Kathmandu: Despite all the difficulties and risks she faces, Dr Suravi Pandey, a consultant in the Internal Medicine Department at HAMS Hospital, has been working day and night to cure her patients from Covid-19 and send them back home to their families.
But as easy as it may sound, the emotional and physical pressure that she goes through everyday is beyond any comparison, she says.
The 33-year-old has been around as a consultant at HAMS Hospital for the entire Covid pandemic. The number of patients that she encountered in the two waves of the pandemic has left her completely overwhelmed.
“In the first wave, not many patients had low oxygen, but now that is the case with almost everyone,” says Pandey. This meant that many patients were at high risk and many of them needed admission. “Many patients needed an admission to ICU, but there were only so many beds available,” Pandey adds. “We were compelled to turn the general ward into a makeshift ICU facility.”
Seeing her patients worsen in time has made her doubt herself too, leaving her psychologically broken. And it does not end here for her.
Having to treat all the patients who are on the verge of falling apart, the physical and psychological distress for her was skyrocketing. She recalls believing that the patient was doing well but just hours later it used to be the exact opposite.
“I recall the worst-case scenarios where the patient passes away hours after a sudden deterioration of their condition,” Pandey says. “The hardest part is to break it to the families. They ask us questions like, ‘He was fine hours ago, what happened?’. It leaves us speechless. Looking into their eyes and breaking them this horrible news has given me a lot of pain, but that does not stop me from doing my job.”
It is extremely heartbreaking for her to see her patients’ health condition slowly deteriorate. “Some of them are so young, and I can’t help but wonder if I am the one lagging behind,” says Pandey. Seeing her patients worsen in time has made her doubt herself too, leaving her psychologically broken. And it does not end here for her.
Living in a joint family with kids and aged people, Pandey is always in fear of infecting her family, especially her three-year-old son. Having three doctors in the family, including her and her husband, it was very difficult for her to manage her time with the family. “Having both parents work in the frontline has also been challenging for our son,” said Pandey. But nevertheless, she has given everything to make the best out of this situation.
She believes her work to be her duty, and she serves the patients wholeheartedly. Although she faces a lot of difficulties, she is determined to not let that affect her work as a doctor. “Even though this has been tough, I will gather all the strength I have in order to be able to do my job,” she says.
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