for lunch,
05:23and then get back onto my emergency duty.
05:28So it's past five now and I'm all washed up and my emergency duty has started.
05:35Every emergency duty is different because we don't know what case might come and at what time.
05:41As I stay in the hostel, it adds to an advantage,
05:45especially in these times because I don't, you know,
05:48carry the risk of spreading the disease home at least.
05:51But on the downside, I'm not able to see my family that often.
05:55Last month, I got a chance to visit home after almost six months
06:01and I don't know when I would be going home next.
06:04So, yes, it does get tough that ways.
06:07So I'm just going to my room to have some dinner and let's see how the night duty goes today.
06:38So the duty was pretty hectic and I'll go sleep for some time now.
06:43But in the end, the satisfaction of making a positive difference in somebody's life
06:49keeps all of us as doctors, I guess, motivated.
06:52And everybody else who's contributing at this time,
06:55including the nurses, the police, the sanitation staff,
06:58and every other single person,
07:01all of them play an indispensable role in this fight.
07:04We can all make a big difference in each other's lives
07:07and in the end, emerge out of this difficult situation victorious.