Covid-19: bringing out the worst in us

It was the early hours of Saturday, a wheelchair rolled into the emergency room of the tertiary care government hospital where I was stationed. The occupant of the wheelchair was an elderly female who was in apparent distress, having difficulty breathing.

My junior colleague immediately took the patient to the oxygen bay while another colleague and I went through the patient’s documents with the patient’s son sitting next to us. Little did we know what the next few minutes had in store for us.

We found out that the patient came to us from a specialised private sector hospital where all investigations had already been done. A foley catheter (used to drain urine from a patient’s bladder) and a venous line or a cannula was also in place which showed that treatment had already started before the patient came to us.

Why did the patient leave a world class private health facility in the heart of Islamabad mid-treatment, and come to a government setup at such an odd hour without any hospital referral form?

When me and my colleague read the reports for the chest X-ray and the High Resolution CT scan done for the lungs, we exchanged looks of disbelief and my colleague immediately ran towards the oxygen bay where our junior was tending to the patient.

As I stood there in shock that the patient and her attendants — without any face masks on — managed to get past the filter clinic and into the surgical emergency floor, the patient’s son apparently amused by the happenings said, “She does not have Covid.” The fact that he mentioned Covid without us doctors saying anything remotely related to coronavirus confirmed all our suspicions.

The thief’s hat is always burning, so was the case here.

By the time we could get a hold on the situation the patient had traversed the entire length of the surgical as well as the medical floor of the emergency department leaving all other patients and healthcare workers exposed. The patient was then shifted to the corona ward and after a few hours put on a ventilator. Unfortunately, she expired the next morning. The PCR report which came in a couple of hours after her demise was positive for Covid-19.

The irresponsible act of the patient’s attendant had forced us five doctors in self-quarantine at a time when the virus had left our healthcare understaffed and overworked.

There are many cases in which patients hide their Covid-19 symptoms, fearing stigma, being subjected to social avoidance or rejection, and denial to services such as healthcare, employment, housing and even being subjected to harassment. Notwithstanding, anyone who deliberately conceals symptoms of a contagious disease is criminal, and a threat to society.

We are not only up against a novel and incurable virus, but we also have to fight ignorance and behaviour that lacks good sense and judgement, the likes of which described above are prevalent in our society.

At a time when we should come forward and act collectively and responsibly to fight a global health crisis, sadly, this pandemic has brought out the worst in us.

Covid-19 is a reality. It is here to stay but the most unfortunate part is that our existence during this pandemic depends upon others. Hoping that the thieves among us discard their burning hats and step forward as responsible citizens, with all actions being performed while keeping in mind the safety and comfort of others. For only this can contain the viral spread and help us come out triumphant.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2020.

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