Kathmandu: The Covid-19 virus is spreading all over the nation like a wildfire, devouring thousands of lives. The pandemic has forced us into a situation where we fear taking a single step outside our houses. The only place we find ourselves safe is in our homes, with our family.
Dr Ujjwol Risal, a frontline health worker, doesn’t have the luxury of being with his family at this grim hour. He too longs to be with his parents and sister, but his story is different from most of us. The fear of infecting his family has kept him away in isolation, without even seeing them.
Like him, his family worries about his health and well being while he is out there working on the frontline, “I am well aware of their restlessness though they don’t show their worries. All we can do at the moment is to wish for the pandemic to end soon,” he says. His wife too is working as a doctor at the Emergency Ward in a hospital in Dharan. Both of them are contributing amidst this pandemic, busy in their duty, devoid of time to ask about each other’s well-being.
Dr Risal, a physician and a rheumatologist at HAMS Hospital, has been a frontline worker since the first wave of the pandemic. After reaching the hospital at 9 am every day, he works the whole day treating patients amid the massive flow of Covid victims. “My duty is never done; there is no time limit to it. I am on duty every moment of every day,” he says. Of late, receiving calls and looking at the patient’s report has been his routine tasks even when he is at his home,
“The official end of my duty does not mean I am free from my work. There are numerous times when I have to attend to patients even after my shift is over,” says Dr Risal.
Dr Risal, a physician and a rheumatologist at HAMS Hospital, has been a frontline worker since the first wave of the pandemic.
“The second wave of the deadly pandemic is making us work under significantly more risk,” he says. “Lack of beds is compelling us to send patients home, knowing they need to be admitted and treated. It is heartbreaking to inform critical patients about the scarcity of ICU beds. We are helpless; we only can hope for those patients to recover soon. To see people dying is heart-wrenching,” says Dr Risal regretfully. Dr Risal, time and again, gets calls from his friends asking about hospital beds. To tell them there aren’t any is painful, he rues.
As prevention is better than cure, he urges everyone to maintain health and safety protocols. According to him, it is our responsibility to maintain safety in every possible way in our family and society to minimize the spread in the coming days. “Let us all act responsibly and hope the pandemic ends soon and everything comes back to normal. Hopefully, the worst has passed, and soon enough, we will not suffer any loss of lives due to the pandemic. Lets us all stay strong,” appeals the Doctor.
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